No excuse for another Reacher knock-off by Baldacci

Baldacci brings John Puller back for another attempt at a Reacher-like hit, but –while slightly better than the first book Zero Day—The Forgotten doesn’t come close to his early stuff. Indeed, Baldacci had a hit-em-out-of-the-park winner with one of his earliest novels Wish You Well, and I’ve been waiting ever since for something with the same degree of character, substance and, frankly, beautiful writing.

In The Forgotten, Baldacci tries to capture our interest with the hot-button topic of human slavery in the modern era, but surrounds his plot with such absurd shenanigans that I couldn’t help but envision Schwarzenegger in Puller’s role – and that’s when it’s definitely time to quit! Puller is this larger-than-life military loner type with a brother in maximum security–on treason charges, no less–and a retired general for a father who is suffering from Alzheimers and thinks he still commands forces. Puller also has on-again/off-again hot sex with a female general, and can’t seem to stay away from every clichéd bad guy in the book while, of course, rescuing damsels and poor immigrant kids from dastardly villains.

Rather than gasping with excitement or surprise, I found myself giggling at some of the silliness in this book, and when I did get interested, it was not in Puller but in the enigmatic Mecho character who outshines Baldacci’s hero at every turn. If Baldacci must write more of these low-level Schwarzenegger-like made-for-movies ka-pow scripts, he’d be better off with Mecho than with a hero who is recognizably a poor knock-off on Jack Reacher. C’mon Baldacci, you’re better than this!