Title: Daylight (Atlee Pine #3)
Author: David Baldacci
Published on: 17 November 2020
Genre: Mystery and Thrillers
Daylight is the third book in David Baldacci’s Atlee Pine series. This book can be read as a standalone.
Atlee Pine is still ‘on-leave’ from FBI. Atlee, along with her assistant, Carol, are trying to find Atlee’s missing twin Mercy. Mercy was snatched by an unknown assailant decades ago. Soon after the incident, Atlee’s dad ended his life while her mum disappeared. Atlee learns of the CIA connection her mum had. In the process of searching for her lost twin, Atlee ends up solving a few cases.
I must say I was really excited when John Puller made his appearance – it’s more of a two alphabet agency peeps asking each other to drop their weapons, only to realize they are the good guys.
We have the angle of drugs and murders, along with Atlee’s search for Ito Vincenzo, the man who went missing soon after her sister’s kidnapping. Is Mercy alive? Only Ito knows the answer to this question but he’s nowhere to be found.
As Pine and Puller start to investigate, they are stalled – mostly by bureaucrats, thus proving Atlee’s doubt there’s a mole in the alphabet agency. Deceit, cover-ups and lies, Atlee Pine and John Puller have a tough time chasing as well as saving themselves from the bad guys.
Since this is a David Baldacci novel, it is pretty obvious the storytelling is fantastic. I liked the twist halfway through. We also have another twist just before the ending – not a cliffhanger, though. In the second half, we see Atlee come across a vital clue that leads her one step closer to her missing twin.
The character development is impressive. Having said that, I am not a fan of crossovers. I believe the story would have been even interesting if we had let just Atlee Pine steal the spotlight. Don’t get me wrong, John Puller is good too (and a lot similar to Lee Child’s Jack Reacher) but he doesn’t have to be a hero… always!
Daylight was no doubt an engrossing and thrilling read. I am looking forward to catch up on the series.
I received an ARC from Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
The Book Decoder 
I’m such a fan of his writing but I haven’t read this series. Thank you for sharing it! 😊