The Escape

This story fleshes out part of the storyline that is part of the background of books one and two and does it well. Great writing and it keeps you in the story, not wanting to put it down.

I liked the book, but as it got the end, it felt rushed. I thought author just wanted to get done.

This book has such high ratings, but I'm just not seeing it. The premise and characters have potential... but that the potential is never reached.We have a brother in prison for life for mysterious reasons, a world-class investigator looking into it, and both living under the long shadow of their father, a military legend in the grip of advanced Alzheimer's.Why would a world-class investigator not seriously investigate his own brother's unexplained lifelong imprisonment, until some emergency prompts a mysterious coalition of generals into contracting him? Is Puller such a dull straight arrow, such a cold fish, that he just shrugs and accepts it when the military says "your brother committed treason and is being jailed for life, it's classified, please don't take this any further."?...NOW he decides to find out the charges, read the court transcripts, talk to the key players, and determine whether his own brother was truly guilty of a (normally) capital offense? For that matter, why is the guy in prison so "whatever" about it? He couldn't have figured out a way to explain the situation and ask for help, before now? Despite his brilliance?A lot of this just doesn't ring true. We have an elaborate conspiracy to bring down the government with a terrorist attack, and I doubt I'm spoiling anything by saying they predictably foil that attack... apparently going on just a series of good guesses, and not much else else. There's years of planning to place traitors in very high positions, where they lay dormant for years, so they can arrange to frame and murder people for their cause. Or for money. It has so many moving parts and the author just doesn't sell me on the idea that several people can keep a secret of this magnitude.The pacing is quite slow, and the suspense between Puller and Veronica Knox is too contrived... there's some painful dialogue where they both go back and forth about their feelings and how he wants to trust her, but he can't, but he does, but he doesn't. This dialogue seems a bit melodramatic and doesn't really add anything, it's exhausting.The prison break is a good 'locked room' type of mystery, but the explanation is far-fetched, as is the escapee's uncanny ability to stay ahead of the law with limited resources and movie-style hacking ability... where he can just get into top secret stuff at will, after years of being out of the loop and away from computers, because he's just that super smart and prepared.For me, this series just reads like a watered down version of the Reacher books. I know the comparisons are maybe too frequent, but you can't practically rip off a character, without someone drawing comparisons to the original.Puller is just too boring and by-the-book, even for a military man. He has none of the quirks of Child's"Sherlock Homeless", who just seems like a much more interesting, edgy, and impossibly tough character. Reacher can be a jerk, a pedant, a remote cold fish. He'll go after people just for pissing him off, or because he's bored, not because he's a perfect law-abiding soldier. Puller is very right-down-the-middle... tall, strong, handsome, decent, smart. But without those quirks, essentially boring. I also don't feel eager to see more of his equally handsome-smart-nice-honorable-genius-hacker brother.If you hadn't read the Reacher books, you could be forgiven for thinking this series is pretty good. But even within the realm of Baldacci books, it's not top-notch.

This novel turned out to be more readable and enjoyable than I thought after the 40 -50 pages. If I could, I would give this book a 3.5 star rating because there are some outright, easily avoidable errors, and some plot elements that are a real stretch. That said, if I were asked if I recommend that some one spend their hard earned cash for this, I would say this is a worthwhile expenditure.Spoiler alert: if you haven't read the book, you may not wish to read any further.Early in the novel, the escaped brother goes on about how he maintained a checking account that stayed active with routine, scheduled payments, then goes on to add that he used the account to make donations to worthwhile people or causes he encountered. What? He was in a maximum security prison, and, as is made clear later in the book, was in isolation 23 hours a day and had zero access to computers. So how did he use a checking account to make payments? Obviously, this is impossible; I even went back and re-read that section when I finished the book to be sure I hadn't mis-read the intent, but it is exactly as I described. This is just amazing to me- aren't there editors? This is so obvious a blunder I cannot understand how this didn't get picked up, and detracts from the credibility of the rest of the book.The descriptions of anything relating to computers or software are truly far-fetched and bear no resemblance to reality. Does anyone really believe that one person writes the code for any military application or system? Please. And, of course, hacking into any data base, system, or application is as easy as logging onto a web page. There were other issues as well, all you have to do is pause and think "wait, how did they do that?" and elements of the plot become untenable.Overall, I thought the bones of the story were believable as constructed, based upon what I've read of actual espionage cases. This book could have been much, much better with a little intelligent editing and revision, however.

It is John Puller’s third outing, and the CID investigator learns his brother has escaped from Leavenworth Prison. Robert has been found guilty of national security crimes, but something about his escape does not add up – people do not break out of Leavenworth. On the run, Bobby is in the sites of every agent in the US government, including Puller who is surprisingly asked to join the hunt.John Puller does not know what his brother did for the Air Force, or exactly what he was convicted of, but he knows Bobby was on the fast track. Puller knows he should be nowhere near the investigation to find his brother. Soon the pair are attacking the same case from different angles, along with Veronica Knox, an NSA spy. Whose side is she on?Another escapist read from the series. Puller remains almost superhuman in his abilities, and he has knew allies. The story is slightly convoluted – the actual centrepiece of the plot is arguably not reached until the last few chapters, but the action in the remainder is perfectly fine. This is an OK read, nothing more. The first book had more going for it.

Baldacci has equivalent franchises to other authors and his hero John Puller seems to be almost the same as Jack Reacher, a military super cop, hero.That said, I have enjoyed the previous John Puller books, but the same can't be said of this one, which I found predictable, and shallow and at 460 plus pages, at least 200 pages too long. I found it hard to care about the heroes, male and female, the villains are almost mustachio twirling but cliched, the action is poorly realised and the plot twists can be seen coming a mile off.The female hero gets blown up, so does the male, but at different times, and I mean, can he be so short of ideas? the female hero gets shot, but lives (really?), and the hero doesn't get the girl.In the best chick flick tradition, the father with dementia comes back from his vagueness, if he ever had it, and we are set up for the next book, a quest for a missing mother.I had difficulty from the start, but persevered, only because unfinished books annoy me intensely.So I can't recommend this one at all, it's been done elsewhere and so much better.

The third in the John Puller series....Baldacci's version of Jack Reacher. As good a writer as he is, he just doesn't pull it off like Lee Child can.I really enjoyed the first book, the second was above average, but this one falls just short of the mark, and is average at best. I gave it 3 stars out of courtesy for Baldacci's, one of my favourite authors, if it had been anyone else it would have received 2 stars.It is well written, as you would expect from such an accomplished author, but it was all just a bit too much Hollywood!The overriding plot was one we have seen before many times, traitors in the ranks, who to trust etc. throw in the chemical bomb that they have only a few hours to find....even cutting the wire with seconds to spare( I don't think I've spoiled anything there..am sure you would have guessed that...as seen in a thousand movies!).The dialogue was a bit wooden, and corny. The characters a little one dimensional. And John Puller is turning too much into Captain America.ironically what starts out as the story, Pullers brother escaping from prison, had a more unique and interesting road to follow than the corny been done before spy/traitor/save the world from bomb with minutes to spare story!Come on Mr Baldacci's, you can do better than this! Give Puller some decent dialogue, a few flaws other than his inability to show emotion, and stay away from the Hollywood cliches in the story line.

John Puller is a military policeman. He is a loner and dedicated to his job and to his country. This is the third book in this series and I enjoyed it immensely.Puller's brother was also a high flyer in the army but he has been in prison for a reason which was not disclosed in previous novels. In this book he escapes from prison and, although he has been ordered not to, Puller starts to investigate his escape and eventually his original crime. Puller is authorised to investigate despite everyone's better judgement and is joined by agent Veronica Knox. Obviously, things are not as straightforward as you would expect and it turns out (not a spoiler as you will have worked this out for yourself from the very beginning) that not only is Puller's brother innocent but he may also be in danger himself.This is a great story which pulls you along in the action. Puller is an engaging character as he is honest and intelligent (although to the British reader he is a little over-patriotic). One of the author's themes is the size and complexity of the military and the intelligence services in the USA and over and over again the investigation is stalled or obstructed in some way by another agency or a corrupt official. Puller cannot be sure who he can trust and he also cannot be sure who will halt his career or betray him.This isn't great literature, and I don't think that it is intended to be that. It is, however, a really readable and enjoyable story with lots of action, twists and turns, and jeopardy for our main characters. It reminds me of Dan Brown at his best but the conspiracies here are much more believable. I hope that we see more of John Puller

I found it interesting reading the variable reviews by others where their small observations being the same as mine. However,I would have liked to have rated it 4.5 as it just failed for me at the end otherwise a 5.0. The first Pullar albeit something of a Jack Reacher copy was an OK start, the next I felt lost its way, similar to Baldacci's Robie books, but this one I thought was pretty good. I do not mind being educated by a book so the explanations of the US military set-up was an interesting part of the story and I felt Baldacci was at his best for three quarters of the book. I do not know whether it was time constraints or a limitation on pages but the ending just spoilt the story. Spoilt it insomuch as it was hurried and to slow it down with more detail for 50 pages or more would have been an excellent finish. It is a weakness of many crime and/or thriller writers that they put a great deal of effort into the main body of the story and appear to either get bored or rush the finish. The other irritant which appears in this book also is the ice cold killer throughout 'suddenly' wants to have a 'chat' with our hero rather than just kill him; that is becoming almost common place nowadays and spoils a good thriller. All in all I thought Baldacci was back to his best writing and I am hopeful the same occurs with the next Robie book.