Ticket 2 Ride

Dave Baldacci returns, with The Edge, a continuation of his 6:20 Man character, featuring Travis Devine. Baldacci is so prolific a writer and so many different series, I had to check to see if I had read 6:30 Man. Nothing against Baldacci, but I read many mystery-thrillers each year. And yes, I had read the book.

6:30 Man had so many twists and fantastic events that it strained credibility. The über successful Baldacci is considered one of the elite writers in the genre, I certainly think so.

Travis Devine looks to be a cross between John Puller and Will Robie, and Amos Decker and Atlee Pine, a lethal trained ex-soldier with the mission of a cop. Devine left the Army with a secret, and that secret has him working for those who know his secret.

Devine is put on an assignment to solve the murder of a CIA agent and retrieve her laptop and cellphone. He’s not a cop, but is given the cover of a Homeland Security Investigator. He arrives at the tiny burg of Putnam, Maine to start his investigation. In a small town, there are a few secrets, the small police force is barely competent, information spreads like the wind, and strangers are not openly welcomed. And everything is not as it seems.

The book moves slowly and Devine is not Baldacci’s most dynamic character. Baldacci is good at creating a starfield of seemingly isolated points of light, and then connecting them slowly. He has a way of foreshadowing events and getting the reader to begin considering suspects; but he’s way ahead of the reader.

Occasionally, he spills a little on his character:

Devine had been in Kandahar when a young woman had walked up to him, he thought, with a request for food and/or water. All the locals assumed American soldiers had plenty of food and water. And he had some extra provisions that he carried for that very reason.

He had reached into his pocket and when he looked back up she was holding a detonator in her shaky hand. All she had to do was push the button and they were both dead.

He could have done many things in that situation. Tried to shoot or knife or grab her before she blew the bomb pack, plead for his life, which was out of the question for him. Call for backup and hope that it arrived in time. Or do what he ended up doing.

What did he do? Handed the woman food and bottled water for her family.

As I got deeper into the book, my view of Devine as a protagonist warmed a bit, but Baldacci hasn’t told me much about him in two books. I hope book three has more character so Devine feels less like a stock hero.

Do I recommend the book? Sure, it’s Baldacci and he keeps you guessing. I can recommend better thrillers however.

3/5