The Hit

It’s a decent Baldacci book and I like his different series but I do have my favorites and I wish he would write more of the ones I love but I am a readaholic, no, I think it may be worse, I’m a readaholic and a reading junkie, oh, yeah, I was supposed to say that I’m Jim and I am.... Well, the problem with this is I have to read something, anything rather than sit somewhere, bored. Thank God for Smartphones and reading apps as I would buy paperbacks, but I would mostly buy Hardcover, as it’s like a prime steak instead of hamburger. I just love the feel of opening a brand new hardcover edition of anything but preferably a book that I had waited for or luckily found or a new author that I had read once and really enjoyed and now found a hardcover of his many other books and they are all incredibly discounted. I and my 3 children, when they were young, would go to Super Crown and I would buy them a book each and they would spend literally hours on the floor of the children’s section looking at different books and reading parts of others and I was so happy that my children loved reading like me. Have to credit my wife as she found this learning to read kit, not inexpensive, was in 3-400 dollar range back around 1988, but did it ever work. Plus we read to them every night before they went to sleep. We had bought a much larger home and had it professionally decorated with an unlimited budget prior to moving in and each of my children worked with the decorator and my wife and designed their own rooms exactly how they wanted them, built ins, hide away areas, etc. And these rooms were big and high ceilings and huge shelves above the closets where we could put trees and shrubs or dozens of large stuffed animals and trees, so every night, starting with our youngest we read each of them 2 books or one longer one. Well, that lasted about 2-3 days, maybe a week, tops. Then they all would run to my oldest child’s room, my first son, and they got to pick 2 books each, and then as my son had twin beds in his room and my daughter and her younger brother both had queen beds, my daughter decided to spend the night in the other twin and a couple of nights later and until they became roughly 10 years old, we had to get a padded thin mattress and sleeping bag and sheets and blankets for my youngest as he had to sleep on the floor between his brother and sister in the twin beds and every morning his bed was stored under either twin bed and pulled out every evening as we read to them and then to bed. We read every single night, religiously and it turned them into readaholics also. With the reading kit they were all rather proficient readers by 4 years old. Even startled a friend who had taken a group of girls somewhere, ages 4, my daughter, on up to seven years old and she then heard one of the girls reading to the others while she was driving. She enjoyed the drive as they were listening intently instead of yelling and screaming and moving around. It wasn’t until she stopped, arriving at the destination that she turned around to talk to the girls and tell them how much she appreciated how good they were and was about to thank the oldest for reading to all when she noticed that my daughter was in the middle with the book open in her hands. Still assuming that the oldest or one of the older girls had been reading she asked who and when they all pointed at my daughter she said “but, Brittney, aren’t you 4 years old?” My daughter replied, “yes” and when the mother said “you were reading?” , then asked how, my daughter replied that she reads a lot and has been since she was 3. She was the quickest to read, but when she was brought home the mom asked my wife “how?” My wife explained about our reading every night and then showed her the kit and the mother and quite a few others we knew immediately asked “how and where?” My wife told them where and off they went. The only reason I have told this is to encourage parents to teach their children to read and the earlier the better as my children were always A students who were always in advanced classes from 1st grade on. My youngest started 1st grade and a week later they told us he was too advanced and moved him to 2nd grade. Same thing was tried with both of my older children but around 2nd to 3rd and we declined as we had both been very young in our schools and did not like it. So only with my youngest did they insist but since we didn’t want him to be so young in high school, especially since it was a private school and both his brother and sister were there we home schooled him in 9th grade and then he went to ninth grade at the same school with his sister and brother, finally with students his age. Now that is over the only bad thing about successful and prolific authors is they get a bit formulaic and depending on their publishers need and how many books they have written, they seem to be of a lesser quality than their earlier tomes. I would say that this book has a little of that and with the number of series he has written it definitely gets harder and it might be me as I have read so many books, I usually have 2-3 going at all times, one in the library (restroom), one in the car and one in my briefcase. But now, with the Smartphone always with me, and Kindle being less expensive than Hardcover books, I may still be reading 2 books at a time but I actually start one, start another, pick the most intriguing and read that one all the way through. Recommendation, don’t continue to use a library, such as mine and always make sure that you can close the door on just the toilet so the rest of the bathroom can be used by the wife. Also make sure there’s a window that opens and lets in good light and especially fresh air, again the wife, but stop after one chapter, especially as your kids grow up as you can cause yourself a problem with developing ‘H’s’ It ends with a d if that helps and usually an s after the d cause if you sit so long for years, even with the best of toilets, I know firsthand, it can and probably will. Find a good chair with a light and maybe a nice fireplace and enjoy that or if you have a wonderful sports car but it’s dark or cold outside or raining, it’s another great place to sit and read, enjoying both. Buy the darn book if you read like I do cause there aren’t too many great authors who write a lot of books and to find new ones you either accept lesser authors or waste a lot of money looking for new authors and to not waste too much go get a new library card and go there to hunt for new authors to follow, write them down and then you can start buying them.

It is a book. I read it. I like the author and have read many of his books.

The Hit by David Baldacci is another of his fantastic suspense thriller novels. I have not read every single Baldacci book, but I love two of his series, and this is now the third series I thoroughly enjoy. What is great about Baldacci you ask? He is a masterful storyteller, with such in depth wonderful characters, and he holds you at the edge of your seat from beginning to end. If you think you know what will happen, trust me, you will never see what is coming, as Baldacci continually pulls surprises and twists. But the best thing about his novels, they are superb, and well written, that when you are finished with the book, you will be thinking about it for days.The Hit is the second book with Will Robie as the hero. Will is a government assassin and the best in his field. Whether it is the CIA, Homeland Security, FBI or other hidden government divisions, they have their own top secret people to eliminate traitors, foreign undesirables, or rogue agents. In this story, Will is assigned to stop Jessica Reel, who is considered a rogue agent, having just killed two top government employees. Jessica is also considered the best in her field, an assassin on par with Will Robie. Now she has gone rogue, and Will must find her to bring her back...dead or alive.Will has no qualms about doing his job, even though he is baffled why Reel went off the grid. Jessica manages to be one step ahead of Will, but as he gets closer, Will begins to find disturbing clues that not all is as it appears to be. Meeting with other top government officials, Will begins to suspect that perhaps Jessica is not a traitor, as they are telling him she is. Keeping his mind open, Will continues to search for Jessica, and try to discover why she is doing this. Along the way, Will finds himself caught in a number of ambushes he suspects is not from Jessica Reel.There are a number of twists, and dangerous situations that are life threatening bringing Will and Jessica face to face, with each saving each other lives. Rather then give out spoilers, what ensues is a major conspiracy that will bring the two of them together to discover the truth. Even the two top assassins are no match for what the government traitors can and will do. With their lives constantly facing danger, and death defying escapes; they must also try to find the mastermind. They must be one step ahead of the traps laid for them, and the double crosses they come across to stay alive, in order to break the conspiracy.Will Will Robie find the truth? Is Jessica to be trusted? Who are the masterminds running the conspiracy? Will they be able to survive? You will need to read this book to find out.The Hit was a fabulous thriller that had you unable to put the book down. David Baldacci has once again created a page burning story that had you guessing all the way, and so so well done. The characters of Will Robie and Jessica Reel were so great, and though they are both hardened killers, you can't help but care about them and root for them. I loved this book, and respect Baldacci's ability to continue creating these stories fresh every time, as well as making us like his lead characters, even if they are killers. If you have not read David Baldacci, and you like suspense thrillers, it is time you do so.

Read it straight through.

David Baldachi writes entertainers books. This one is part of a series. Read the whole series.

As usual a book that engages from the first to last pages. A plot that is both believable and unexpected in so many ways. Well done Mr Baldacci, A fan for life, competing with John Grisham for my admiration and support. Not sure if you see that as a compliment or not but definitely intended as one from my side.

There can be little argument that David Baldacci writes a good story and in Will Robie he has another American government sponsored assassin running alongside Mitch Rapp and well, there are too many to mention in a short review. The story, too, follows familiar lines - people at the top of various government agencies tending to believe they are better than their peers, organising the elimination of others who get in their way or threaten the American way of life.They send in the likes of Robie to mete out justice, as they see it so when another of their official killers begins to target a few of their agency staff without authorisation, events take a turn for the worse. Robie is sent to deal with Jessica Reel, the other assassin taking the law into her own hands.From this point, there is plenty of action. Robie has a job to stay alive and Reel has a list of people she wants to kill, now adding Robie to it.But, of course, all is not what it seems. CIA, FBI, MOD, Homeland Security, there's hardly an agency which is not trying to outdo the other. This is where the book falls short. There are so many different groupings involved that the author spends far too much time explaining why this man or that can or cannot do this or that, mostly through the thoughts of Robie or Reel. This is irritating and repetitive, it slows down the action which when it arrives is always packing a punch. Baldacci scores very well here. You find yourself turning pages at great speed but then come more thoughts on the whys and wherefores.Not unnaturally for these hard-nosed characters, they have their weaknesses. Events of the past, wrong turnings taken though fortunately in this pair, no alcoholism or bad marriages. Inevitably, too, the pair are drawn together as it becomes clear that all is very unclear, that somebody somewhere is pulling strings that shouldn't be pulled.It's not hard to see why government malfunctions when this crowd is involved. But, thankfully, Robie and Reel gradually get to the root cause and in a finale which, frankly, is rather a let down. There's the usual denouement but it's all set out as if the author had reached the required number of words, so thought of a quick ending and put down his pen.There's enough in this book to enjoy and enough to see if Robie stays the course for later appearances. Keep watching.

It is impossible, outside of what has already been said, to say what happens in this book without almost giving away what is likely to happen! An assassin with honour is not easy to imagine but somehow Baldacci does manage to make it easily acceptable that Robie is a really good man and very happily accept the times he has miraculous escapes as his due, (since he is a good man!) If you do not like tales that seem unlikely, you probably won't like much of this but if you can imagine, for the sake of a good story, that the goodies do sometimes win in this world, it is a really good book. I did not know who to trust and therefore I distrusted nearly everybody so was bound to be right as to who the villains were! I was really sorry when I finished it, always a good sign.

The hit was good to read, a bit of a page turner for me. I’ve read quite a few David Baldacci books and really like this new series featuring Will Robie and have read the first few books in this series. It’s easy escapism, a bit incredible at times, but it moves along at a great pace and has some neat twists. I’ll definitely look for more in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it held my interest throughout my holiday. Unfortunately that was the problem, it was an ideal plane or holiday book as others have pointed out and the reason being, the reader had to assume far too much. The plot was very good with sufficient twists and turns but the linkage between events was all too loose. The ease in which Jessica Reel could escape situations, likewise Will, the ease of getting through customs with guns and ammunition, jumping on planes to Ireland and then back across to Canada; it may be that simple but the reader should not have to assume, they want dialogue that links events. I thought this was a missed opportunity for a five star book and a missed opportunity to establish Will Robie as a character. Baldacci's John Pullar hero suffers the same issues.