Daylight

Atlee Pine’s search to find out what happened to her twin sister Mercy who was kidnapped when they were six years old was sidetracked when she became involved in other investigations. Her boss is anxious for her to return to her base but agreed to give her and her assistant Carol Blum a few more days to try to resolve the disappearance.

Following up on a clue she had about the identity of the kidnapper, she proceeded to his grandson’s house, only to destroy another investigation being worked by a former associate, John Puller. The suspect escaped and Pine and Puller joined forces to solve both cases.

It didn’t go easily. They became involved trying to solve a plot to damage the US involving drugs, sex, lies, and coverups at in the show more police department and high levels of government.

DAYLIGHT offers a lot of violence and eventually Atlee does learn more about both her sister and her parents.

Baldacci displays a lack of knowledge in some areas (e.g., knitting: “stitch one, purl two” instead of “knit one, purl two) .

DAYLIGHT is cursed with unnecessarily short chapters: 78 in 406 pages. Huge waste of paper and low level of respect for the readers’ intelligence. There is also too much repetition.

The story moves fairly well but the plot is too far out to be realistic. There will have to be a follow-up (hopefully only one) to finally resolve the Mercy story. What’s given doesn’t make much sense.

Interesting quote: "Social media has absolutely nothing to do with the truth. It has to do with making s---loads of money off ads trying to sell people crap they don't need. But the terrible by-product of that is giving a global platform to the absolute worst elements of society. The result is that 'truth' is whatever you can convince people it is. It's exactly what Orwell wrote about."

I miss Baldacci’s earlier writing. show less

The Perils of Pine or Long Road to Mercy 3
Review of the Grand Central Publishing audiobook edition (November 2020)

Raymond Chandler's advice to crime writers was that if they didn't know what to do next in a story, have a man walk into the room with a gun. David Baldacci takes this advice up to warp speed level. When he doesn't know what to do next he has a black-ops hit-squad burst in to attempt to wipe out his protagonists and the witnesses they are currently interviewing in order to uncover the current diabolical conspiracy.

Daylight follows the standard Baldacci template while also continuing what seems to be FBI Agent Atlee Pine's never-ending quest to find the twin sister she lost in a child abduction when they were both 6 years show more old. To add further allies to the mix Baldacci brings in his Army CID investigator John Puller and his Navy brother so that there are more forces on the good guy side with Pine and her admin assistant Carol Blum. The absurdities of an Arizona FBI agent and her office assistant chasing down conspiracies across the country are ignored. I may have blinked and missed it but I don't think the leaders of the main conspiracy here were ever brought to justice, although the foot soldiers were certainly revealed.

Still, it was an entertaining quick moving listen and the performances of Brittany Pressley and Kyf Brewer in all voices were excellent. show less

There is a whole lot going on in this book. Moving on from the second book in the series, “A Minute to Midnight”, FBI Special Agent, Atlee Pine is still searching for her missing sister Mercy. Along with her assistant Carol Blum, Agent Pine travels from her home base in Shattered Rock, Arizona to Trenton, NJ. The landscape is different and so are the characters she is investigating. Mobsters, drugs, insidious and nefarious going’s on. She will follow any lead that might help her find out what happened to Mercy. “The road to Mercy had been long and tortuous, and some days the destination seemed as unreachable as the summit of Mt. Everest.”

After a major miscue, Atlee hooks up with John Puller, a righteous colleague who is Army show more CID and with whom she has history. His presence adds familiarity and balance. Alone and together they become embroiled in a few murders, mayhem, and ultimate pandemonium. She kicks, she fights, she shoots, she defends, she puzzles it out. Nothing is making sense, she plays the players and is played as well. She ultimately discovers a hydra of unimaginable proportions.

Baldacci has presented a truly horrifying scenario and placed his heroine smack in the center of the eternal conundrum; Means vs Ends. There are so many questions: Can Atlee break the chain of corruption? Will she find her sister? Why did her mother leave her? Why was her father killed? Who is going to die next? Does anyone have any ethics? Is there going to be a fourth volume in this series? I look forward to it.

Thank you NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for a copy show less

I have only read the first book in this series, and after reading this one, I am going to make sure that I buy the second one and reread all three!

I know that many long-time readers didn't like this book(for many reasons), but I found it fascinating, action-packed, and one that I just couldn't put down. I have no problems with the continuing story of Atlee still looking for her sister. After all, I think that once she finds her sister, the series will have to end, don't you think so too?

Mr. Baldacci uses his usual tropes with this book, and I find it quite comforting that he does so. Some of the 'action' IS a tad far-fetched, but I found it easy to suspend my disbelief and keep reading.

I wholeheartedly recommend this series to any who show more likes a kick-butt heroine, no romance, and a LOT of action. This is also a book that forces you to use your brain to keep up with all the twists and turns.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher and the author. Thank-you. show less

Synopsis: Atlee Pine lost her twin sister when they were 6 years old to a kidnapper. Now she's finally found enough clues to get close to finding Mercy. However, murder, mayhem, drugs, and political crimes are getting in her way and she feels honor-bound to deal with these issues.
Review: This is a page-turner. I'm rather miffed that there's not another book to tell me if Atlee really finds Mercy and if she's sane enough to want to be rescued.

Daylight by David Baldacci is a 2020 Grand Central Publication.

Atlee Pine is finally closing in on finding answers to what happened to her twin sister- but naturally, there are complications… LOTS of complications. Atlee’s singled minded determination to find Ito Vincenzo- her sister’s kidnapper- inadvertently slams into John Puller’s current investigation. Her faux pas, brings the two together as a team, along with Carol Blum.

Little do they know that once they start digging into the Vincenzo family saga that it will lead them to a shocking conspiracy…

This is the third installment in the Atlee Pine series. I wasn’t especially impressed with the first book, but the second book convinced me to continue on with the series. show more This installment is action packed and has some interesting conspiracy theories, but once again, I was left feeling like something was missing- the story just fell flat for some reason- but- an interesting development with Atlee’s twin, towards the end of the book pretty much guaranteed I’ll be reading the next book in the series.

Overall, this was an entertaining thriller- still not up to Baldacci’s usual standards. I’m giving the series one more shot after this- hopefully, I won’t have to cut my losses.

3 stars show less

"Army strong, Atlee."

Somehow, in all my reading, I have never read a David Baldacci book - until now. So for anyone unsure if they can just pick this one up without having read any other Puller or Atlee books, the answers is Yes (although it would probably be better if you did read the previous ones!) I loved this one.

Atlee was a little hard to like. She's a bit abrasive and she doesn't always think before she acts. But people like Puller (both brothers), Blum and other supporting characters easily round her out. Her search for her missing twin sister is both heartbreaking and a heart-pounding race to try to keep ahead of what everyone knows.

Add in John Puller's mystery - a young man missing, a young boy murdered and then an FBI agent. show more As each person of position was pulled, each person stonewalled, each dead end, I loved Puller's resourcefulness, his ability to both play nice and hold his tongue, and how well he did his job.

The overall mystery was a bit....big. It was so grandiose I was a little meh with it, but I absolutely loved Blum's role and Atlee's ability to get some answers. I'll definitely look for the next one and hope that it's more of Atlee's quest to find out answers. show less