Can You Read All In Without Reading The 6:20 Man First?

Yes. You can start with All In, the fourth Travis Devine thriller. Its central investigation begins with a journalist’s shooting and an intelligence analyst’s disappearance, so you can follow the new case from its opening. Start with The 6:20 Man if you want to see how a former Army Ranger working on Wall Street became the investigator Baldacci sends overseas in All In.

Why All In works as a first Travis Devine book

War correspondent Theresa Lee is shot in Manhattan, and Bill Walker, the intelligence analyst she was meeting, goes missing. Devine is brought in to find out what happened. The investigation takes him to Australia, where he works with Sydney homicide detective Anais Jones. The opening gives newcomers the questions that drive the case. Why was Lee targeted? What did Walker know?

If the international investigation is what drew you to the book, go ahead and start there. If you plan to read the whole series and prefer to meet characters as they first appear, publication order is the better fit.

What you gain from reading The 6:20 Man first

The nickname has an ordinary origin. In the first novel, the 6:20 is the commuter train Devine takes into Manhattan for his job as a junior financial analyst. The contrast is part of the appeal. The man investigating a case across two continents in All In began the series watching the homes of the wealthy pass by his train window on the way to work.

You see Devine get pulled into an investigation where he has something to lose. When his coworker and former girlfriend Sara Ewes is found dead, the police want to talk to him. He’s also pressured to investigate his own firm by someone who can expose secrets from his Army past. In All In, Devine enters as a federal investigator. In book one, his employer and his own history are part of what makes asking questions dangerous.

You can see how Baldacci expands the series. Both books take an interest in what enormous fortunes can keep hidden. The first puts that question inside a Manhattan investment firm. The fourth puts it on an international scale, with a wealthy Australian family and an investigation that reaches into the intelligence world. Reading the first case gives that change in scale more weight.

Which book should you pick up?

Pick All In if you’re in the mood for a spy thriller that takes you from New York to Sydney. Pick The 6:20 Man if you’d rather start with a workplace mystery where the investigator’s own past gives people leverage over him. For the full sequence, David Baldacci’s series page lists all four novels.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• Ready for Devine’s investigation in Sydney? Find All In in hardcover on Amazon.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook