David Baldacci
The Forgotten
A John Puller Mystery
Grand Central Publishing 2012
424 pages
The Forgotten is the second John Puller mystery after Zero Day. Here, David Baldacci does more with his main character than the enigmatic loner with incredible skills and resolve that dominated the first book. The secondary characters are also stronger but the ending is still a bit too Hollywood to my taste. With The Forgotten, the John Puller mysteries become almost as compelling as the Camel Club or Sean King / Michelle Maxwell series. Kindle version at Amazon
U.S. Army investigator John Puller goes to Paradise, a retirement community in Florida after his aunt sends a cryptic letter to his father and is then found dead. It seems not everything is as relaxed and innocuous as it seems in Paradise. Puller is almost immediately followed by some mysterious men who seem to be associated with the army. Puller then learns two of his aunt’s friends were also killed at pretty much the same time. Soon, he no longer knows who to trust in the town of Paradise. Meanwhile, a mysterious illegal immigrant is on a mission of his own, a mission that is related to what Puller is looking into.
The Forgotten by David Baldacci is a good, solid read. Aside from Puller being a little too typical of the lone wolf mystery novel hero, there is not much to quibble about here.
Though this series seems to be rather male centric, Baldacci creates interesting women to accompany the main character and these women are not just decorative. This makes the book something both men and women can easily enjoy.