Long Road to Mercy

Fair warning to readers--the beginning and ending chapters won't have much to do with the plot for the rest of the book.

Atlee Pine is an FBI agent who's chosen to be stationed in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. We find that she is a twin, but her twin sister was abducted when they were very young and has never been found. (In retrospect, I wonder if the book title was meant as a warning that finding out what happened to Mercy Pine is going to be a long road.)

Atlee starts off as a bit of a loner, but in the course of the book, she makes several friends: her assistant, Carol Blum, and park ranger, Sam Kettler are the two that come most prominently to mind.

Most of the other Baldacci books I've read have had a male protagonist, so having show more one with a female protagonist is interesting--even if she does have many attributes usually given to males. She's a bit more likely to make a mistake than Baldacci's male super-men protagonists, but she's able to use her brain and training to turn things back around.

The main plot centers around a supposedly missing tourist and a dead mule from the Grand Canyon mule rides. Except that the missing tourist doesn't fit the description of the person who went on the mule ride and disappeared. There's a bit of obscure Grand Canyon history relating to the letters J & K (which I have to say made me think of "joke" when I first heard them and I'm surprised that internet abbreviation never came up in the story.) And there's a nuclear device mixed in there too.

I was glad Baldacci chose to not have the seemingly genre-required sex scene in this novel, and I would probably read the next book in the series to see how the series goes. show less

It is refreshing to read a David Baldacci novel with a female FBI agent as the hero. Atlee Pine has her own fascinating back story that propelled her to want to be an FBI agent and nothing else. Her twin sister was abducted when they were six and the supposed killer remains unknown. She now runs a small office near the Grand Canyon with a gutsy assistant. I have never been to the Grand Canyon but I certainly want to visit now. This amazing natural feature is a big character in the novel and plays its part so well I almost feel I have actually been there and walked its treacherous trails in the heat and at night. Atlee Pine and her assistant set off on a road trip across America and laughingly liken themselves to Thelma and Louise as the show more storyline gets more and more complex. When I reached the heart of the fantasy it was too late to give up and I stuck with it but it was hardly credible, even in these strange times. The two women made a great team, occasionally helped along by Park Ranger Sam and other locals. show less

David Baldacci introduces a new series featuring Atlee Pine in LONG ROAD TO MERCY. Like all his previous thrillers, the main character is complicated, has a history that strongly influences her life, and doesn’t let anything or anyone, including her supervisors, stop her from giving her all to solve crimes.
When she was six-years-old, Atlee’s identical twin sister, Mercy, was kidnaped from their bedroom. She was never heard from again. Atlee was left with a fractured skull. After that, she felt she had to live her life for both of them. She became an FBI agent, working in law enforcement to protect and help other people. Rather than working in an urban or suburban environment, she chose to become the only FBI agent at a post in show more Arizona, responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon.
The story opens thirty years later with her traveling to the prison where a sadistic mass murderer and kidnapper whom she believes took Mercy is serving a lifetime sentence. She wants to find out what happened to her. He toys with her but refuses to tell her.
As soon as she returned home, she was called to investigate a case at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. A guest at the Phantom Ranch had disappeared and the desecrated body of a mule was found. No one at the ranch or at the nearby campground had heard or seen anything, though the mule would likely have made a lot of noise as it had been slaughtered. While trying to find out about the missing man, she learned that he was not who he said he was.
Suddenly, two federal agents who were working on the case were transferred to another location and Atlee was ordered to drop the case. Of course, that made her more determined to solve it. She was determined to identify the missing man, learn why he was there, why he disappeared, who had taken his identity and why, and where he had gone. And, with the eager help of her assistant, Carol Blum, they set out to find the answers without becoming targets themselves.
I like the characters ane the story though Atlee’s ability to stop her opponents and recover from her injuries are somewhat unrealistic. show less

Great book! I would give it a 5 star, but I felt the beginning was a little slow to start. I enjoyed to contrast that Mr. Baldacci made with our current politics. It kept me wondering what was going to happen next. I liked how he used the lead character's past to define her. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Intriguing Start that Goes Down the Absurd Conspiracy Trail
Review of the Audible Audio edition narrated by Brittany Pressley and Kyf Brewer

The opening set-up, which was also well-telegraphed in the title, and then even the mysterious death of a mule in the Grand Canyon promised a lot here but it all got side-tracked into a totally absurd conspiracy plot where each plot twist was more unbelievable than what came before.

Baldacci introduces a new series here with FBI agent Atlee Pine and the western outdoors locale and accompanying characters are well utilized at the front and back end. The actual conspiracy that is finally uncovered is just far too absurd to hold the plot together but it does provide occasions for some well-written action show more set-pieces. I hope for something a bit more realistic and down-to-earth from any future entries in the series.

The narrations by newcomer Brittany Pressley (female voices) and veteran Baldacci-reader Kyf Brewer (male voices) were both excellent. show less

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Catch a tiger by its toe.

It's seared into Atlee Pine's memory: the kidnapper's chilling rhyme as he chose between six-year-old Atlee and her twin sister, Mercy. Mercy was taken. Atlee was spared.

She never saw Mercy again.

Three decades after that terrifying night, Atlee Pine works for the FBI. She's the lone agent assigned to the Shattered Rock, Arizona resident agency, which is responsible for protecting the Grand Canyon.

So when one of the Grand Canyon's mules is found stabbed to death at the bottom of the canyon-and its rider missing-Pine is called in to investigate. It soon seems clear the lost tourist had something more clandestine than sightseeing in mind. But just as Pine begins to put together clues show more pointing to a terrifying plot, she's abruptly called off the case. show less

Atlee Pine is a special kind of FBI agent. One that lifts more iron than most men, prefers wide-open spaces and solitude to people, and won't back down from a fight—even when the odds are not in her favor. Long Road To Mercy, the first book in the Atlee Pine series, is an exciting political thriller that starts in the Grand Canyon with a missing tourist and a dead mule and ends with Atlee and a few friends saving the world from chaos. David Baldacci is known for his tightly crafted plots and fascinating characters, and this story is no exception. I'm sure Atlee's quest to find her missing twin sister, Mercy—kidnapped at the age of six—will make future books in this series worth following.