The Forgotten

The Forgotten – by David Baldacci

David Baldacci’s second John Puller book.  Who is John Puller?  Well, he’s a military combat veteran, around 30 or 40ish, very strong, very smart, kind of quiet, and knows how to handle combat quite well. It seems that he is still employed by the army (or the government – I don’t remember) and he’s called out to execute dangerous clandestine missions.

For this story, it’s a bit personal.  Apparently, Puller gets a mysterious letter from his Aunt, a retired senior citizen living in Florida, asking him for help.  Apparently, there’s been some strange goings-on in her community of Paradise, Florida, and she recruits her nephew’s help.

Except as soon as Puller arrives, the authorities inform him that she’s dead.  According to local police, there’s no foul play suspected, it appears as though it’s nothing other than a drowning accident.  Well, John Puller isn’t convinced, and opens up his own investigation, much to the dismay of many of the local authorities.  I found it a bit silly how crass many of the police force act towards this guy.  What exactly is he doing that’s ruffling their feathers so much? Clue after clue is uncovered, and Puller finds himself involved in quite the criminal operation.

This book, although at about 400 pages, is a very quick read.  The average chapter length seems to be about three to four pages.  I actually like this in a book.  It gives me plenty of opportunity to find good stopping places.  I imagine one could easily read this thing over a long weekend.

The overall story may be a bit too grandiose for some to imagine, but David Baldacci doesn’t take any short cuts.  He allows his protagonist to slowly unravel the enigma.  Quite often, we don’t see the logic of Puller’s thinking until after the fact, but I found the whole mystery believable and entertaining.

One thing that I didn’t like is that the author referred too much (and too little) to the first John Puller story.  I won’t go into details of the plot (the book was titled ‘Zero Day’), but neither does Baldacci.  He simply refers to the adventure many times as “What happened in West Virginia….” Over and over.  West Virginia?  What exactly is he talking about?   That, dear reader, won’t be revealed to you until you read the first book.  I will say it’s not necessary, however.  Unlike some books with recurring characters, you’re perfectly o.k. if you pick this one up first.

Baldacci has become one of those authors that seems to release about three books per year (at least it seems so), and it seems like every time I pick up a book by him that I haven’t read yet, there’s been several others that he’s released in the meantime.  For these John Puller books, the quality of the writing hasn’t suffered. A fairly quick read that was quite enjoyable.