Customer Reviews

Zero Day

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Zero Day is the newest novel by David Baldacci and just what I have come to expect from him.You have a well crafted plot that unfolds at a steady pace and an interesting cast of characters.This novel had my interest by the second page and continued to keep my interest to the end. The main character is John Puller (think Jack Reacher meets Joe Pike) a military investigator with an army legend for a father and a brother in prison for treason. Baldacci's writing is to the point with just enough detail to deliver a believable and suspenseful read without dragging the reader down and beating you over the head with words. I developed a soft spot for Puller by the end of the novel, even though the ending was a tad predictable but not enough to spoil this book for me. If Baldacci wants to write more novels with John Puller as the lead character I will be more than happy to read them.

Baldacci keeps you guessing all the way. I liked the terse tone and the dry humor of the hero: short on words, long on action.
An excellent read, very hard to put down.

"Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them." -- Psalm 39:6 (NKJV)

I would have liked this book a lot better if Lee Child hadn't already written the Jack Reacher novels. Instead, I kept having the feeling that I'd already read this book . . . and there are a number of surface similarities to Lee Child's latest Reacher novel, The Affair.

I liked The Affair better than Zero Day, but Zero Day is a perfectly satisfying book. If you haven't read The Affair, you'll probably like Zero Day better than I did.

I don't know enough about the military and military investigations to know how accurate the details are in Zero Day. But the details seemed credible to an ignorant person like me. If you are familiar with the details, their accuracy will probably affect your enjoyment of the book quite a bit.

John Puller makes an interesting protagonist because Mr. Baldacci leaves so many mysteries virtually untouched in Puller's background. Obviously, future books are planned that will gradually reveal aspects of those mysteries which include a tricky family background and a seemingly irrational desire to avoid gaining military rank.

Puller shows humanity that makes him more appealing than what might have been developed in someone who is a bit of a hard core cop-type.

The mystery is decently complicated and not too transparently telegraphed.

The book's main appeal, however, is in the pairing of the military investigator, Puller, with the single woman detective, Sam Cole. Their relationship carries the story forward in a way that the Reacher novels usually don't contain as effectively.

...that Jason Bourne, Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, John Wells, Scot Harvath and other fictional 'super' action guys make money. So Baldacci has conjured up John Puller who is a decorated warrior and uncannily gifted military investigator. For some back story color, we find out his Father is a legendary leader in the US military and his Air Force brother is serving a life sentence for treason. The problem is John himself is just a bit too flawless which takes away from an interesting but ultimately unsatisfying mystery. But there is an entertainment here especially if you are fond of the genre and/or accept it as a thinly veiled comic book. I think all the aforementioned heroes would work well in graphic novel treatments because their outings are not deep but they can be fun.