Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.
Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, at least for now—prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge …
Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.
Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, at least for now—prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, before the day is out, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm. This treacherous role will take him from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power . . . where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bull’s-eye.
This is not a good book. You might even call it a bad book and I'd have no counter-arguments. But I did read the whole damn thing, even if I did it angrily at times. It's full of clichees, the author makes sure you're not startled by any novel ideas, the dialog is painful at times, and the tech talk, of which there was too much, is just awful. And yet... I read the whole damn book. I was at least entertained enough for that. So, I won't go as far as recommend the book to anyone. But if you've read other Baldacci books I you might as well pick up this one too.
This book really felt like a rewrite of Ed McBain's The 87th Precinct Mysteries series in today world.
Just nice escapism and fast listening, I think I would have normal given this e stars but since it reminded me of Ed McBain's books which I read back in the 80's it gets a bonus star ;)
It took 13 days to read this book. "The 6:20 Man" by David Baldacci that was published in 2022 gets only 3 stars out of 5 from me. It was groundhog day with the main character taking a train, day in and day out. It got too predictable. If you have a book that you've been wanting to read, read that book and leave "The 6:20 Man" for when you got nothing better to read. It was an easy and monotonous read.
