The Forgotten by David Baldacci

The Forgotten is David Baldacci’s second book featuring John Puller, the infallible military cop and takes up where Zero Day (previously reviewed on MRB) left off.

Puller is recovering from events of Zero Day when his father receives a concerning letter from Puller’s Aunt Betsy who lives in a small town named Paradise on the Florida panhandle.  She refers to mysterious happenings at night and people not being who they appear to be.  Puller goes to Paradise to visit his aunt and finds she is recently deceased.  She drowned in shallow water in her backyard pool but local police find no foul play.  Puller immediately finds other mysterious happenings and decides to use his professional skills to personally investigate.

Meanwhile, another man arrives in Paradise equal to Puller in physical stature.  Having illegally entered the country from Bulgaria, he does menial labor while clandestinely searching for his lost sister.  Working independently, the unlikely duo discovers a wealthy Paradise citizen may be involved in human trafficking.  Remembering his aunt’s warning that people are not who they appear to be, Puller doesn’t know who he can trust.  He even becomes suspicious of the local police.  After nosing around in unwelcome places Puller finds himself teamed up with the large Bulgarian and both are in serious danger.

I’ve commented before how hot and cold I am on Baldacci.  In The Forgotten, you can’t avoid the similarities between Baldacci’s John Puller character and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher character but in doing so Baldacci pales in comparison.  Once that judgment is assessed, all the other flaws quickly surface.  The story’s plausibility suffers, the character development seems weak and you begin to question Baldacci’s creativity.  Wasn’t Paradise, MA the setting from Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series?  Hmm…perhaps this book should be just...well…forgotten.