Book Review: Hope Rises, David Baldacci

Perhaps this book should have been called Hope Dashed. I really enjoyed the first in this series, and went straight into reading the sequel. Sadly, it felt like this was a book too far – it would have been better to add one more chapter to the previous book: kill master criminal Victoria Steers to avenge his daughter’s death; kill Rhett Temple for having an affair with Nash’s wife – revenge achieved. Instead, we endure a book where the author tries to convince us that, despite all her violence and fearsome reputation in the first book, Victoria is just misunderstood and damaged by tough parenting.

I was hoping that there would be a swift and devastating conclusion to the previous plot, with revenge exacted quite understandably by Nash, giving his cosy life was ruined by Steers and Temple. And then, I imagined Nash continuing as a special agent for the FBI, combining his high intelligence and attention to detail with new lethal skills, learned during his transformation into Dillon Hope.

Instead, the story followed an unlikely redemption arc, which was as long as it was unsatisfying.

⭐⭐

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