Let me make a general remark first. Contemporary American writers lack the subtlety of writing a good piece of prose with a strong control over the storyline. They can be labelled as good story-tellers but not good novelists. (No, I'm not British and yes, Stephen King is an exception).Now, this was my first Baldacci and he holds true to my above remark. Very poor character configuration, no scene-settings at all, and above all, a very predictable ending. As for the storyline, well, it was all too bald. My first impression about Baldacci? Another storyteller in wake of so many getting advantage of a huge readership which is not introduced to intricacies of a novel yet.