Book Review: Hour Game

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Hour Game     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
David Baldacci
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Serial Killer   Private Investigator
Warner, Oct 2004, $26.95, 435 pp.

Wrightsburg, Virginia residents are in a panic as a serial killer has murdered at least four times. The victims seem random and the motive unknown, but the MO imitates the infamous murderers’ row to include the Zodiac killer, Gacy, Sam, and Ramirez so far.

Chief of Police Todd Williams knows he and his force do not have the skills to deal with this new predator and wonders if the FBI Agent will prove helpful. Meanwhile former Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell have opened up a private investigative office in town; they are already working on the fifth slaying that of international businessman Robert E. Lee Battle, but their “client” becomes the next victim. Struggling like the sheriff to understand the motives, King and Maxwell may be experience with deranged monsters, but not a mimic like this one. They struggle with FBI agents, who are also trying, their way, to stop this aping serial killer before others die too.

The investigation is top rate as a tense police procedural that is heading no where merges with a powerful private investigate spin in which the “client” dies causing the case interconnection. King and Maxwell are a fabulous pairing but this time they have a more complex exciting plot to star in as they work through an intriguing battling family to determine if a member is the killer knowing that in a SPLIT SECOND they could be the next victims. David Baldacci is at the top of his thriller game with this fabulous tale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner