The Innocent by David Baldacci

image from LibraryThing

Baldacci is the perfect beachside read!  Short, staccato chapters filled with action that moves quickly and holds your attention!  This was the perfect book to kick off my oceanside reading!! If you look between the pages - you might even find a bit of sand! :)

Will Robie is an assassin and a very good one!  He works for the secret side of the CIA and does his job completely and carefully!  And then he stops.  He is in the midst of a hit - and things don't feel right - for the first time he asks questions of himself before he pulls the trigger (flash to Jason Bourne on the boat in the dark!!)  That hesitation puts in action a series of events that takes Robie out of automatic and into actually feeling!  A place he has not visited for a long time.

Robie, being a thorough hitman, always has a backup plan and even a backup for the backup. This night he escapes to a bus that travels between Washington DC and NYC every night - the Outa There bus.  While waiting for the bus to take him away to a safe spot he sees a young girl get on followed by an older man - someone clearly following her.  In an attempt to save this girl from her attacker - Robie is surprised to see Julie (the girl) able to fight him off for a bit, and then they flee off the bus together - moments before the bus explodes into thousands of pieces.  

So, against all of his training and preferences, Robie attempts to take care of Julie - yes this hardened, loner assassin begins to allow a tiny piece of his heart to feel again.  It isn't a sweet sappy moment - but rather a shock to both Robie and the reader's system.  But, it feels right!

This is a story of cold-blooded, ruthless people and the incredible lengths they will take to get what they want.  It is also an intertwined mystery of conspiracy on an unbelievable level.  

I greatly enjoyed the twists and turns and unexpected kindness of human beings!!

Read it!!