Book review: David Baldacci delves into the troubled past of assassin Will Robie in The Guilty
What made Robie such a willing killer for the state? Baldacci sends him home to uncover some long-buried facts in this superior piece of fiction
by David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing
David Baldacci’s four best-selling novels about government assassin Will Robie have straddled that line of edgy, high-concept suspense, augmented with a bit of the political thriller and deep character studies. In The Guilty, Baldacci takes a different tack with a more personal (but just as thrilling) tale about Will’s past, looking at how he became a man so willing to kill for his country.
The Guilty works well as the tale of a man coming to terms with his past, and of the bonds between father and son, as well as an action-packed adventure story. Although the novel’s denouement falters and slides into the unrealistic, The Guilty is still a first-class thriller.