“The Hit” by David Baldacci – Assassins’ Ball
David Baldacci has made a name for himself over the years for the action-packed thrillers he kept on delivering, and while recently some may have qualified his writing as having declined in quality, he recently came back in full force with The Hit.
Once again, we follow Will Robie, a highly-trained assassin working for the government, as he is sent to take out Jessica Reed, another assassin who has recently gone rogue and proceeded to eliminate her former colleagues.
However, as Robbie gets closer and closer to Jessica, he starts to discover that things are not as they seem and that regardless of what he was told, Reed may only be the scapegoat and not the real villain.
In true Baldacci style, this novel grabs you and doesn’t let go from the very first page, being action-packed and memorable in every sense of the word. It is so fast-paced that practically every paragraph has something important happening it, but don’t mistake that for rushing; everything is written concisely with a lot of finesse, flowing seamlessly from one phrase to the next.
The story itself is quite a blast, having more twists and turns than a rollercoaster and yet managing to still hold together without any real holes or continuity problems. Though I have to admit that certain parts of it were somewhat predictable, on the whole it has managed to surprise me on numerous occasions.
The characters are just as you expect them to be; carrying a bit of background story and relatively one-dimensional (apart from the protagonist). In such a fast story as this one though, these are precisely the character types that we need; after all this is a thriller about assassins and government conspiracies and not a soap opera.
On the whole, I would say that Baldacci fans who have longed to see him come back to form as well as fans of thrillers which center around government conspiracies will have a blast with The Hit.
Once again, we follow Will Robie, a highly-trained assassin working for the government, as he is sent to take out Jessica Reed, another assassin who has recently gone rogue and proceeded to eliminate her former colleagues.
However, as Robbie gets closer and closer to Jessica, he starts to discover that things are not as they seem and that regardless of what he was told, Reed may only be the scapegoat and not the real villain.
In true Baldacci style, this novel grabs you and doesn’t let go from the very first page, being action-packed and memorable in every sense of the word. It is so fast-paced that practically every paragraph has something important happening it, but don’t mistake that for rushing; everything is written concisely with a lot of finesse, flowing seamlessly from one phrase to the next.
The characters are just as you expect them to be; carrying a bit of background story and relatively one-dimensional (apart from the protagonist). In such a fast story as this one though, these are precisely the character types that we need; after all this is a thriller about assassins and government conspiracies and not a soap opera.
On the whole, I would say that Baldacci fans who have longed to see him come back to form as well as fans of thrillers which center around government conspiracies will have a blast with The Hit.
 | David BaldacciPersonal site Certainly one of the more famous authors of the 21st century, David Baldacci was always gearing himself to become a prominent writer, beginning his work at a very young age as a child. He gifted the readers with countless classics and bestsellers such as The Innocent and Absolute Power. |
I have become a fan of David Baldacci. Compact storyline combined with his style of story-telling... he never lets go of my ever short attention span... I devoured the book in 1.5 days straight... it is what one can call "unputdownable"
ReplyDeleteHey Rahul, thanks for taking the time to comment. Though Baldacci may have gone through a rough patch, he does indeed have the ability to crank out books that you rightfully qualify as "unputdownable".
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