The Guilty by David Baldacci

"The Guilty" by David Baldacci. This book is published by MacMillan in Nov 2015 and has 352 pages. This is Book 5 of Will Robie series.

Will Robie, an assassin for CIA, executes a kill. The 4 year old daughter of the target is also killed by same shot, a collateral damage. Robie's estranged father is charged with murder. Robie decides to go to Mississippi, where he was separated from his teenage love, to investigate.

Why does he go to Mississippi? Will his father welcome him? What had happened to Laura, his highschool sweetheart? Is his father guilty? Are there more murders? Who is behind all this? How will it impact Robie?

The story is OK and mostly takes place in Cantrell, Mississippi. Will Robie is a sniper who works for CIA. However in this book he becomes a private detective investigating murder, blackmail, kidnapping etc while trying to absolve his father. As if that was not enough there is also an angle of serial killer thrown in. Thus, although the book is not bad, it diverts from the storyline of the series.

Although it's a domestic story (Story of Americans happening in America) it has four murders and a number of gun fight deaths. Bloody.

The characterization appears to be shallow. Characters of Dan Robie and Victoria are not fully developed. There are a number of minor loop holes like why Will does not meet Laura? Why there is no communication between father and son? Why nobody wags tongues in a small town upon disappearance of Barksdale family? Why become a serial killer?

The murderer was very obvious. I guessed it halfway through the book. Murderer was not concealed from readers cleverly though the second identity of murderer was concealed .

This book appears off the track. Not a must read.