Come for the murder. Stay for the toxic waste, terrorism, and government secrets. I mean, why not?
This is yet another David Baldacci audiobook that refused to stay in the car. At this point, I should probably stop pretending these are strictly for my commute. I'm not kidding anyone but myself.
Walk the Wire is the sixth book in Baldacci’s Amos Decker series, and the more time I spend with Amos Decker and Alex Jamison, the more I like them. Especially Amos. His character development throughout this series has been fantastic. The man we met in Memory Man is still very much there: brilliant, blunt, socially awkward, and equipped with a brain that works unlike anyone else’s. With every book, though, he becomes just a little more human.
This time, Decker and Jamison are sent to investigate the murder of a young woman in a small North Dakota town. On the surface, it looks like a fairly straightforward murder investigation.
Oh, bless your heart, you sweet summer child. Have you not met David Baldacci?
Because before long, we've got secrets, more murder, toxic waste, terrorism, government interests, and enough people hiding things to make you wonder whether anyone in town has ever told the truth about anything.
This is one of the things Baldacci does so well. He starts with a crime that seems relatively contained, then begins pulling threads. Every person seems to know something they're not saying, and the only thing that is obvious is that nothing is obvious.
The narration made this another easy audiobook to get lost in. Or, in my case, one that was supposed to live in the car and mysteriously followed me into the house. Funny how that keeps happening with Baldacci and Hachette Audio.
Five out of five stars. No hesitation.
If you've been reading the Amos Decker series from the beginning, Walk the Wire gives you everything you've come to expect: a complicated investigation, twists piled on top of twists, plenty of danger, and Amos using that extraordinary brain of his to notice the things everyone else misses. But it also gives us another chapter in Amos's slow, fascinating evolution.
And apparently all it takes to help Amos Decker become more human is a little friendship, a lot of murder, some toxic waste, and the occasional terrorist threat.
No judgment here, Amos. You do you! I'm just going to stand back and watch the magic happen.
