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Publisher's Summary

The number one best seller.

Long Road to Mercy is the heart-pounding first novel in the FBI Special Agent Atlee Pine series by bestselling author David Baldacci.

It is 30 years since FBI special agent Atlee Pine’s twin sister, Mercy, was taken from the room they shared as young children. Notorious serial killer Daniel James Tor, was caught and convicted of other murders, and while there’s no proof, Atlee believes he knows what happened to Mercy. Tor still resides in a high-security prison in Colorado.

Assigned to the remote wilds of the western United States, Atlee has never stopped the search for her sister, and, wracked with survivor’s guilt, she has spent her life hunting down those who hurt others. She will always ask herself, ‘Why her, and not me?’

Now, Atlee is called in to investigate a case in the Grand Canyon when a mule is found dead with strange carvings on its body, and its rider missing. She knows about killers and perhaps understands them better than any profiler in the FBI, but it soon becomes clear that she will need to put her skills to the ultimate test in this investigation.It seems that Atlee will now have to confront a new monster. And face the one of her nightmares. 
©2018 David Baldacci (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio
Women Sleuths International Mystery & Crime Crime Thrillers
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What listeners say about Long Road to Mercy

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • P Murray
  • 14-04-19

Chronic

Contrived story and abysmal narration. Don't bother buying. After the first hour I gave up; the waste of an hour.

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Bilinda Offen
  • 13-03-21

Tag team narrating

The tag team way of narrating the story did my head in. Also I’m not too sure about the purpose or relevance of the side story about Mercy. I loved the strong Main character - but I think this is one book I would have enjoyed more if I’d read it myself.

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  • RyanStampfli
  • 07-01-21

This was a great one

Stakes were high!
Great book, great characters
I hope for more in this series :)
Atlee Pine is a great character

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • South African
  • 03-07-20

Ramba

The heroine in this implausible story makes Rambo a weakling. With her around you can conquer all. The story is far fetched and sounds like an anti Trump essay.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-12-19

Blasphemy

Why use my savior’s name as a swear word? If you respect people’s believes please respect mine too.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Penny Lambert
  • 28-03-19

Slow to start with

Long Road to Mercy was very slow to start with. Both story & narrator. Actually, it took me 2 goes at starting before I decided to tentatively commit.

I keep thinking this a David Baldacci book, it will get better. Around 3 hours it started to grab me. From then on, I really enjoyed it. I look forward to the next book in the series about David Baldacci’s newest hero!

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 16-01-19

Good fun

Bit slow initially but pace picked up and I enjoyed it.
A few cliches though but with tongue in cheek it was fun

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Nuala Melinn
  • 04-01-19

Really looking forward to more from Agent Pine

Really well written and refreshing to read about a female, strong hero for a change

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Maureen Lewis
  • 29-12-18

Happy Listening

always enjoy authors books lots of.suspense.and.excellent.storyline ..easy listening, well narrated, clear,.consise and well spoken overall

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Dr. Steven Firer
  • 21-11-18

Just Brilliant

DB at his best. Thank you Sir for such great entertainment. How you keep producing such works is a gift from above.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Simon
  • 18-11-18

On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine!

I've often come away underwhelmed by male thriller writers trying to write female leads. Even to this male reader they don't seem to have been able to generate a character you can believe in, one of the best examples of such failings being Harlen Coben's Maya in Fool Me Once. Atlee Pine though is a character with a back story, set of beliefs and attitude that I could really get, for want of a better word. She's tough, a bit of a loner, she's driven and at the core of all she does is a tragic past that makes the book's title incredibly apt.

This is very much a contemporary thriller and is very up to date with modern trends in terms of political relations, it turns out to cover a much grander scope than you might expect. It also brings to life one of the great wonders of the physical world in some detail.

The narration by Brittany Pressley is excellent and she takes the lead with Kyf Brewer providing the male spoken lines. I think it's a very effective format as it's often a real stretch for any narrator to do opposite sex voices without sounding daft. It does mean that some of Brewer's gruff lines can sound just a tiny bit flat or at times jarring compared to Pressley's smoother delivery but I really liked the contrast that it gave to the characters.

If I was to nitpick just a little on the whole production I'd say that while the overall story seems finely crafted and comes together well at the end some of the dialogue felt a bit flat and lacking in polish and I do think that on a couple of occasions Pine had it a bit easy considering what she was up against in terms of evading pursuit. But, nit-picking that is and I really want to follow further on the trail of this lonesome Pine and in particular how the ongoing back story develops because that clearly has mileage in it!

36 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Paul Lloyd
  • 04-10-19

Refreshingly different

I noticed that a lot of reviewers find this book disappointing. Well, I didn't. I found it refreshingly different to Baldacci's usual run of books. Here we have a highly motivated and tenacious investigator with mostly these qualities to commend her. And she is up against formidable opponents and using these qualities and little else, she and her office assistant win the day. My only qualm is: how is Baldacci going to top this excellent story in his sequel and any other one following? It's very well worth a read/listen.

13 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Fouldsy
  • 04-03-19

A bit disappointed

I have listened to many audiobooks this is the first review I have written.
I have listened to many David Baldacci books on audible covering many different adventures and characters.
Haven’t listened to one of his books for a while so thought I would give this a try.
I was a little disappointed, the story as it went on appeared a weak and far-fetched and actually lacked detail.
Don’t think I will do book two when out.

11 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • anne
  • 11-02-19

Disappointing

Sadly, I was quite disappointed in this effort from an author I usually enjoy. The story had pace and the relationship between the two female characters developed nicely which boded well for a new series. But the ending felt rather contrived. Although it was indeed topical, it felt confused and as though David Baldacci had rushed the ending, making it scrappy and rather trite.
The female narrator was quite easy to listen to, but the male was not. His range of voices is limited and the secondary “hero/potential love interest” sounded like Forrest Gump on tranquillisers.
Not my favourite Baldacci by any means, however I’ll keep buying his books on the assumption that he’ll find the spark again. But I will have to avoid the narrator I’m afraid.

8 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Phillip
  • 25-12-18

Not his best

I love David Baldacci but this was not one of his best books, I hope this series gets allot better !

8 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 09-09-19

Disappointing

Really unbelievable story, hammy acting and written like a cheesy movie. Not what I’d expect from Baldacci.

6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • G. S.
  • 22-11-18

Not bad

Great character, good writing but as usual instead of letting the story unfold naturally Baldacci relies far too heavily on exposition at the end to explain the plot!

6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Hywel Michael Rosenthal
  • 23-04-19

Entertaining listen, could have been more gripping

Enjoyed the intro to the characters and look forward to the next one, not as gripping as normal but I can't put my finger on why. Will have to see how the next one goes

5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • weardalelad
  • 20-02-19

Not great, bit far fetched

good narrators as normal, i think Baldacci is getting predictable. change of track needed soon

5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Karen Owens
  • 08-02-19

Very disappointing

I have been a fan of David Baldacci for many years and have thoroughly enjoyed his books, however I have to say that this offering falls very short of the previous standards. I have always maintained that if I start a book I would finish it and apart from a couple of exceptions I have done that but on more than one occasion I was very tempted to abandon Long Road to Mercy but did struggle through to see if it improved - it did not. I found the plot unbelivable, the heroine too good to be true and at times the writing a little amateurish not helped by the narrative and it got very 'wordy' at times as thought Baldacci was just writing to make his word count.
All in all very disappointing.

5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Peter Beckerleg
  • 04-12-18

Typical Baldachi Conspiracy Theory Theme

The new character Atlee Pine is well developed along with her sidekick secretary & potential future love interest & Pine's better than most abilities (again typical for Baldachi leading characters) left me waiting for Book 2 - if you're a Baldachi fan you won't be disappointed

4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 20-03-19

Overkill

I bought this book in spite of the poor reviews but wish I hadn’t. I’m all for a strong female lead but I could barely tolerate finishing it. The absurdity of Atlees action got on my nerves.

2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • M
  • 21-01-19

story line simple yet engaging

male voice makes all characters sound retarded however just worth a listen as most of the story is done by the slightly better female nerator
story is simple but still mildly entertaining

2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • JenB
  • 10-05-19

Not one dull moment!

Atlee is a strong & smart female lead, which I always enjoy. There are okenty of twists in the plot to keep you guessing pretty much until the end.

1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 09-05-19

Poorly written

Lame narrative, really didn't translate to anything interesting. Couldn't wait for it to finish. Won't be touching another of these again!

1 person found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Len
  • 16-04-19

Totally unbelievable

I enjoy the John Puller series and thought I would try this, I know all his stories are not realistic in any way, but this one, I dont believe how bad it was. One particular issue is, Mercy is supposed to be super fit, nowhere in the book over the whole time it takes place does she do anything in the way of exercise. Its impossible to maintain super fitness without doing at least a minimum of regular exercise. She goes up and down the Grand Canyon like a mountain goat which is certainly exercise, but the book would have some semblance of reality if her exercise regime was even mentioned. Very annoying and unrealistic.

1 person found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Anonymous User
  • 07-02-19

A good book spoiled by Poor choice of narrator

A great book to read, but this audio version is very hard to get into due to poor narration delivery.
The narrator’s performance improves to an acceptable standard after approximately 20 chapters.
Also, a little disappointed by inaccuracies with geological facts and incorrect use of terminology.

1 person found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Suzanne Tonkin
  • 20-12-18

blah

Can't tell you how many times I rolled my eyes listening to this book

1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Lisa
  • 01-04-22

Average

There were lots of technical fight scenes with particular defence moves etc, and confusing political intrigue. I was quite glad when it ended. Maybe just not my type of thing.

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  • Jen
  • 18-02-22

Fantastic

Loved the book - it was exciting plus I walked miles and got fit listening to it 🙂