BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
-Print: COPYRIGHT ©: 7/12/2022; ISBN 978-1538719848; PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing; First edition; PAGES: 432; UNABRIDGED (Hardcover Info from Amazon)
-Digital: COPYRIGHT ©: 7/12/2022; PUBLISHER: ISBN: 9781538739792; Grand Central Publishing; PAGES: 593; UNABRIDGED (Kindle Info from Amazon and eBook)
*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: 7/12/2022; PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing; DURATION: 11 hours, 48 minutes; Unabridged; (Audible Info from Amazon/Audible)
-Feature Film or tv: No.

SERIES: 6:20 Man #1

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Travis Devine – Formerly an Army Captain & Ranger, now working at an investment firm.
Sara Ewes – A fellow employee of Travis’s whom he met in school
Bradley (Brad) Cowl – Owner of the Cowl and Comely investment firm
Karl Hancock – Investigating a murder
Will Valentine – Travis’s roommate
Helen Speers - Travis’s roommate
Jill Tapshaw - Travis’s roommate
Emerson Campbell – Retired Army two-star General
Roy Blankenship – deceased Army Lieutenant
Kenneth Hawkins – deceased Army Captain
Jennifer Stamos – A fellow employee at Cowl and Comely
Michelle Montgomery –Brad Cowl’s beautiful blonde companion that, after viewing her at her swimming pool on several occasions from the train, Travis eventually meets.
Ralph Shoemaker – NYPD detective
Paul Ekman - NYPD detective
Christian Fullerton Chilton – Michelle’s friend from her youth, and an investor.

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED. Don selected this title from Audible. We started to listen to it in the car but he lost interest, so I listened to it later on my own.
-ABOUT: Travis Devine, a former Army Captain, commutes to a new job at an investment firm, Cowl & Comely, via the 6:20 train, that makes a stop that views Brad Cowl’s large home and swimming pool, and notices that he’s not the only one on the train captivated by the beautiful blonde engaged in her morning swim routine. When he receives an anonymous email about a murder scene on the 52nd floor of his building of employment, he goes to investigate, thereby becoming a prime suspect.
-OVERALL OPINION: I’ve been meaning to get back to a Baldacci novel since “Absolute Power,” and I’m glad I finally did.

AUTHOR:
David Baldacci:
(From Wikipedia)
“David Baldacci Ford (born August 5, 1960) is an American novelist. An attorney by education, Baldacci writes mainly suspense novels and legal thrillers.[1]
David Baldacci was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from Henrico High School and earned a B.A. in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, after which he practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C. He is of Italian descent.
Baldacci began writing stories as a child, when his mother gave him a notebook in which to record them.[2] He wrote for more than two decades, penning short stories and later screenplays without much success.[3]
While practicing law, he turned to novel writing, taking three years to write Absolute Power.[4] Published in 1996, it was sold internationally. To date, Baldacci has published 46 novels for adults as well as seven novels for younger readers.”

NARRATOR:
Zachary Webber, Christine Lakin, Mela Lee:
-Zachary Webber: (From IMDb)
“Zachary Webber was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Paul Webber, a professor of quantitative finance and mathematics, and Tammara Webber, a novelist. He is a graduate of New York University. He performed on many stages in New York City while a student, including Radio City Music Hall, The Harlem School of the Arts, Upright Citizens Brigade, and PS 122. His film work includes In a Relationship (2015) with Dakota Johnson, Ithaca (2015) with Sam Shepard, Running Wild (2015), and Shut Up and Drive (2015). He is a member of the online sketch comedy group Sasquatch with Jack Quaid, Danny Jolles, and Nick Williams.”
-Christine Lakin (Excerpt from IMDb)
“Christine Helen Lakin was born on January 25th, 1979 in Dallas, Texas. After moving several times as a child, her family finally settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where Christine started her acting career. There, she attended the Atlanta workshop players - a theater group which plays in schools in the Atlanta metro area. Her first audition was for a TV-commercial - "Got Milk?!", and after not getting that job, she didn't have to wait long for her next opportunity, which was the part as the young Rose in the civil-war flick The Rose and the Jackal (1990), which also starred Christopher Reeve. In 1991, she took her first step towards big fame and landed the role as the tomboyish Al on the Friday night hit Step by Step (1991).”
-Mela Lee (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
Mela Lee is an American voice actress based in Los Angeles who voices characters on a number of animated series, films, television shows and video games. She is best known as the voice of Jade in Mortal Kombat 11. In anime, she voices lead characters Rin Tosaka, in Fate/stay night as well as Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works and the film trilogy Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel; Yuki Cross in Vampire Knight; Shinku the fifth Rozen Maiden doll in Rozen Maiden; and Erica Karisawa in the Durarara!! series, which was broadcast on Adult Swim. In animation, she is the voice of Tikki in Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, which airs on Disney Channel, Disney+ and Netflix, and Kikimora in The Owl House. In video games, she voices Lifeline in Apex Legends, Rena Ryūgū in Higurashi When They Cry, Rachel Alucard in the BlazBlue series, Tiki in the Fire Emblem series and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and Sharon Kreuger and Scarlet in The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series.

GENRE:
Thriller; Fiction; Mystery; Crime; Suspense

TIME FRAME:
2021

LOCATION:
Mount Kisco, NY; Manhattan, NY

SUBJECTS:
Money laundering; Investment Firms; Murder; Self-defense; Romance; Economic class distinction

DEDICATION:
“To Anthony Forbes Watson, my brilliant UK publisher and dear friend. You taught me a lot during our time together, and not just about books and publishing, but about great French wines and important moral philosophies. Wherever your future path takes you, I will be cheering you on. And our friendship will endure, as all true friendships do.”.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From “Chapter 1”
“Devine’s birth had clearly been a mistake. Whether his father forgot the condom or his mother didn’t realize she was ovulating and failed to keep her lustful man at bay, out he had popped and pissed off everybody in his family. His mother went back to work immediately at his father’s thriving dental practice in Connecticut, where she was a hygienist. He’d learned this later, of course, but maybe he’d also sensed his parents’ indifference to him as an infant. That indifference had turned to fury when Devine was a senior in high school.
That was when he’d been accepted into West Point.
His father had roared, “Playing soldier instead of going out into the world and earning a living? Well, boy, you are off the family payroll starting now. Your mother and I don’t deserve this crap.”
However, he’d found his place in the world of the military. After graduating from West Point he’d gone through the arduous Ranger School, passing the crawl, walk, and run tests, which was how the three phases were described. By far the hardest part had been sleep deprivation. He and his comrades had literally fallen unconscious while standing up. He’d later qualified to become a member of the elite Seventy-Fifth Ranger Regiment. That had been even tougher than Ranger School, but he had loved the special forces and the dangerous and demanding quick-strike missions that came with being a member.
These were serious accomplishments and he had written to his parents about them, hoping for some praise. He had never heard back from his mother. His father had sent an email asking him what national park he would be assigned to now that he was a ranger. He had signed the email, “Proud father of Smokey the Bear.” He might have assumed his dad was utilizing his sense of humor, only he knew his father didn’t have one.
Devine had earned twin Purples, a Silver Star, and a slew of other bits of metal and ribbons. In the world of the Army, he was known as a combat stud. He would only term himself a survivor.
He had gone into uniform as a boy and come out as a war machine. Six foot one and one-quarter inches, as the Army had precisely measured him, he had entered West Point a lanky 180 pounds of average physique. Then the Army, and his own determination, had transformed him into 225 pounds of bone, muscle, and gristle. His grip was like the jaws of a croc; his stamina was off the charts; his skills at killing and not being killed placed him at the top of the food chain with orcas and great whites.
He’d risen to Captain right on schedule and had worn the twin silver bars proudly, but then Devine had called it quits because he had to. It had torn him up back then. It still tore him up. He was an Army man through and through, until he could be one no longer. Yet it was a decision he had to make.
After that he had sat in an apartment for a month wondering what to do, while old comrades phoned, emailed, and texted, asking him what the hell was he doing leaving the uniform. He had not gotten back to any of them. He had nothing he could say to them. A leader who had never had an issue giving orders and being in command, he couldn’t find the words to explain what he had done.
He did have the Post-9/11 GI Bill to help him. It paid for a full ride to an in-state public university. It seemed a fair trade-off for nearly dying for his country. He’d gotten his MBA that way.
He was the oldest person in his class at Cowl and Comely, the minted powerhouse investment firm where he worked at an entry-level analyst position. When he’d applied at Cowl, he knew they had looked upon him with suspicion because of his age and unusual background. They had outwardly thanked him for his military service, because that was always automatic. But they probably had to fill a veterans quota, and he was it. He didn’t care why they had picked him so long as he got a shot to make himself as miserable as possible.
Yes, he thought, as he stared out the window. As miserable as possible.
He had tried later trains into the city, but there were too many suits on board just like him, heading to work, heading to war. He needed to get there first, because whoever got there first, with the most, often was victorious. The military had also taught him that.
And so he stepped onto the 6:20 train every morning, and traveled to the city as punishment. And as much as he hated the work and the life that came with it, that penance would never manage to match his crime.”

RATING:.
4

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
9-22-2023 to 9-28-2023

Don learned from something he read somewhere that this novel is quite popular, so he suggested we get it. I explained we already have it, but he'd lost interest early on. We gave it another go, and he liked it, so then we downloaded the sequel, "The Edge".
I liked it the second time around as well.
3/15/2024 - 3/23/2024 ( )

I've read quite a few novels by David Baldacci. This one returns us to his "thriller" format with Travis Devine being a former Army Ranger turned entry-level financial analyst. When Travis's co-worker, Sarah Ewes, is found dead in the building, it sets off a chain of events that leads to quite a large body count.

One of the things I like to do is figure out how the title relates to the book--in this case the 6:20 refers to the train that Travis took in to the office 6 days a week. We'll have to see if it develops additional meaning in future books of the series.

Not that it matters much in the end, because of what happens to the firm, but I was a bit surprised that Travis didn't get called out for how much time he took away from the office while he was investigating given how much was made about the people at his level needing to have their nose to the grindstone to be retained. ( )

A fast pace thriller in a new series. I enjoyed the book borrowed from the local public library in 2022 as a light escape from my more formal historical reading. ( )

This fast pace thriller is a new series but follows the complicate twist plot that David Balducci is good at. I enjoyed the book and the character is well layout. The redemption/second chance is heavy and center in the book. ( )

Suspense