Book Review: The Fallen by David Baldacci

In The Fallen, we return to one of our favorite characters by David Baldacci, Amos Decker. This time around, Amos and his friend, Alex Jamison, are in the small and forgotten town of Baronville visiting Alex’s family.

For the latecomers to this series, reading the David Baldacci books in order for this series is recommended. Not a must, but recommended.

You’ll get to learn the tragic past Amos is trying to put behind him and move on. You’ll learn about his special abilities and how he deals with them. You’ll also get to know the complex and larger-than-life character that is Amos Decker.

After all that Amos has been through, he badly needed a break. So he let himself get convinced that a vacation is exactly what he should take. Thus his trip to the tiny and rather decrepit town of Baronville, where Alex, his journalist friend, has some family.

Soon after they arrive, one night Amos is out on the terrace when he sees and hears something strange. Now, this is why reading the previous books is so important because you’ll learn about his particular sharp senses and will understand what is going on much easier.

Suffice to say, once a cop, always a cop, and Amos, who is now working in a special task force for the FBI, can’t leave the strange things he saw around a neighbor’s home alone. So he goes to investigate. And what he finds there will bring his holiday crashing down around him with force.

Even though Amos is on vacation, he has to help solve the crimes and generally becomes a nuisance to the local PD which doesn’t want him too close to those murders. And the more he investigates, the stranger things he comes across. That small town has some serious secrets, and there are those people who would do everything to keep them from being revealed, even if it includes murder.

Besides the action-packed story, it was also interesting to read about those small American towns that have been left to rot. People are moving away, businesses are closing, and the place becomes ripe for major drug deal operations to take firm hold.

Amos Decker is probably one of Baldacci’s most complex characters. He is truly a big guy (I often had flashes of Jack Reacher while reading the book, although the two characters are very different) and when it comes to danger, he is not afraid. All he wants is to solve the case if there is one to be solved.

The story itself was complex as well. There were, in fact, a few parallel storylines going in the book, and, at times, I had trouble keeping them apart. There were really a lot of things going on compared to the shadow of a town that the place has become over the years. But, I guess, if you’re searching for trouble and poking the bee’s nest, you will definitely find it.

I liked the character of John Barron, the last living survivor of the family that literally created that town (hence the town’s name as well). He was really like a real gem compared to the rest of the angry and vengeful population. I wouldn’t mind seeing him make an appearance in some later book. His wit and charm captivated my attention.

And now that I’ve read the latest book of this series and all the previous series as well, I can’t wait until I read the next David Baldacci book that comes out towards the end of this year: Long Road to Mercy, which is the first in a new thriller series featuring Atlee Pine, an FBI with his own demons to deal with.

The Fallen by David Baldacci
Series: Amos Decker #4
Published By: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2018
Genres: Crime mystery
Source: Purchased
Also by this author: King and Maxwell, No Man’s Land, End Game