I have always wondered how movie script writers get those ideas for a storyline. Scripting a tight story line for a fast paced action flick, does require a good amount of imagination and for the first time, I actually find an author who writes his books like a movie script. In saying this, I intend to explain that Baldacci’s books have that feeling of reading a movie script rather than a book.
The great part of the book is that it takes you deep into the life of a trained professional rescue team, which is the H.R.T. (The Hostage Rescue Team is the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Counter-Terrorism tactical unit.) and it gives you an insight of what happens in the background of an organization such as this. It forms an interesting reading, at places where it highlights the amount of pressure that members of such teams and their families endure and the way they individually respond to this pressure.
The elements of the plot have the usual mixture of betrayal, anti-social organizations, egoistic villains, interesting side characters and a great deal of in-depth character level storylines and through all the twists and turns of the plot, you reach a few points where the story is predictable and others that are mildly surprising, which in my opinion is good. It is a tough thing to have both predictability and surprise mixed in the same paperback, because predictability at certain places, permits the reader to skip a few lines and the surprise, is what keeps the reader going.
The protagonist, Web London is a character whom computer game players will readily associate with the lead game character of the P.C. game "Max Payne". For those of my readers who haven’t played the game, I’ll write more about the game later, but the character of Web London is based on a man who has those words courageous, experienced, highly decorated, etched into his character and he is portrayed through the book as a man of thought and of action.
The only thing that probably goes against the book, is the very simple style of narrative the author takes for this book, as it has a non challenging prose. I prefer my reading with a pinch of salt and appreciate an author who uses sarcasm, random quips and keeps the prose crackling like a fire. Baldacci’s writing style is more like a simmering stove and not that fiery blast that you expect for a story like this. (Ah ... why did Arthur Hailey have to pass away ?)
The Final Say:
I would recommend this book as a light reading experience for those of you enjoy turning the pages of a fast paced action novel. Be prepared for bloodshed, weapons and wise cracks in every page......
P.S.: Do Not Confuse the Title with the Bruce Willis movie with the same name, because the novel is not even remotely close to the plot of the movie except that both involve a lot of guns.