The Target

Will Robie, Book 3

By: David Baldacci

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy, Ron McLarty

From the Sunday Times number one best-selling author

Will Robie, from The Innocent and The Hit, returns in his toughest mission to date. A time to kill - or a time to die?

The mission is to enter one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The target is one of the toughest to reach. The result could be momentous - or it could be Armageddon. There is no margin for error.

US government operatives Will Robie and Jessica Reel have to prove they are still the best team there is. But are they invincible when pitted against an agent whose training has been under conditions where most would perish?

An old man is dying in an Alabama prison hospital, it seems there is one more evil game he has still to play. And it's a game which comes close to home for Reel and Robie. But this time the stakes might be way too high.

©2014 David Baldacci (P)2014 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Critic reviews

"David Baldacci has long proved one of the most accomplished of American thriller writers and has dabbled in a variety of genres…As ever Baldacci keeps things moving at express-train speed..this one will whet appetites for the next appearance of his agent hero" ( Daily Express)

Best Will Robie book. Very Entertaining.

Well I'll keep it short this time. After the second Will Robie book "The Hit", it was safe to assume that we will see more of Jessica Reel. And to make one thing clear: that's a good thing. The two characters simply work well together and dragging a 15-year old teenager (the character "Julie" introduced in "The Innocent") around as a potential victim wouldn't have worked indefinitely anyway.
However that brings me back to a deficit that plagues many authors who write a large amount of books and/or different series: the main characters become too similar, and the stories tend to show a pattern. That's also true this time to an extent. Will and Jessica in many respects have become similar to Sean (King) and Michelle (Maxwell) and the story basically is something that could have happened to them as well. Without saying too much: If I remember correctly the ones who become a target in this book once were a target in one of the King and Maxwell books as well ;-)
What I especially liked, was the author's focus on the North Korean assassin and her life. That decidedly made the story better and had a nice "two sides of a coin" feel to it.
So if you like Baldacci I believe you will be well entertained this time too. The story is fast paced, shows some nice twists (and one strange twist, as well as some things that could have been a little less obvious) and has an interesting sub plot that gives some background knowledge about Jessica's past. As with King and Maxwell the male character's past remains largely obscure.
Performance is great as always. Orlagh Cassidy and Ron McLarty make the story come alive very nicely and I also like the sound effects thrown in from time to time.

It seems I didn't keep it short after all but I hope this helps you decide.
Have fun

First two were way better

What made the experience of listening to The Target the most enjoyable?

I liked the narrators. They're always great.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Didn't really like it. As if the author didn't have enough ideas.

Have you listened to any of Orlagh Cassidy and Ron McLarty ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I always found them very good.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No.

Any additional comments?

Well, Will Robbie series was the one of three I was the most fond of. But the third book is just too much of a mix of stories...At least one was too many. I love thick stories, believable characters, but Baldacci did that in less words and more persuasive in first two books.
Also, Jessica's character wasn't as firm as in second book (I don't mean firm as in tough, but in believable).
This was the first book I preordered. And I am disappointed.

Thrilling!

Another thrilling Baldacci story! After finishing it, I felt I had listened to two books, so intelligently interwoven. A great listen, well performed.

Another Edge of seat

absolutely loved this book also, I have found all David Baldacci's books keep me on the edge of my seat, all the twists and turns throughout even at the last minute are excellent

Pushes credulity too far

Baldacci stories always push the boundaries of credulity to the limit - and the first two Robie stories most of all - but this goes way too far. It's also poorly put together, with two separate stories that have no overlap other than the highly contrived. There's also way too much unnecessary back story on the North Korean side - and when those characters hit US soil the story just gets even more painful. These narrators are always decent but htere wasn't much they could do with this, I feel sorry for them. Oh and the sound effects are always highly unnecessary but they seemed particularly grating this time.