With tattoos on her body that serve as constant reminders of Mercy, Atlee visits Tor in ADX Florence high security prison in Colorado, aware that it is highly likely he is going to play mind games with her, but she doesn't care, she has to find out what happened to her sister. The backdrop of the beautiful and mystifying Grand Canyon was an added bonus for this armchair traveller. Narrowly escaping death, the two now are certain that something rotten in those canyon walls besides a decaying mule. Maybe next time she'll be sent into space and save the world from an invasion of martians who want to turn us all into babbling idiots who have the rude idea of writing novels about hero's who save the world from nuclear winter!

The plot: It was really well-woven, introducing the reader to unknown ideas that could very well be real (some aspects may or may not be based in reality, in fact – I didn’t check). Of course it’s the lack of motivation for its murder and disappearance of its rider – who seems to have a murky international relations job – that is really of interest and before Atlee knows it doors are being shut in her face and she’s being warned off. What starts as an animal murder and a missing person case soon escalates to a plot of political espionage involving North Korea, Russia and the US Government. It started off well in the first chapter but became a big mess that was devoid of any tension but chockful of all possible action-thriller tropes possible. Baldacci skirts the political line of being anti big government by emphasising the role of overreach within government by individuals.They also have some traumatic past (either from being in the military or Navy or some childhood trauma) that is the reason for them living on their own with zero personal belongings other than clothes and their guns and being determined to never forge relationships.

It is thirty years since FBI special agent Atlee Pine’s twin sister, Mercy, was taken from the room they shared as young children. Atlee Pine is an agent with the FBI, but her unique backstory and location add new depth to her character. Her pursuit of this case led her into some extremely dicey and dangerous situations that revealed a lot about Atlee, how she thinks, reacts and reasons. Atlee Pine was six years old when a kidnapper snuck into the room she shared with her twin sister, used a random nursery rhyme to select his victim, and left with Mercy. All of these great interesting people involved and that was the best story line he could come up with?Ever since her twin sister was abducted by a notorious serial killer at age five, Atlee has spent her life hunting down those who hurt others. This is where the forward motion of the story slows, almost stops and churns in place for no other reason than to up the page count. Having lost her twin sister at the age of six to a kidnapper, Atlee has been trying to remember the night Mercy was abducted.

As I read, I was reminded of another series character: Jane Hawk, the feisty heroine conceived by another favorite author, Dean Koontz. A couple of the park rangers who were involved in the dead mule / missing hiker case are suddenly transferred to a different National Park and Atlee is told to take a vacation. David published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996; the feature film adaptation followed, with Clint Eastwood as its director and star. His books are published in over forty-five languages and in more than eighty countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. The opening set-up, which was also well-telegraphed in the title, and then even the mysterious death of a mule in the Grand Canyon promised a lot here but it all got side-tracked into a totally absurd conspiracy plot where each plot twist was more unbelievable than what came before.

Of course, Atlee dealt them her brand of "you-know-what", leaving them all cuffed together, each suffering his own brand of pain. Admitting that it’s his first time attempting a female lead, Baldacci does a good job of creating a character that is easy to associate with, and complex enough to be realistic. While the story begins with Atlee visiting the man she believes hurt her and abducted her sister, it shifts to the case and remains there.