The elevator pitch: 

Thelma and Lousie trying to save the world from a nuclear disaster

Skip/read:

Baldacci wrote better books, even if this one is oke, I would say skip and pick another.

Why: I was happily reading along, but something bugged me. I liked it, alright, but it didn't grab me. Then Baldacci referenced the shocking scene in Thelma and Louise where Thelma gets assaulted, and Lousie interferes and sets the plot in motion. In Long Road to Mercy, Atlee and her assistant and her sister in arms, get jumped in a highway restroom. After this, the famous jean-clad duo was explicitly mentioned. The similarities are there: two kickass women on a road trip, going rogue, encountering their fair share of bad dudes. But the reference also diminished A long road to Mercy. It never even comes close to the nail-biting, effervescent, and profoundly tragic masterpiece.
Maybe Long road to Mercy could be the popcorn version of T&L, big on the action, flimsy on the substance. And let's face it, T&L was so satisfying because of that disturbing and uncompromising ending.
Anno 2019 women have better choices than to plunge themselves into a ravine.
When my husband read Long way to Mercy he kept saying: why didn't Baldacci write about a man? He's right, Atlee Pine reads like a male protagonist. Not only because of her big physical appearance, the huge weights she lifts ( Baldacci seems obsessed with her workouts, dedicating once three whole pages to a single one.) She loves her cars and a cold one. Also because she comes over as hollow, this new heroine of Baldacci can be an aspiration, the way Jack Reacher is. Someone superhuman. But somehow, only descriving how awesome Attlee is, doesn't do her justice. Sure, Atlee has the tragic past and a mission, and there is the necessary but brief psychological motivation to make her more than a tough-as-nails character. But still, I found her bland, unshakable, unknowable, and not funny enough to come over as a real woman.
Now the story I found intriguing at first. Someone killed a mule in the Grand Canyon, carving his initials in the poor animal. I love outdoorsy thrillers ala Nevada Barr, but before I knew it, Atlee was in Washington untangling an international mess.
A lot about it seemed forced.
It is still a good book to read on the beach, entertaining and reassuring. In the next one, I hope Atlee will have more soul. Make her relatable somehow. She could still be this kickass, but if we are never put in her shoes, so it is hard to care.

The Gist: 

Atlee Pine's sister was abducted when they were 5. To give her life purpose, Atlee joined the FBI. She works a small post in Arizona. She gets called to the bottom of the Grand Canyon when a mule is found mutilated, and its rider disappears. Soon she sees herself trying to figure out a very current global mess, starring the Russians and the Korean peninsula.

Get it here: