"It's not just my job that I won't be able to do if I don't find out what happened to my sister. It's my life that I won't be able to do."

To say that Atlee Pine is obsessed with her long-missing twin sister would be an understatement. Finding out what happened to Mercy has both consumed and defined her, and the distraction is beginning to impact every aspect of her life.

DAYLIGHT is the third entry in David Baldacci’s series featuring the FBI agent, following LONG ROAD TO MERCY and A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT. Atlee and Mercy lived together until the age of six. Their lives were shattered when someone broke into their home in Andersonville, Georgia. Atlee was left with a shattered skull, and Mercy was abducted. Their parents were passed out downstairs having over-indulged in alcohol and marijuana. Atlee has dedicated her life to finding her missing sister --- or, at the very least, learning what happened to her and why. Because she is so stellar at her job, she receives the okay from her boss, Clint Dobbs, to look into the case when she is able to do so. However, those who have been picking up Atlee's slack are beginning to complain, and Dobbs tells her that she needs to wrap things up and get back to her own territory.

"DAYLIGHT gives you everything you would expect from a David Baldacci novel and more. The title alone speaks to the promise of answers that have eluded Atlee in the first two installments."

Atlee informs Dobbs that she has been able to make a possible tie between Mercy’s abduction and a criminal family from New Jersey, the Vincenzos. To make matters even more interesting, they also have military ties, and one of them is in prison at Fort Dix. Atlee gets one final gift from Dobbs as he allows her and her assistant, Carol Blum, to fly to the Garden State in an effort to close the case. When Atlee arrives at young Tony Vincenzo’s house, she finds herself in a face-off with an armed gunman claiming to be an Army CID agent. Ironically, he turns out to be her old colleague, John Puller, who indicates that she just stepped into the middle of a long case that he has been working against the Vincenzos.

Atlee gets clearance from Dobbs to run a dual operation with Puller and his army. They start off by going to Fort Dix and talking with Teddy Vincenzo, who is not very forthcoming and is unwilling to give up anything about his grandfather, Ito, who Atlee feels is directly connected to Mercy's abduction. Not long after their meeting, Teddy is found dead in his cell from an apparent drug overdose, an obvious ruse to cover up that someone did not want them communicating with him any further. Then Puller's partner, Ed McElroy, is killed by a sniper bullet outside a diner. Local law enforcement shoot down Jerome Blake, but Atlee and Puller are confident that this young man was not the culprit and feel they are getting stonewalled at every turn.

Atlee is convinced that Ito is her sister's kidnapper, which keeps her moving forward with more vigor than she has ever shown previously with this case. The more that Atlee and Puller dig into the Vincenzo family, the more unseemly information they uncover. Then they unwrap a conspiracy that goes to the very heart of the U.S. military and government, which a cadre of powerful people will do anything to keep quiet. Just having the truth about Ito and his involvement with Mercy should be enough for Atlee, but now she has painted a target on her own back that may prove to be deadly.

DAYLIGHT gives you everything you would expect from a David Baldacci novel and more. The title alone speaks to the promise of answers that have eluded Atlee in the first two installments. It amazes me that Baldacci still writes at a prolific rate with five series, along with stand-alone novels, running simultaneously. The remarkable part is how he pulls this off without any dilution in storytelling. All of his stories, including this one, retain their expert characterization and plotting, and he is incapable of producing a less than superb read.

I only wonder what impact, if any, the pandemic will have on Baldacci’s future work. DAYLIGHT was obviously written prior to our current situation, and there were times when I wanted to yell at the characters to social distance. It will be interesting to see what he does next and if COVID-19 plays any part in the narrative within the fictional realities he has so effectively created.