Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Thriller
Published on: April 23, 2013 by Grand Central Publishing
Master assassin Will Robie must track down a deadly rogue agent, but the attacks conceal a larger threat that could send shockwaves through the U.S. government and around the world in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.
Will Robie is a master of killing.
A highly skilled assassin, Robie is the man the U.S. government calls on to eliminate the worst of the worst—enemies of the state, monsters committed to harming untold numbers of innocent victims.
No one else can match Robie’s talents as a hitman…no one, except Jessica Reel. A fellow assassin, equally professional and dangerous, Reel is every bit as lethal as Robie. And now, she’s gone rogue, turning her gun sights on other members of their agency.
To stop one of their own, the government looks again to Will Robie. His mission: bring in Reel, dead or alive. Only a killer can catch another killer, they tell him.
But as Robie pursues Reel, he quickly finds that there is more to her betrayal than meets the eye. Her attacks on the agency conceal a larger threat, a threat that could send shockwaves through the U.S. government and around the world.
Most of the time, I'm not the kind of reader who judges books by their cover. The one for The Hit really caught my eye, as it's so good. The main characters posing like that looks rather impressive. This is the second novel in a thriller series featuring Will Robie. He's a forty-year-old hitman who works for a clandestine agency under the DOD. Their focus is to take out targets who are close to becoming great danger for the world. Robie in particular has only ever killed bad people. It's been a few months since the ending of the previous book. The Hit finds Robie embarking on his newest and most dangerous mission yet.
One of the agency's higher-ups, referred to as Blue Man, is the guy who assigns Robie the mission. He learns that one of their own people has turned against them. While people within the agency normally don't know each other (for security reasons), Robie knows his latest target really well. She's Jessica Reel, the only female assassin in the agency. Reel is reputed to be as good at what she does as Robie is. That's why he was picked to eliminate her. Reel murdered her handler while she was supposed to be taking out someone on the other side of the world.
Robie initially feels he isn't the right man for the mission. It's not that he fears going up against Reel. The issue is that this time the assignment involves way more than just flying somewhere, waiting for the target, and killing them. Robie has to investigate why Reel is doing what she's doing and figure out where she might go next. As he's no detective, Robie struggles a bit with this latest assignment. But he doesn't slack off, though. And Robie has to work fast, because Reel surely is. In a short amount of time, Reel murders two more people.
One of the main supporting characters from The Innocent makes a return in this book. She's FBI Special Agent Nicole Vance. Robie worked with her during his previous mission. Vance is now investigating Reel's murders (though she doesn't know the perpetrator). Robie's higher-ups don't tell him to work with her this time, but he should still keep a close eye. Vance is vaguely aware of what Robie does for a living. She could come close to figuring out what Reel's murders are about. Vance doesn't really mind that Robie keeps case-related info from her, though. She cares more that he hasn't got in touch for a while. Robie claims his world is too secretive and dangerous even for someone like Vance. And she's not the only person Robie ghosted. He hasn't talked to Julie Getty (his teenage ex-protégée) either, out of fear an enemy might use her against him.
Reel doesn't take long to prove herself a formidable protagonist. She seems to be working on a personal agenda. It's not totally clear whether Reel is working alone or following someone's orders. But the more Robie investigates, the more it seems like Reel is on her own. She goes from place to place in a rather methodical way. Reel's skilled enough to stay several steps ahead of Robie. As he gets closer to her, Robie starts to suspect there's something bigger at play. And for some unknown reason, Reel gets in touch with him. People in the agency monitor Robie's communications, so they are aware of Reel's contact immediately. They tell Robie she's likely playing mind games with him.
The Hit totally surpassed my expectations. It was thrilling and seriously hard to put down. The pace is also fast, so you’re jumping from one scene to the next with barely a breath. It’s a frantic mission, of course, meaning the quick pace is expected. The premise also delivers. Pitting two elite assassins like Robie and Reel against each other was like pitting Jason Bourne against Natasha Romanoff. They’re about evenly matched, so it’s not a given who will prevail. But not everything is as it seems. And the revelations in the latter parts of the book were satisfying, if not entirely shocking. I look forward to seeing where this series goes next.
My rating: ★★★★★
5 stars - Absolutely must-read. It's outstanding!!!
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