The Hit is a fast paced, action oriented thriller that often leads to moments of wondering what will happen next. There are gaps in explaining how the characters figured things out or how they escaped that reduced my affinity for this book. James Patterson fans are likely to enjoy this book more than Lee Child fans.

Another quite entertaining story involving Will Robie. I didn't like it quite as much as the first one but it's not bad either.

DNF at 20%

I like the Will Robie character and this was your basic Baldacci book. There's a reason I've keep picking them up - they move quickly and there are badass good guys who kill the bad guys. However, his stories are all starting to run together and feel somewhat the same, so this one may be the last I read.

“Sending a killer to catch a killer actually made sense.”

Jessica Reel is the hitman on a CIA black op. Charged with the elimination of an ultra-radical Muslim that the American government cannot allow to take over the leadership reins of his government, Reel turns rogue and assassinates her handler. Two more hits of senior CIA staff make it quite clear that Reel has an agenda, that she is on a vendetta against the agency, and that she must be stopped. The government has selected Will Robie for the job, a highly skilled assassin with a record of success. One might say that the US government has tasked the best of the best with the responsibility of turning his sights on the elimination of the worst of the worst. “His mission: bring in Reel, dead or alive.” The unstated preference is unquestionably death with appropriate deniability and no line of proof of culpability leading to the CIA or the President and his Cabinet.

As Robie begins the deadly game of cat and mouse, hunter and prey, tracking down Reel, the questions and the puzzles begin to pile one on top of the other. It becomes clear that Reel’s attacks on the agency are her response to a much larger and much deadlier government conspiracy and Robie begins to question his orders.

If you’re after entertaining, gripping, thriller brain candy, then David Baldacci is definitely a good choice. While THE HIT is hardly what one would call Pulitzer Prize or Nobel Prize literary material, it’s definitely enjoyable and it convinced me to eagerly move on to the third installment in the series, THE TARGET. With all of the ongoing problems in the world, the seditious right-wing attempts to storm the US Capitol, and the Middle East still being a violent hotbed of political turmoil, I caution any potential readers that THE HIT will not be making you sleep any more soundly at night.

In passing, it occurs to me to wonder if a really cool assassin should be called a “hitster”!!

Paul Weiss