‘The Innocent’ by David Baldacci

Published by Macmillan,
4 May 2012.
ISBN: 978-0-230-74925-2

Will Robie is an assassin.  He kills to order, and sleeps soundly - when he sleeps that is. Returning to DC following two successful eliminations he awaits his next assignment.  His instructions arrive on a memory stick and he has no reason to think that his latest job should be any different, but it doesn’t work out that way, and Robie is suddenly the one being hunted.

Fourteen-year-old Julie Getty has been living with the foster-parents from hell and not being a girl to take any crap, she decides to head home. She arrives just in time to see both her parents killed, and so Julie is also on the run.

Aptly described as an action-packed thriller, when the lives of these two people collide, neither is sure which of them is the target, as they escape the most hair-raising situations. Both have a mission, Robie to find out about his last assignment, and Julie wants to know why her parents were murdered, and then kill the killer.

Both are edgy characters, used to acting alone, and neither given to trust anyone. But circumstances have thrown them together. Whilst the action moves at a cracking pace, the development of these two characters as they seek to keep one step ahead of their pursuers and work out just what is going on is a major strength of the book.

The devastation that they leave behind as they escape from one situation after another brings Robie into contact with Special Agent Nicole Vance, but how much should he tell her?

A real page-turner, couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes

David Baldacci.  A lifelong Virginian, David was born in Richmond in 1960. He received his Bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C. He has published 22 books.

While David is involved in several philanthropic organizations, his greatest efforts are dedicated to his family’s ‘Wish You Well foundation.’ Established by David and his wife, Michelle, the Wish You Well Foundation supports family literacy in the United States by fostering and promoting the development and expansion of new and existing literacy and educational programs. In 2010 the Foundation partnered with Feeding America to launch a program to address the connection between literacy, poverty and hunger. Through Feeding Body & Mind, nearly 1 million new and used books have been collected and distributed through area food banks. David explains, “With this program, people go home with food, which they need to live, as well as with books, which they need to change their lives.”