DOCKSIDE READING - A puzzling case for a seasoned army investigator

View more by Janet Armstrong

ZERO DAY.

MUSKOKAN - Zero Day by David Baldacci finds warrant officer John Puller, the army’s foremost criminal investigator, facing an unusual and perplexing assignment.
Puller is from an army family. His father, now suffering from dementia, was a legendary combat officer. His older brother Robert, a high-ranking officer and expert on nuclear armaments, is spending the rest of his life in prison, convicted of treason.
Puller himself is a veteran of six tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, wounded several times, and the recipient of many medals. He’s turned down countless offers of promotion because on-the-ground investigation is what he loves.
While visiting his brother in prison, he receives urgent orders to report immediately to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at Quantico. A mail carrier in West Virginia, attempting to deliver a parcel, walked into a horrific crime scene. A colonel with the Defense Intelligence Agency had been murdered along with his wife and two teenaged children.
Interest in the investigation goes beyond the secretary of the army into the highest levels in Washington. Although a CID team is stationed only 30 miles from the crime scene, Puller receives strict orders to conduct the investigation alone. Very unusual!
He goes home, feeds his cat, and packs his sophisticated gear. Arriving in the impoverished small town of Drake, West Virginia, at three in the morning, he passes a huge concrete dome and drives through neighbourhoods of dilapidated houses. The air is hot and sooty, the landscape denuded. This is coal country, where underground mining has been abandoned and surface blasting has taken its place. He learns later that the thoroughly obnoxious owner of the coal mine owns almost every business in town.
Teaming up with local police sergeant Samantha Cole, Puller soon discovers a tangle of leads that go nowhere. Where is the package the mail carrier tried to deliver? Why was the colonel tortured? Why were the bodies posed and videotaped? Are there connections to the coal mining operation, environmental concerns or potential dangers to a nearby gas pipeline? Are local bikers and their amateurish drug lab involved? When army intelligence picks up leads to someone speaking a Middle Eastern language, a new angle emerges. Is there a terrorist connection to the murders?
The plot by a master storyteller moves at a relentless pace. The human angle is treated with insight and compassion and, on Zero Day, the conclusion is stunning.
Janet Armstrong can be reached at kiltielane@gmail.com.

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