Another Baldacci popcorn thriller we could probably do without

The Target is yet another Baldacci political thriller starring two government assassins with consciences, lots of colorful bad guys, and a totally improbable ending. This latest book offers multiple plots that don’t really intersect but which run parallel, a different approach to writing this genre which sort of works but which doesn’t save The Target from being more than just another in a long line of these kinds of popcorn thrillers.

The U.S. government is planning to back a coup against the North Korean government. The plan spectacularly backfires and shoves the whole world one step closer to a thermonuclear exchange. Robie and Reel are the only ones, it appears, who can save official Washington’s a**, but before they can be sent abroad to clean up, they must be “recalibrated” from the rogue status they achieved during their last mission (read Baldacci’s The Hit), to “trustworthy.” That means going back into the so-called “Burner Box,” a brutally difficult black-ops government-operated training ground where someone high up is determined that they won’t make it out alive. Needless to say, they do and are successfully deployed, but not before drawing the attention of the North Koreans, and specifically of a terrifying North Korean assassin who is perhaps of more interest than the whole rest of the novel.

Meanwhile, a cardboard villain in the form of a homegrown Nazi militia leader becomes the centerpiece of the second plot which offers the reader a close-up look into the life of Reel, who until now has been somewhat of an enigma in the Robie/Reel series. This side plot is very neatly tied up, and then we are brought back to government shenanigans, North Korean killers, and a wholly unbelievable conclusion. If you just want nonstop action and don’t care about credibility, this Baldacci makes the grade. Otherwise…