The Fix by David Baldacci (Amos Decker #3)

The Fix by David Baldacci

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jacket Blurb: Amos Decker witnesses a murder just outside FBI headquarters. A man shoots a woman execution style on a crowded sidewalk, then turns the gun on himself.

Even with Decker's extraordinary powers of observation and deduction, the killing is baffling. Decker and his team can find absolutely no connection between the shooter - a family man with a successful consulting business - and his victim, a schoolteacher. Nor is there a hint of any possible motive for the attack.

Enter Harper Brown. An agent of the Defense Intelligence Agency, she orders Decker to back off the case. The murder is part of an open DIA investigation, one so classified that Decker and his team aren't cleared for it.

But they learn that the DIA believes solving the murder is now a matter of urgent national security. Critical information may have been leaked to a hostile government - or, worse, an international terrorist group - and an attack may be imminent.

Decker's never been one to follow the rules, especially with the stakes so high. Forced into an uneasy alliance with Agent Brown, Decker remains laser focused on only one goal: solving the case before it's too late.

Read as an audio book.

Premise of the book is the newly formed FBI task force of agents and citizens has been re-located from Quantico to Washington DC, and Decker is not exactly thrilled about this. Alex has taken the liberty of securing housing for her and Amos, neglecting to tell Decker that this was a project in conjunction with Melvin Mars (book #2). Meanwhile, the Task Force has been shifted away from cold cases and was put on a murder that, ironically, Decker witnessed. As the team investigates, they begin to realize what seemed to be a straight-up murder-suicide was a lot more complicated involving international espionage.

I enjoyed this installment with a couple of caveats:

I swear, the next time someone in any mystery whines "I don't understand!" I am going to toss the book out the window.

I did not care for Alex in this installment. It seemed like every time a page turned, she was irritated at Decker for this, that or the other thing. I found her protectiveness of Melvin as he starts to date Harper to be unrealistic - while the group got to know each other in book 2, I didn't feel the relationship had developed to the point where she should be telling Melvin's prospective dates to back off.

I also didn't think it was realistic in how quickly Melvin was brought into the group and the case, when all along Harper is preaching "Top! Secret! Clearance!".

The bit with the tenant being caught up in some Mexican cartel activity was wrapped up a bit to quickly, almost as if the author realized it was getting in the way of the main story.

And the Dabney (spelling?) girls/women were annoying as all get out - but this could be attributed to the narrator, who, kudos, at least made them sound like spoiled rich women.

My minor quirks taken care of, I will say really liked this installment: I enjoyed the group dynamics and how the team acted like a team, how Decker was feeling pressure to solve a case because he had the perfect recall, and the twists and turns the mystery took were quite enjoyable. And yes, at the end it's Decker who puts all the pieces together to save the day because that's what Decker does.

Recommended - but definitely start with book #1 if you haven't done so already.




View all my reviews