Zero Day [Hardcover]

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Zero Day [Hardcover]

Product Details

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1St Edition edition (October 31, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446573019
ISBN-13: 978-0446573016
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

By : David Baldacci
List Price : ~~$27.99~~
Price : $16.32
You Save : $11.67 (42%)

Customer Reviews

I just read this book about 30 days ago, except it was written by Lee Child. His latest just released Reacher novel, titled "The Affair". I thought the reviewers were mistaken about Balducci's "Zero Day" being a knockoff...but they weren't! Unfortunately, I pre-ordered Zero Day without looking into it.
Pretty much the same lead character, a military killing, a small southern town, understaffed investigation, and a local female sheriff to partner with. The only thing different were the bad guys, and their evil ways.
So it didn't do much for me, as I just read the Child book first. Had I not, it would have been just an OK read.
For the military-lawyer/investigator genre, my hands down favorite author is Brian Haig, and his six Sean Drummond novels.

I just don't buy into the Lee Child - Jack Reacher clone idea. If I wrote the book, sure, call your lawyer, Lee - I'm not creative enough to think of such a good plot. But Baldacci made his bones a LONG time ago. He has a long track record of superior writing. Every now and then, there will be some plot overlap within genres, and thrillers are no exception.
Zero Day is written with all of Baldacci's usual skill and perhaps even a little bit more energetic dialogue.
The novel is set in the coal fields of West Virginia. That's my home. And so I look at this with an unusually critical eye for accuracy as will was for perceptions of disrespect - Believe me, West Virginians are REALLY touchy.
I hit the annoyance button on both accuracy and respect, but I'm not sure if that's fair. If I read something set in, say, Washington State, I won't know what's true and what's not, because I've never been there. That doesn't keep me from enjoying the book.
Coal mining is a background theme of Zero Day. The health effects of mining are made up from whole cloth. For instance, there's no explosion of childhood cancer rates around coal mining. This not say that coal mining is good for you - the effects are simply more subtle and some would say more insidious. Baldacci suggests that surface mining does not take place because of extraction costs but because it uses fewer workers. That one is just a head-scratcher - it's all about money. And Baldacci seems to think that it's hard to find coal. Nope, not even. It's not like the old oil and gas wildcatter days when the developer took a chance on a dry hole. Coal seams are very well know, and the development work is about the details of extraction.
And Zero Day's portrayal of West Virginia is, well, fictional. "Moonshine stills" are not a significant law enforcement problem. There are no little mountain lions hopping about in the woods. What I took the most umbrage to was dialogue by a minor character who was removing personal property from the home of someone who had just died: "A lot of folks around here ain't got nothing. They find out you died and ain't got no relations, your stuff's gone before you know it." If I say that about the character of the people in your neighborhood, I'm hoping that you would be peeved. That may happen here, as elsewhere, but it certainly isn't a cultural trait or a common practice.
But to apply my own rubric, there's nothing that takes Zero Day below five stars. It's plot, characters and action are every bit on a par with Baldacci's prior works.
But, Jeez, Dave, next time pick on Ohio or New York, OK?