Dream Town, Book 3; David Baldacci, author; Edoardo Ballerini, narrator
Archer is a character that is easy to love. He is very engaging and is sometimes described as a “boy scout”, because he is a kind, sincere, moral and considerate man driven by a need to do good, or to do right by people. He has a really good friend Liberty Callahan, an aspiring actress. When he goes to visit her in Los Angeles, he gets sucked into a cryptic murder investigation.
Archer escorts Liberty to a swanky party with the rich and famous. There, he meets her friend, Eleanor Lamb. When she finds out Archer is a private investigator, she hires him and promises to give him a retainer the following day at her office. She has been getting strange phone calls and thinks that someone is trying to harm her. When Archer tries to call her and she doesn’t answer, he fears for he safety and visits her home. He breaks in and trips over a body, but she is nowhere to be found. Instead, he finds that his own life is in danger. Suddenly, this woman is missing, and Archer wonders if her premonitions of danger were real.
As he investigates, he discovers secrets and lies, corruption and decadence. The town seems to thrive on it. Liberty constantly worries about his safety and Archer worries about her. The search for Ellie leads him into Chinatown and a place called The Jade. It is a place where unsavory people hang out with the rich and famous who are indebted to them. It is a place that conducts many clandestine operations. Drugs, human trafficking, cops on the take and all sorts of other unsavory people enter the picture, some with names the reader will recognize.
Does anyone Archer meets tell the truth? Do they all have secrets and double lives? This is the fifties. Women and men are not equal. McCarthy is looking for Communists. Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky are taking over Las Vegas. The author has really captured the tone of the times. The narrative, the descriptions, the banter all feel very authentic.
The narrator of this book does an admirable job, although several of the women do have the same voice, making it hard to discern which one is speaking at times. However, the mystery unfolds steadily and never gets dull. I look forward to the next book in this series and the next chapter of Archer’s life. He seems to have nine lives and is a character that many will want to follow.

Archer book. OK story. Lots going on. Not my favorite Baldacci character.