Last Man Standing

By David Baldacci
Web London is an elite agent with the FBI’s hostage rescue team, set to engage a drug den near Washington DC. The raid involves an elaborate operation which has been coordinated over many months, facilitated by a deep undercover informant. Soon after the mission begins, the entire group is obliterated by laser activated heavy machine gun fire. All except for Web London, who inexplicably froze as the raid started. While Web was able to redeem himself by destroying the machine gun nests, it could hardly compensate for the death of the entire team. Web struggles internally and externally as he fights to come to grips with why he froze, and faces accusations of treason. Web begins seeing a therapist, and reconnects with friends to help him deal with his personal struggle. By pursuing the truth in what happened during the raid, Web gets himself into a variety of sticky situations that only luck and his extensive training, keep him alive. We are brought full force into his life, and the conflicts that plague him. We follow Web as he resolves his problems in spectacular military style.
The book introduces numerous characters, and provides background to Web’s life while detailing his current problems. While Web attempts to solve the mystery about what happened to Charlie team, an additional problem from his past presents itself. Web was previously involved in a raid on “The Free Society” lead by Ernest Free (Think David Karesh and Waco). Suddenly, key people from the trial of Ernest Free (two attorneys, a judge and more) are being murdered. The book continues to throttle on with many shootouts, hand to hand combat and illuminating surprises. You never know what might happen and it keeps you guessing until the end.
I must congratulate the author on his development of characters, and fully enveloping the reader in the story. The latter was further assisted by not deviating from the central plotline, and keeping the book moving. While this book was quite a few pages (500+), I didn’t feel that anything included was extraneous and it kept me interested. My few critiques of the book are as follows. While I like to have everything connected at the end of the story, I felt that this particular book did this too neatly. In an effort to not spoil the book for those who haven’t read it, I can’t say much more than that. The only other thing I can say that disappointed me about the book was the ending. I feel this is a constant complaint of mine for many of the books I review, but found comfort in the fact that many people (on Baldacci’s website) have asked for more books involving Web London so they can also get the finality they desire. I felt that some important loose ends, separate from the main story, still existed at the conclusion. I understand why these were not addressed, since the book was primarily about the assault and the secondary conflict with “The Free Society,” it may have been difficult to come back to the other extraneous issues.
Overall, I truly enjoyed reading this book. It was much different from most of the stuff I have read in the past, and especially different from the series I had just finished (The Fury). I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a Jason Bourne type of character with lots of action. I would definitely read another book by this author. Thank you Patti for the recommendation!
Rating: 4 out of 5 Bunsen Burners
Up Next: Timeline by Micheal Crichton