I\'ve been a fan of Baldacci since I picked up the paperback of his first thriller Absolute Power at Los Angeles airport in 1996. He’s sold 110 million copies of his 22 novels in 45 languages since then, but he hasn’t lost his freshness. The consummate professional, he has a knack for finding a new twist, and this time he introduces a new character, Special Agent John Puller, a war hero from Iraq, now an investigator with the U.S. Army’s CID. Unconventional and not interested in promotion to become an officer, Pullen is sent to investigate the murder of an Army Colonel, his wife and children in a remote corner of West Virginia, which depends on open-caste coal mining. More bodies are discovered and it emerges that national security is at stake as the Colonel worked for military intelligence. With a wonderful partner in local homicide detective Samantha Cole, Pullen stars in a runaway train of a plot told with incredible pace - and heart - that never lets you escape for a moment.