The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
I have read several books by David Baldacci, and I wasn’t disappointed with this one.
The main character, Travis Devine, is an ex-army officer who can defend himself. It’s a good job too, because he needed all his skills; the bad guys keep trying to kill him.
A bit of background. Devine is the product of a dysfunctional family and joins the Army despite his father’s antipathy towards the military. After leaving the Army under a cloud for a crime he may have committed, Devine takes a job he hates in an investment company to win his father’s approbation. Taking the job is also his personal penance for the crime.
Unbeknown to him. the investment company he’s joined is a cover for a massive money laundering operation. It takes dirty money from dictatorships, drug runners and the like worldwide and then invests it in property. It’s the sort of operation that survives because high-ranking politicians and public officials are being bribed to remain silent. Anyone who speaks out of turn is swiftly bumped off.
Devine receives a strange email when someone close to him commits suicide. From that point onwards, more and more people are murdered. The plot slips and slides like a well-oiled snake. As the body bags accumulate, so do possible suspects. Worse, the police are itching to pin the murders on Travis Devine.
As with all good who-done-its, the ending was totally unexpected. However, as David Baldacci has created a new James Bond, I suspect there will be a few sequels. I hope so!
6.20 Man gets five stars from me.
A review by Andrew R Williams
The author of the Tipham Trilogy and the Arcadia’s Children series
https://andrewrwilliamsauthor.co.uk/
