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The Escape (John Puller #3)
by David Baldacci - 4/5
I liked The Escape. It was a very good book. Quite better than The Forgotten, which was an average book by an unknown - at the time for me - author, David Baldacci. The reason for that is clear. The Forgotten laid too much emphasis on the strengths of John Puller. There were too many locations, too many extras in the story. Pacing counts for something. But let us concentrate on The Escape.
I'm beginning to doubt I'll give any book 5 stars this year. It seems I'm a bit too sternly demanding these days. Not fair. I want to be able to say that I've chosen over 10 or 15 perfect books. The Escape came pretty close to that score. But its weirdly staged finale came in the way of perfection. I have to be honest. One reason why it could have scored higher is the Camel Club vibe that I got from the book. It's very strange. There's something sophisticated about The Escape. A minimalist finish that can only come from a richly orchestrated mind. Just like a room's decoration can be expensively minimalist, so is The Escape stark, livid, dynamic, contained, plausible, small scale, and quite professionally written.
I enjoyed reading most of the book, but the very end made it worthwhile. Two things that DIDN'T happen. A) The network was never rounded. B)Knox blew off Puller. The latter left me mystified. When there's a fourth Puller book (preferably just before or after a sixth Camel Club book) I want to see how this romantic cliffhanger pans out. The fact that Knox gets banged up in the line of duty - I mean the timing and the way it was accomplished - strayed away from the boring trope of the strong female character one sees too often. These characters don't have much depth. But they are not shallow either. So yeah, give me more of the same.
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