The Innocent, by David Baldacci

I keep seeing David Baldacci books at the grocery store literature shelf so I thought I'd give him a try.  I don't like most of the regular authors I see there such as Clive Cussler, Janet Evanovich and James Patterson, but I do like some like Stephen King.

I started with The Innocent because it is supposed to be one of his best. While it is an easy read with likable characters, the plot structure was all messed up. The book is about a contract killer for the U.S. government who refuses to kill one of his assignments which makes his organization turn on him.  This is the first plot point but it occurs at about the 15% mark instead of the usual 20-25%. After this, there are no major revelations or other plot points until the 90% mark when the hero figures out what is going on. The last 10% is a mad rush to stop the bad guys and tie up all the loose ends. This last part is exhilarating, but it should have been spread out over the last 25% or even the last 50% of the book. The middle suffered from not enough progress and the end had too much.

This book just reinforces my belief that a four-part structure with set-up, response, attack and resolution are key for an entertaining story which keeps the reader interested for the entire novel.