ZERO DAY

ZERO DAY by David Baldacci

From the book jacket:

John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigative Division.  His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison.  Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

Now Puller is called out on a case in a remote, rural area in West Virginia coal country far from any military outpost.  Someone has stumbled onto a brutal crime scene, a family slaughtered.  The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation.  As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he's seen in this small town, and no one in it, is what it seems.  Facing a potential conspiracy that reaches far beyond the hills of West Virginia, he is one man on the hunt for justice against an overwhelming force.

David Baldacci never fails to deliver a powerful book.  This book introduces a new hero, John Puller.  He's strong, silent, and focused, determined to find out what's out of place in this small town.  As he gets more information from Army officials, he finds he has only three days to do this - or there will be a major catastrophe.  This book had me quickly turning pages, and had a surprise twist at the end.

I really liked Puller.  As Baldacci tends to write books using the same major characters, I'm hoping that there will be more books with this fascinating man.