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.

A nice quiet holiday by Aditya Sudarshan

"A nice quiet holiday" a debut novel by Aditya Sudarshan. This is a murder mystery.

Anant, the narrator and a young lawyer, works as law cleark to Justice Shinde. Shinde decides to take Anant with him to a nice quiet holiday, in the mountains, to Bhairavgadh at his friend Shikhar Pant's house. A number of guests are invited. Pant's  writer cousin (Kailash), a couple (Mittal's) who run a NGO for AIDS, Pant's friend (Mr. Anand) with his young son (Avinash) & Pant's family  homeopath (Dr. Nath) with his two sons and young beautiful daughter (Mallika). There are two servants and a dog in the house in addition to this ensemble.

There is a public unrest against the NGO for publishing obscene material. Kailash's influence avoids arrest of Mittal's. Then Kailash is murdered. The judge encourages Anant to become amateur investigator. He startes investigating and at the same time is smitten by Mallika's charms.

A book goes missing with other unrelated things, children who are playing hide and seek give a clue, there is a blackmailer, there seems to be no motive for murder. Anant stumbles and fumbles trying to find clues and reports to the judge.

Who is the murderer? Is he in the house? Is there another murder? How is the murderer identified? What role does the judge play?

In a murder mystery you expect at least some and preferably many twists. Needle of suspicion should always be pointing to someone and change as the story goes. In this story, no one is a suspect. You hardly feel that an investigation is ongoing.

Love story takes front seat in one section over mystery. Story is slow and uninteresting. Motive for murder is also not very convincing. Book doesn't end for a while, even after the murderer is caught and motives and deductions are explained.

The book is insipid. Avoid.