By David baldacci.  Grade A

This is the first time that I have gotten my hands on something written by David Baldacci, and now I regret not having read anything by him before.
As is often the case, I try to guess the plot by looking at the jacket.  The first one was:  a common American who turns against some extremely powerful System to save his daughter. The blurb cleared that misconception. This was the first of many; Baldacci is good at that – flawlessly leading you to believe something without actually saying it, and then doing just the opposite.

 An assassin with a mission. But whose side is he on?

Another action-packed thriller from one of the world’s most popular writers.

Back in DC after successful missions in Edinburgh and Tangier, assassin Will Robie sees his latest assignment, to eliminate a US government employee, go badly wrong. What had she done, or what did she know? Robie is now a wanted man.

But it seems that he’s not the only one on the run. Young teenager Julie Getty is devastated by the inexplicable murder of her parents in their home. Who wanted them dead, and why, is a mystery. But Julie is smart enough to believe that their killer will come after her. Robie and Julie meet when he saves her from an attempt on her life as they were trying to leave town.

The police investigating the hit start to take an interest in Robie. He’s particularly attracting the interest of Special Agent Nicole Vance, who believes that the two cases are connected. Robie finds himself in a dangerous position as he is tasked to investigate a crime at which he was present. Does he need to change sides to save lives – including his own?

So, the synopsis made it clear that the central character is Secret Agent Will Robie, who is actually an official assassin of  the US government’s secret services. He is trained to kill people without questioning the reason and he is the best at his job. Initially he comes across as ruthless and cold-blooded, but redeems himself when the reader learns his “victims” were international terrorists or national threats. During one such assignment his Still-Human side overcomes his Cold-Blooded-Killer side and gives him pause. For the first time in his career, he disobeys the agency’s orders and runs from the kill site. What happens during his run is interesting. He finds Julie Getty, a fourteen year old girl running from her killer’s parents and still in the throes of his Still-Human side, he lets her join him. His plan is simple: keep both of them alive.

Now Julie is the real star of the story. Not only is she talented beyond her age, she is fearless and sensible as well. She saw her parents die right in front of her eyes and now she is beyond any emotion, suffering or pain. But she knows whom to trust and she trusts Robie. She also makes him feel. Under Julie’s tutelage, Robie discovers a new side of himself. He even develops a semi-crush on a  White House Staffer named Annie Lambert, which is really not his natural behavior.

The story takes a turn when Robie’s agency finds that his ‘handler’ has turned up and deceived the country by sending Robie on an innocent’s kill. At this point, I started to feel that everyone was a convict, be it  the FBI or DCIS.

It’s proof of the author’s terrific storytelling capabilities that he drew me in from the very first chapter and retained my attention till the last. Baldacci has a natural capability to make the reader visualize things by describing every minute detail in a way that isn’t tedious. Sometimes I felt as if I was an eyewitness to whatever was happening.

The story is like a puzzle but every piece is placed at a location where you can start thinking of next possible match.  I am still amazed with David Baldacci’s capability of scattering the plot into million pieces but putting it back together with so much precision. At the end of every chapter my mind was working faster than usual by trying to guess the next event. I am also awed by the perfect sync of the chapters. Baldacci didn’t miss even a single time frame, something that made the book a One-Sit read for me, which is applause-worthy seeing how long the book is. The twists and turns of the story kept me enthralled throughout the book and even after that, I kept on thinking about them over and over again.

The language was simple yet very gripping throughout the book. I consider it a Visual Book instead of just a novel because you will actually see what you read. ‘The Innocent’ is a book that will keep your brain engaged all the time, so make sure you don’t have anything else worth doing when you’re reading it.