This feature is for short reviews, reviews of books in a series where it might feel repetitive, or (as Michelle suggested) books I was too lazy to write a “real” review for. Today’s books are all part of the Will Robie Series which I read with Anne last year and loved. Very much hope there will be more!
The Innocent by David Baldacci Narrator: Ron McLarty, Orlagh Cassidy
Series: Will Robie #1
Published by Grand Central Publishing on April 17, 2012
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 12 hours 15 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
America's best hitman was hired to kill--but when a D.C. government operation goes horribly wrong, he must rescue a teenage runaway and investigate her parents' murders in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.
It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to pull the trigger. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and is on the run.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway--her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her. Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life...and perhaps his own.
David Baldacci is quickly becoming a favorite author and this first book in the Will Robie series continues that trend. In fact, I think these characters have the potential to become my favorites, over Amos Decker and his friends/team..
Will Robie is a fantastic character and I really enjoyed getting to know the government hitman. He’s smart and lethal (as you’d expect) but he’s also softer than you’d expect from someone in such a brutal line of work. That humanizing piece made me love him all the more.
The mystery was also fantastic and I was guessing all the way to the end. This has a very different kind of cadence to the Amos Decker series as Robie is not a detective, he’s a hitman being forced by circumstances to play detective. And I appreciated that he made mistakes and didn’t think like a detective because of that. He’s smart but he lacks that element of training and it made the story that much more fun to read.
As I’ve grown accustomed to with David Baldacci audios, this was narrated in a theatrical style with Ron McLarty doing the male voices and Orlagh Cassidy the female. I tend to find books narrated this way a real treat as you can really get lost in them — all voices are believable and consistent. Looking forward to listening to the rest of the series.
The Hit by David Baldacci Narrator: Ron McLarty, Orlagh Cassidy
Series: Will Robie #2
Published by Hachette Audio on April 23, 2013
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 11 hours 46 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
Will Robie is a master of killing.
A highly skilled assassin, Robie is the man the U.S. government calls on to eliminate the worst of the worst-enemies of the state, monsters committed to harming untold numbers of innocent victims.
No one else can match Robie's talents as a hitman...no one, except Jessica Reel. A fellow assassin, equally professional and dangerous, Reel is every bit as lethal as Robie. And now, she's gone rogue, turning her gun sights on other members of their agency.
To stop one of their own, the government looks again to Will Robie. His mission: bring in Reel, dead or alive. Only a killer can catch another killer, they tell him.
But as Robie pursues Reel, he quickly finds that there is more to her betrayal than meets the eye. Her attacks on the agency conceal a larger threat, a threat that could send shockwaves through the U.S. government and around the world.
I absolutely love this series — after this book I think it may have passed Amos Decker on my Baldacci favorites list. The characters, plot, and the action are just fantastic!
I already knew from the first book that I loved Will Robie’s ability to think for himself – beyond being just a tool of the government agency he’s an assassin for – but The Hit brought that quality to the forefront. Charged with tracking down a fellow assassin – Jessica Real – who has been his equal (so, also the best the agency has) because she’s gone rogue, we get to see Robie using his impressive skills but also questioning the web he and Jessica Real are entangled in. There’s so many twists and turns, you’ll be questioning and second guessing from start to finish. Loved it!
I listened to this and as with all David Baldacci’s audio books, the performance is impeccable. They’ve really gone the extra mile, giving us two narrators, not just for the POVs but in a theatrical performance where they play all the male and female voices regardless of POV – Ron McLarty (male voices), Orlagh Cassidy (female voices). It’s a real treat, along with sound effects, letting you get truly transported into the book. Highly recommend listening!
This book introduced a lot of players and threads that are sure to impact future books, leaving me super eager to continue reading.
Bullseye by David Baldacci Narrator: Ron McLarty
Published by Hachette Audio on February 4, 2014
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 2 hours 2 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
In this all-new short story from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci, worlds collide when government assassin Will Robie is caught in the crossfire with Oliver Stone and the Camel Club.
Will Robie is closing in on his next target when he finds himself in the middle of a bank heist--and he's taken hostage alongside Oliver Stone. But is this just a simple bank job, or are the robbers after something even more valuable--and dangerous--than the cash in the vault?
This was a really fun novella! Having only read the Will Robie series, some of these characters from another series were unknown to me. But it was a great introduction to them and now I have another David Baldacci series I want to read! For a short novella, there’s a lot of character development and mystery. Definitely worth a read. And what a treat that it was available in audio (a lot of novella’s aren’t). Ron McLarty delivered a great performance and I look forward to more from him (presumably when I read the crossover series).
The Target by David Baldacci Narrator: Ron McLarty, Orlagh Cassidy
Series: Will Robie #3
Published by Grand Central Publishing on April 22, 2014
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 12 hours 51 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
The President knows it's a perilous, high-risk assignment. If he gives the order, he has the opportunity to take down a global menace, once and for all. If the mission fails, he would face certain impeachment, and the threats against the nation would multiply. So the president turns to the one team that can pull off the impossible: Will Robie and his partner, Jessica Reel.
Together, Robie and Reel's talents as assassins are unmatched. But there are some in power who don't trust the pair. They doubt their willingness to follow orders. And they will do anything to see that the two assassins succeed, but that they do not survive.
As they prepare for their mission, Reel faces a personal crisis that could well lead old enemies right to her doorstep, resurrecting the ghosts of her earlier life and bringing stark danger to all those close to her. And all the while, Robie and Reel are stalked by a new adversary: an unknown and unlikely assassin, a woman who has trained her entire life to kill, and who has her own list of targets--a list that includes Will Robie and Jessica Reel.
If it were an option, I think I would give this 6 stars. My favorite of the series thus far and likely to stay that way — this book had it all: internal plots and backstabbing, international conflict, personal conflict and development, intrigue and despair.
This was Will Robie and Jessica Real at their best – sure they can do the detective thing and have been forced to at times, but they are not detectives. They are assassins. Top level, bad ass assassins. And unil The Target we haven’t fully seen how bad ass they are. Even when their own government, which they are fiercely working for, expects them to deliver but not to survive. On top of that, a startling personal story — impeccably timed for the book but the WORST timing for Robie and Real — threatens beloved characters and lets us know one of them even better. It would be an understatement to say I was on the edge of my seat for the entirety of this book.
And yet, what made this book was actually not Will and Jessica. It was a new character – Chung-Cha, North Korean assassin – that stole the show. Her startling and heartbreaking story pulled me in and held me captive. An incredible character who’s plot and the way it intertwined with Robbie and Real’s plot took this book to the next level.
I can’t gush enough but I also do not want to spoil anything – so I’ll leave it there, only to add that I once again listened and loved the performance from Ron McLarty (male voices) and Orlagh Cassidy (female voices). A real audio treat!
The Guilty by David Baldacci, Orlagh Cassidy Narrator: Kyf Brewer, Orlagh Cassidy
Series: Will Robie #4
Published by Grand Central Publishing on November 17, 2015
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 11 hours 46 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
Will Robie is the government's most professional, disciplined, and lethal assassin. He infiltrates the most hostile countries in the world, defeats our enemies' advanced security measures, and eliminates threats before they ever reach our shores. But now, his skills have left him. Sent overseas on a critical assignment, he fails, unable to pull the trigger. Absent his talents, Robie is a man without a mission, and without a purpose.To recover what he has lost, Robie must confront what he has tried to forget for over twenty years: his own past.THE GUILTYWill Robie escaped his small Gulf Coast hometown of Cantrell, Mississippi, after high school, severing all personal ties, and never looked back. Not once. Not until the unimaginable occurs. His father, Dan Robie, has been arrested and charged with murder.Father and son haven't spoken or seen each other since the day Robie left town. In that time, Dan Robie--a local attorney and pillar of the community--has been elected town judge. Despite this, most of Cantrell is aligned against Dan. His guilt is assumed.To make matters worse, Dan has refused to do anything to defend himself. When Robie tries to help, his father responds only with anger and defiance. Could Dan really be guilty? With the equally formidable Jessica Reel at his side, Robie ignores his father's wishes and begins his own desperate investigation into the case. But Robie is now a stranger to his hometown, an outsider, a man who has forsaken his past and his family. His attempts to save his father are met with distrust and skepticism . . . and violence.Unlike the missions Robie undertook in the service of his country, where his target was clearly defined, digging into his father's case only reveals more questions. Robie is drawn into the hidden underside of Cantrell, where he must face the unexpected and possibly deadly consequences of the long-ago choices made by father and son. And this time, there may be no escape for either of them.
This was not my favorite (I did enjoy it though!) — probably doesn’t help that it’s coming after what is likely to be my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE for the series forever — but the pacing was slower and let’s face it, Robie is an assassin, not a detective. So when he has to wear his detective hat he doesn’t do as well. I mean, as a frequent reader of mysteries I seemed to pick up on more than he did (not that I would at any time consider myself a detective lol).
That said, I did enjoy getting to know a bit about Robie’s past and a greater understanding of how he came to this point in his life. And while I did pick up on a lot, I didn’t see the ending coming. The resolution was a shocking and a bit heartbreaking for me (I’d say more, but I think it would teeter too close to being a spoiler). I continue to really enjoy seeing Robie and Real together and I’m hoping we’ll see them because an actual couple in future books.
Continuing to love the audio performances – I find this style of narration where one narrator does all the male voices and another does all the female voices to be a real treat. I didn’t realize until writing the review, though, that instead of Ron McLarty for the male voices we’ve made a switch to Kyf Brewer! I guess that’s a testament to how well he matches that I didn’t realize!
End Game by David Baldacci Narrator: Kyf Brewer, Orlagh Cassidy
Series: Will Robie #5
Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 31, 2018
Genres: Mystery, Suspense & Thriller
Length: 11 hours 54 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
Goodreads
Two of the government's most lethal assassins scour rural Colorado to find their missing handler--and discover an insidious and lethal threat along the way in this New York Times bestselling thriller.
Will Robie and Jessica Reel are two of the most lethal people alive. They're the ones the government calls in when the utmost secrecy is required to take out those who plot violence and mass destruction against the United States. And through every mission, one man has always had their backs: their handler, code-named Blue Man.
But now, Blue Man is missing.
Last seen in rural Colorado, Blue Man had taken a rare vacation to go fly fishing in his hometown when he disappeared off the grid. With no communications since, the team can't help but fear the worst.
Sent to investigate, Robie and Reel arrive in the small town of Grand to discover that it has its own share of problems. A stagnant local economy and a woefully understaffed police force have made this small community a magnet for crime, drugs, and a growing number of militant fringe groups.
But lying in wait in Grand is an even more insidious and sweeping threat, one that may shake the very core of America. And when Robie and Reel find themselves up against an adversary with superior firepower and a home-court advantage, they'll be lucky if they make it out alive, with or without Blue Man...
After having seen Will and Jess at their strongest – as assassins in The Target – I’m just let down when they get put back into these detective roles. It is not their strength and while they are smart and skilled, they fumble a lot. Which is a testament to David Baldacci’s ability to render his character’s believably, though. If they suddenly were like Amos Decker (another Baldacci series where he IS a detective) I would be frustrated at the inaccuracy. I just wish we’d see them as assassins more instead.
I did appreciate the chance to understand Blue Man better and see where he’s from. And, as always, they did land in a complicated mess far worse than anticipated when they went looking for him. Ultimately, though, the way they fumbled repeatedly on the mystery made this probably my least favorite. The stains on their relationship further complicated and made this book disappointing. I ultimately enjoyed it as part of the greater series but wonder if I would have given it 3.5 stars without the history and attachment to the characters. Probably not.
The narration continues to be a real treat though and I’m loving listening to the theatrical performance from Kyf Brewer (male voices) and Orlagh Cassidy (female voices).
Will Robie sounds intriguing!
Well you know I loved these too! Thanks for reading with me.