The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
Publisher: Pan Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Fern

Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, at least for now—prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power . . . where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.

Travis Devine catches the 6.20 am train to Manhattan six days a week with a whole stack of other – mostly much younger – struggling professionals. The one good part of his dull routine is when the train slows and frequently, he – and the other commuters – get an eyeful of a particularly gorgeous young woman having an early morning by her poolside. Yet Travis’ life is about to get a whole lot more complicated. His boring civilian life gets blown apart when shadows from his Army past come knocking, and soon the bodies start falling. Can Travis sort out who he can trust and who wants him dead?

I’m a big fan of David Baldacci and in many ways this book reminds me of many of his much earlier books. There is a lot about corporate America in this story – along with the power, money and greed that is rife in society as a whole now. I also really enjoyed that this book was clearly rooted in the very modern era – that of a global market and with the bad guys using a number of tools and financial scams that get used all too frequently in this day and age.

This is quite a long book at well over 500 pages and I was pleased the plot was complicated enough – and twisty enough – to justify this page length. It certainly kept me guessing. A few of the twists I could see coming, but plenty of them I didn’t, and a number of the twists unearthed whole different sides to the story that took me quite by surprise and delight. I feel the plot and complexities should appeal to most readers and for sure it maintained my attention throughout the read.

There is a decent cast of characters – I was pleased that there was a solid cast of primary characters and a good number of secondary. I felt the author balanced this just right. There were enough characters that the world felt properly populated, but there wasn’t so many I couldn’t keep track of everyone. There were also enough characters I couldn’t immediately rule people in or out as being good or bad. So, I felt this was handled really well by the author.

Readers who enjoy thrillers – especially espionage/corporation/power themed plotlines should find this book really suits their tastes. If you have enjoyed previous books written by Baldacci and if you enjoy his style, you should definitely give this one a go. Currently it’s a stand-alone though I think there might be a second novel coming down the track later on too which makes me happy. I’ll definitely be giving it a try.

A solidly written mystery/thriller with interesting characters and a really meaty, complicated plot. This was a book I’ll enjoy again in the future.