Zero Day by David Baldacci: A thrilling dive into Mystery and Suspense

Even though Last Man Standing was almost 150 pages long it was still a gripping thriller for me that kept me hooked.

And the moment I finished it, I got up from the couch and straight away went to the bookstore to buy another David Baldacci book.

That day I bought Zero Day by David Baldacci and I will write about it in this blog post.

Zero Day is the 26th novel of David Baldacci but it is not a standalone novel rather it is the first novel of a series. Which one but?

Won't keep the suspense for long, Zero Day is the first novel in the John Puller series.

Released on 3rd October 2011, the genres that describe Zero Day are suspense, mystery, thriller, crime, and domestic fiction which has around 656 pages for you to read.

The novel Zero Day by David Baldacci features John Puller as a protagonist, the best investigator in the US Army's crime investigation division (CID).

John Puller is a combat veteran, an army war hero of Iraq and Afghanistan who has such special skills that his punch in the face wouldn't feel like an ordinary punch by a roadside boxer but it would be the end of time.

John Puller has a brother, Robert Puller, who is serving a life sentence in military prison for treason.

His father was an Army fighting legend but now he is showing signs of dementia.

But in a coal-mining town known as Drake, in West Virginia, Colonel Matthew Reynolds and his entire family are murdered.

What is more disturbing is that the kids are dead, and John Puller is assigned to investigate the murder.

Baldacci beautifully paints a backdrop for Puller by projecting that he is assigned missions that revolve around murders, and military conspiracies.

Puller while approaching Drake notices a concrete dome and when he visits the crime scene he meets a local officer in charge Samantha Cole (Sam) who stays with him throughout the storyline.

Apart from the colonel’s family, the officer who was supposed to be on duty is also murdered.

Puller investigates further and figures out that the killers returned to the crime scene for some unknown reason. He notices the mark of a tripod in front of the sofa to deduce that the family was interrogated before being slaughtered.

The colonel and his wife were killed by a shotgun but here’s a question that poses itself.

Why didn’t the neighbors hear the noise?

Samantha Cole has an answer for that as blasts were happening in the nearby mine that’s why. This redirected them to believe that the murderers had an idea of the timings of the blast.

Things turn really ugly when Sam and Puller discover the dead bodies of the neighbours who live across the street. Clearly they have been murdered and posed like the family of the colonel.

What is shocking is that they were killed using a method common in the Army Special Forces.

Puller and Cole soon realize that they were dealing with something sinister and clearly by meddling into the affairs of evil their own life is in danger.

But Puller is driven to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy supported by the righteous Samantha Cole.

As the story progresses and Cole and Puller goes deep into the investigation, they find layers of deception and hidden lies.

But Puller won't leave any stones unturned in order to unveil the truth behind this intricate conspiracy that is thriving in the coal mining town of Drake.

Zero Day Review

Zero Day has a goodreads rating of 4.06 / 5 with 81228 ratings and 4.2 / 5 on Amazon.

While Zero Day has a gripping storyline that keeps you on its pages but it is cliché filled.

If anyone has read ‘Killing Floor’ the first novel by Lee Child you will find a striking similarity between the development of characters of the two novels.

Speaking of which John Puller is Jack Reacher except Jack Reacher's father is no more and his brother died in Killing Floor itself.

John Puller does seem like a loner like Jack Reacher who had military training.

They both are tall, heavily built and strong enough to take on a gang of at least 6 dangerous assassins at a time.

Consider yourself fortunate if you haven’t read Jack Reacher yet before you picked up Zero Day to read (which is quite unlikely for a chap who has been reading fiction for a while) because you wouldn't be suppressing that feeling of ‘why I am reading John Puller adventures when I already have Jack Reacher as a defined hero with similar background and skills in my head?’

But here is where the story of Zero Day comes into the picture which is gripping, has enough places to give you an adrenaline rush.

The partnership of Puller and Samantha Cole is something you will enjoy, and Baldacci's swift writing creates that desire in you to find out the truth behind the murders of the colonel and his family and the bodies that start to drop post that.

You become quite desperate and charged to know the secrets hidden beneath the ground of Drake and Baldacci makes you look as if these secrets are more than the coal being mined in the town.

Honestly speaking that's the main USP of this novel Zero Day which is going to make you turn at least 50 pages in one sitting.

Baldacci's description of the West Virginian town of Drake and its structures such as the concrete dome make you visualize Drake that makes it easy to immerse yourself into the story.

Unlike his other plots, Baldacci has mainly focused on the core of the plot rather than coming up with multiple conspiracies in support and this is actually good because the main plot itself is intricate.

But the novel has more than 600 pages for you to read as Baldacci gives a lot of history and background in several scenes thus stretching the chapters. However, inconsequential details that he provides open the course for several subplots but they feel a little bit interfering.

This is where Baldacci's writing in Zero Day feels wooden and you crave to get back to the main storyline.

In effect, Zero Day is good for those readers who are a fan of stories that involve military investigations, where security of the world is at stake and in the end the entire humanity is saved by a larger than life individual such as Ethan Hunt in all the Mission Impossible movies.

Overall, Zero Day is a good read but it is not a 5 star masterpiece by David Baldacci because it could have been so much better.

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