David Baldacci has written some of the most interesting novels that I’ve read, and I’ve read thousands of novels since my teen years. Only a few have kept me up all night because I had to see how they ended. The first, as I recall, was Herman Wouk’s, The Caine Mutiny, which I read when I was 16. I had to work that day at Lucky Stores, where I was a carry-out boy, but that didn’t matter. The book was that good.
As I ate my breakfast, I told my mother the story. Then I took a shower and went to work. I wanted to tell my co-workers about the book, but it was Saturday, the busiest day for a supermarket. However, there was a woman who drove a 1951 Studebaker, a car that really appealed to me although it was seven years old. We used to talk about her car whenever I carried her groceries for her. But, on that day, I told her about Mr. Wouk’s book. Baldacci’s two-volume work has had that same effect on me.
However, I question the wisdom of his presentation of the story. Why two books? It’s not like Hope Rises is Book II, and part of a series. And, it doesn’t read as if it is a sequel, although that is exactly what it is. To be honest, it is one story that stretches over two books.