The Innocent -
America has enemies - ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can't stop. That's when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target. But Will Robie may have just made the first - and last - mistake of his career... It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway -- her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life... and perhaps his own.
Published: 2012-04-17 (Grand Central Publishing)
ISBN: 9780446572996
Language: English
Format: Hardcover, 422 pages
Goodreads' rating: -
Reviews
Now, that's how a mystery/spy thriller is done. I must confess that I'm somewhat biased when it comes to David Baldacci since he has yet to write a book that lets me down but man, this was good. Not literary-award-winning good but crazy-fast-paced- relentless good. It's like playing a video game you like a lot, or eating chocolate- a sort of guilty pleasure. The story is multi-layered and there are several mysteries going on at the same time; the pages fly by at astonishing speed and just when you think you have *some* of it figured out...it turns out you don't. The three main characters are pretty well defined considering how fast the story goes with Will Robbie being central and pivotal to everything and everyone else. He's a killer but one with a moral compass and that's what gets him in trouble to begin with. Glad Mr Baldacci decided to make a series out of this, I can't wait to start with the next book, The Hit. If you like spy thrillers, give this one a go, you won't regret it.
I enjoy reading books by David Baldacci and have read many of them. He has some great series, Camel Club; King & Maxwell; John Puller; and Amos Decker, as well as stand alone novels. This is the first book in the Will Robie series. It did not start out well. Very short sentences that all started with "He". He this; he that; he did; he didn't. I found myself hoping that this would change and change quickly or I would never be able to finish. Fortunately it did and the remainder of the book was an action packed tale of suspense.Will Robie is an assassin for a clandestine United States government agency. The first couple of chapters are about assignments Robie is on. A drug lord and a Middle East terrorist. The next assignment is not as clear cut and Robie does not follow through. Fleeing the scene he crosses paths with 14 year old Julie Getty who ran away from her foster home only to witness the murder of her parents. Now they are both on the run and in danger. But who is the target? Robie because he did not carry out his mission? Or Julie who witnessed her parents murder? As the story unfolds it could be either one of them. Or both. Could they be linked? That would be a heck of a coincidence. The two of them fleeing separate events and are now targets of the same bad guy(s). As deaths mount they team up with FBI special agent Nicole Vance in the investigation. The story is not very believable but it is certainly entertaining and this is fiction and being entertained is what I look for in a story.Will Robie starts out as a loner. He is after all an assassin and a loner by nature. Julie Getty may be fourteen but she is very mature and intelligent. There was a scene when Will and Julie first crossed paths that made me laugh. Will was thinking Julie was going to be killed and he would have to step in to prevent that from happening. No need for the professional. Julie manages quite well ... this time. As the story unfolds we start seeing a transformation in Will. He bonds with Julie and feels some responsibility for her welfare. He is also attracted to a woman who lives in his apartment building. Dating is not something is he familiar or comfortable with given his occupation and he has mixed emotions.Overall this an enjoyable story. It did not start out that great but picked up as the story developed and kept you guessing trying to figure out what was happening and who, if anyone, could be trusted. I plan on reading the other books in this series, The Hit; The Target; and The Guilty.
The Innocent, is the 1st book in David Baldacci latest Will Robbie Series featuring the new character Will Robbie.Will Robie works for a secret clandestine US agency and is one of their top operatives. His life revolves around his job and missions and is portrayed as the perfect operative.. His employer decided who among the living and breathing would qualify as a target. And then they turned to men like Robie to end the living and breathing part. It made the world better, was the justification.The book starts off with some back-story of some of Robies previous missions which gives us a bit of an insight into his character and his life.Robie is somewhat surprise about his latest assignment. The target is a Washington DC female government employee with a family. His instincts are telling him that something is not right and has he hesitates to carry out his orders, some other sniper finishes the mission instead. He realizes that you dont play around with not completing a mission, so he leaves town under the radar and heads off to New York City until he finds out more about his failed mission and the possibility that he may be the next target.Julie Getty, 14 years old, smart, touch and street-wise is on the run after witnessing the murder of her parents.Robie and Julies paths cross when they both board the same bus. When he saves her from an assassin that he recognizes, they team up to solving the reason for both being targeted. Their meeting at first seems unrelated to each others dilemma but the events that follow show a connection between his mission and her familys murder. Joining forces with a local FBI agent, who offers to help them. A race against time to find the people responsible for the crimes and not knowing who they can trust.The plot reminded me a bit of the movie, Leon: The Professional, where Jean Reno, a hit man, saves and helps his next door neighbor, a young girl, Natalie Portman, after she witnesses her parents murder and how she makes him a more humane person.Engrossing, good pacing, tense, believable characters, action packed twists and turns and humorAny spies work there? Doubtful. While lucrative, corn subsidies don't really get bad guys all that excited.He has twenty-nine friends, which isn't a lot, but I don't know how long he's been on Facebook either. And he's a really old guy. he's only fifty, Vance pointed out. Julie shrugged. Like I said, he's a really old guy.A great introduction to a new series and a strong, intriguing and likeable hero.I liked this quote: You had to take life as it came. It gave no quarter, spared no feelings. Limited no pain. Put no ceiling on happiness.
Very enjoyable if wildly implausible thriller-type book. Just glad Robie finally got laid. Boy needed it even if he did have shoot the girl in the brain a few pages later. Relationships are hard. That's the moral of the story.
As far fetched and unbelievable as plot lines go, an engaging and entertaining book nonetheless.