Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am a David Baldacci fan. I look forward to his new book releases. I pre-order my copy, mark my calendar, then devour the book the minute it drops into my library. Long Road to Mercy, with Atlee Pine, was very hard for me to get through. It finally sparked my interest at about 25% of the way through, but it took me days , not hours, to get to the finish line. The new character, Atlee Pine, and her Secretary, Carol Blum, work out of the small FBI office in Arizona. It is just the two women in this office but they are very proper with each other, pretty much knowing nothing about the other. So, there was no real chemistry during their interactions. Atlee herself was a pretty bland character. She is extremely strong, works out, lifts weights....and? I don't know. I like to get an image in my mind of the characters I read about. I just kept seeing She-Hulk, but flesh colored. I think she might have dark hair, I can't remember. Other characters introduced seemed very basic. I wasn't sure which ones were supposed to be important or vital to the story line. The setting was Arizona, the Grand Canyon, and there was road trip. It felt very 'blah'. The 'bad guys'... I wasn't really sure who they were until the end. Every character seemed to be someone Atlee shouldn't trust, but she did. I was waiting for an *Aha! " moment when they would turn on her. And it wasn't a good, suspenseful not knowing who the bad guy was. I was just confused. And people are dying and disappearing, but nobody seems to be looking for them. In the end, I just didn't feel the intrigue or suspense that I have come to expect and enjoy from Baldacci books. Something just felt off when the ending didn't feel like an ending. I gave Long Road to Mercy only 1 Star. I was very disappointed.