Walk The Wire, David Baldacci, author; Kyf Brewer, Orlagh Cassidy, narrators
The best part of this book, for me, was its audio presentation. The plot was thin requiring several themes to create the story. However, the narrators portrayed each character so well that it was easy to know who was speaking at any given time. That is a feat worth praising.
Jamison and Decker fly out to London, North Dakota, a town that is best known for its fracking industry. In addition, there is a community there which is run by the Anabaptists, a religious sect similar to the Amish, but they live with modern technology. Adjacent to their community, there is a small classified military installation that used to be far larger, occupying the land the community and oil industry now does.
When the body of a woman, murdered and brutally dissected, is discovered, the FBI is sent to investigate, but no one, not even Jamison or Decker understand why they have been called in to investigate this murder. Two families basically own London. One is the McClellans and one is the Dawsons. One was in the oil business and the other in the greater development of London. Each family in the story has secrets and each is scarred by them. It is through these interrelationships, however, that the story develops its many tentacles.
After the first murder is discovered in this town with no history of murders, it is followed by another. Soon murders and suspects pile up, yet there is no appreciable success in solving the crimes. There doesn’t seem to be one motive to wrap their arms around. In the end, there are several mysteries evolving. One concerns greed driven treason and terrorism, another is about a secret black ops prison being run by rogue individuals, and a third is jealousy which becomes more complicated because the jealousy involves rivalry, and alternate lifestyles that complicate the matter. When clues are discovered, they cause misdirection and further confusion.
It was somewhat dismaying to keep reading a book without the satisfaction of even figuring out even one part of the plot. As The FBI and other secret security agents are involved, it grows more complicated. The story is disjointed because there are so many parts and their reason is elusive. Solving one does not lead to a solution of another.
Why is there a secret facility in the middle of the Anabaptist community that should have been shut down years before? What is its current purpose? Why is there a secret prison there? Why is the Anabaptist’s teacher and former resident murdered? Is there a connection? Soon, there are so many unresolved themes which are so unrelated, it requires the author to completely knit the threads together in the end.
It wasn’t my favorite Baldacci, but it was still a decent read.