A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT

5 stars out of 5

Have I mentioned that I really like this new series? Why yes - yes I did - when I read the first one last year. To that one I gave a resounding 5-star rating, and if anything, I enjoyed this one even more.

Atlee, a tall weightlifter now an FBI agent based in a relatively remote part of Arizona, has been on a 30-year quest to find out what really happened to her twin sister, Mercy. In the night back then, someone came into their bedroom, snatched Mercy and gave Atlee a whack on the head that nearly killed her. So far, her efforts to learn anything more about Mercy have led to dead ends; but now, she's got to ratchet up her search a few notches because she lost her cool on the job by unnecessarily beating up a killer she's just captured (and if she does that again, she'll lose her job as well).

Advised (make that ordered) to take some time off, Atlee and her very capable assistant Carol Blum head to Andersonville, Georgia, and the now-old house from which Mercy was taken all those years ago. Their father is dead - a declared suicide - and their mother inexplicably took off for parts unknown to Atlee. Not long after they arrive, though, a local woman is found dead - murdered, positioned and dressed in a ritualistic fashion. A Georgia FBI guy is called in for the official investigation, but shorthanded, he welcomes Atlee's help. Then, another murder happens with a similar M.O. Could it be there's a serial killer on the loose?

At that point, another FBI guy arrives to help; turns out he and Atlee have a history that wasn't all that pleasant for either of them. As they try to overcome their history and work together on the murder cases, Atlee continues to collect information on what happened to her family (with a little help from the very sympathetic FBI guys). Interviews with local folks who knew the family back then unearth new leads as well as the surprising awareness that not everything Atlee has been told was the absoute truth - some of it not even close.

It all builds to an exciting ending as well as, of course, enough loose ends to get a good start on the next book. And that, hopefully, will not be long in coming.

A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, November 2019); 433 pp.