Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
Zero Day
by David Baldacci, Grand Central, 2011
Reviewed by Larry W. Riggs
I am not generally a fan of suspense novels
built on the military heroism/corruption in the corridors of power
model. That is why I gave up on David Baldacci a couple of years
ago. However, something in the dust-jacket blurb for this new book
interested me, and I do not regret buying and reading it. Until the
very end, this is a readable, interesting story. John Puller, son
of a legendary commanding officer and brother of a former officer
who is serving a life sentence for treason, and veteran of combat
in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is a crack investigator of crimes
involving military personnel. He is sent to West Virginia coal
country to investigate the murder of a high-ranking army officer
and his family. In passing, Baldacci explores the horrors of
mountain-top-removal coal mining and the harshness of life in the
polluted, poverty-stricken places where it is practiced. The
writing is sometimes a bit awkward: imagine using military acronyms
and then trying to find ways to inform readers of what the acronyms
actually mean! However, the story is well-constructed and the crime
seems truly mysterious. Puller is the usual combination of awesome
killing machine and sensitive soldier who grieves for his brother
and for all of his lost comrades. The book's characters are
mostly well drawn. The story raises important and interesting
issues.
- Larry Riggs is Professor of French at Butler University.