Zero Day
Ratings25
Average rating3.8
From David Baldacci--the modern master of the thriller and #1 worldwide bestselling novelist-comes a hero: a lone Army Special Agent taking on the toughest crimes facing the nation. And Zero Day is where it all begins.... John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth. Now, Puller is called out on a case in a remote, rural area in West Virginia coal country far from any military outpost. Someone has stumbled onto a brutal crime scene, a family slaughtered. The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation. As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he's seen in this small town, and no one in it, are what they seem. Facing a potential conspiracy that reaches far beyond the hills of West Virginia, he is one man on the hunt for justice against an overwhelming force.
Series
Featured Series
4 primary booksJohn Puller
John Puller is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 1996 with contributions by David Baldacci.
Reviews
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This was a great introduction to a new main character. He turned up in the last Amos Decker story I read so I decided to find out more about him by reading his story. Looking forward to reading more. Liked his cat's name!
Solid thriller, not a bad candidate for my ongoing quest to find a Reacher replacement (Parker still my #1 in that regard).
However, they say imitation is a form of flattery, but I can totally understand why Lee Child is pissed at Baldacci.
Sure, create a new character - make him an Army policeman, maybe he's big and clever - but calling him John, making him also like coffee, and favour the headbutt in confrontations, and be a crack sniper, and have an ‘internal clock', and have a military father and brother, and calling him ‘Puller'... It moves beyond similar to an almost replica.
Puller isn't a drifter and seems to actually have a house and possessions - his focus is also more scientific (forensic training) and technical (he loves the guns) - but these unique traits seem to be overwhelmed by everything that's copied.
It also serves to point out more that Puller isn't Reacher, and made me miss Child's sparse, blunt style (which initially I found hilarious but now find quite nicely echoes Reacher's own methodical and no nonsense attitude) even more.
I guess I'll be waiting a while longer then (or at least until September when the new Reacher is out)...
