last mile

Like the last book I read, I also borrowed this one from my wife. I've read a couple of Baldacci's books, and I don't like him as much as some of the other prolific action writers out there, but this one wasn't bad. I guess I have a little trouble with the dimension of his characters. I don't really understand how the main character's head works. Maybe that's the point about Amos Decker, but I'm not sure if its that, or if that's just the writing, because I don't really understand any of the minor character's either. There are a bunch of people that are included in Amos Decker's newly formed team, and even the most prominent of them seems like a stand-in. A borrowed stereotype that is completely 2-dimensional and we're relied upon, almost exclusively, to fill in the blanks of these characters. They just seem to wander into scenes and say lines the main character can react to and then disappear.

When one of the new team members goes missing, I'm like, who? I don't even know this person, I have no idea why they are on the team, and I'm not sure the team does either. And then it seems like a day or two will go by and then someone seems very concerned about finding the missing teammate and I realize that I'd forgotten they were gone. Because it seemed like everyone in the story had forgotten they were gone too.

That said, the Amos Decker character is interesting. His personality and the way he thinks is the engine behind the plot. The story has some twists to it, that only Decker can see, and then they are revealed to us in short order. I'm not wild about the tactics sometimes; like Decker scribbling a note on a slip of paper at the end of a planning meeting and saying something like, then this is what we'll do. No one would do that. They've just been talking in a room for 20 minutes, why would he suddenly stop and write something down instead of just saying it, if only to keep it from us for a chapter or two. I don't feel like the author should be huddling with his characters and whispering so I can't hear. hey Dave, I'm right here. I can see you hiding stuff with your hand 

So if you're like me and you need something to read, this is definitely something to read. There's pages and everything.