David Baldacci: The Hit

"The Hit" is David Baldacci at his brilliant best - a page turning action thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat right through to the very end.

Once again we meet Will Robie (from "The Innocent"), a larger than life cold-blooded professional killer for the US government. Robie is given his hardest and most dangerous assignment yet - to hunt down and eliminate rogue fellow assassin Jessica Reel who has killed her handler and is systematically killing associates. Reel is especially deadly because she is almost Robie's match as a professional killer.

His thoughts on the assignment are simple - "Sending a killer to catch a killer actually made sense. We talk a different language and we see the world through a separate prism that no one else could possibly understand....So Reel dead, or me. It really was that simple. And also that complicated."

As with most of Baldacci's stories, nothing is as it seems and the plot has more exciting twists and turns than a fast paced game of snakes and ladders and nobody can be trusted. Along the way Robie encounters booby traps, firebombs, ambushes and big games of double-cross and conspiracy.

Over the years Baldacci has built an unenviable collection of amazing characters and Will Robie is amongst the best, especially because at rare times he does show some signs of humanity and trust in others. Robie painfully reflects on the conflict between being a killer and being a human being. "The only problem is, I can't be both". As you get to know her, Jessica Reel is another complex and compelling character.

This book is David Baldacci at his best with great actions and characters. Highly recommended - it will keep you guessing to the end so sit back and make time to read this book because once you are hooked it will be hard to put down.