Nearly thirty years have passed since Atlee Pine has known what happened to her twin sister, Mercy, the night she was left for dead. The more time goes by, the more the story weighs on her…
In A Minute to Midnight, published in paperback by Talent Editions last June, Atlee will investigate her past, finally get some answers, and perhaps exorcise her demons. With this title, David Baldacci offers us a second installment that is more psychological and personal than Long Road to Mercy.
It has been thirty years since Atlee has questioned that fateful night, thirty years since she keeps seeing an image of a man entering through their bedroom window. She doesn’t remember the rest: severely injured in the head and left for dead, she was only found in the morning by her parents. Lately, Atlee has suspected a terrible serial killer, Daniel James Tor, to be involved in her sister’s kidnapping and her attempted assassination, but this is just a hunch. Coming back from a confrontation with Tor, she apprehends a repeat offender pedophile a bit too harshly. Forced to take leave by her boss, Atlee decides to go to Georgia, in Andersonville, where these events took place. With her faithful companion, Carol Blum, she sets out to trace her past to discover the truth… But barely arrived, Atlee finds herself helping the local inspectors investigate a strange murder where the victim is wearing a wedding dress.
A More Personal Investigation
In this installment, Atlee will conduct two concurrent investigations: the recent one on a crime that has just been committed and the old, almost forgotten one about Mercy’s abduction. By pulling on fragile threads, trying to find people present at the time of the events, and cross-referencing shaky testimonies, Atlee will gradually uncover a truth she never suspected! After Long Road to Mercy, David Baldacci’s efficient, intense, and cinematic writing, aided by sharp and strong dialogues, makes A Minute to Midnight a particularly formidable thriller. This more personal story allows us to better understand Atlee’s personality; we learn many things with her about her parents and what they did before the birth of their daughters.
This investigation with numerous ramifications will leave Pine on the brink of the truth, closer than ever to solving the mystery of her sister’s disappearance. Set on a new trail, which will lead her from Georgia to New Jersey, the story for Atlee Pine will conclude in a third volume, A Spark of Hope.
