David Baldacci's Last Man Standing has elements of a good novel, but a couple of flaws -- and one in particular -- keep it from transcending mediocrity. Web London, a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, freezes during a mission and watches as his team is gunned down. While seeing a psychiatrist in an attempt to understand what made him hold back, he investigates the shooting and uncovers a conspiracy involving drug dealers, white supremacists, undercover feds and a horse ranch.Spoilers follow...The biggest problem the book has is its hero. Web London isn't likeable at all. He's selfish, stubborn, refuses to listen to anyone, insults people who try to help him and bullies his own colleagues into giving him what he wants. And this is our hero? At one point, he all but forces the head of another HRT team to let him come along on a mission (while he's supposed to be on leave), even implying he'll hurt him if the guy doesn't comply, and it leads to the man almost getting fired. When the inevitable scene where the superior threatens to fire Web comes, I was on the bureaucrat's side. When he questions Jerome, the uncle of a missing boy who figures into the shooting, he mocks him and belittles the idea that Jerome could have a job, which frankly makes him seem racist. When he heads off to Billy Canfield's ranch, he goads Romano into going with him, knowing he's ruining the man's vacation and causing trouble with Romano's wife, but he shrugs this off and makes her out to be unreasonable. Finally, toward the end, he has in his sniper sights a man who helped his investigation -- not to mention the guy was as much a victim of the conspiracy as Web -- and he threatens to kill him. Right in front of his son. When he ends up letting him go, he wonders what's wrong with him. The man has zero honor. There's an undercover agent names Randall Cove who would've made a much better protagonist. He's tough, but honorable, has a dark past that makes some of the real assholes at the FBI -- like Web! -- suspect him of being part of the conspiracy, he's driven to seek justice at any cost and he's one of the people set up by the bad guys. They could've had Web die in the shootout and had Cove be the hero trying to figure out what happened. They'd need to get rid of the psychiatrist subplot and the title of the book, but it would've made for a better reading experience. Some of the writing is a bit subpar as well. Baldacci repeats himself a lot, often in the same paragraph. The dialogue is often very corny, especially when he's trying to be witty. The expository dialogue is particularly rough as well. It doesn't even attempt to come off naturally. They may as well break the fourth wall and talk directly to the reader. It's a problem I don't recall having with The Camel Club or The Collectors, but they were written later so maybe he's just grown as a writer. One more thing that bothered me was a particular setup that never got a payoff. Nemo Straight, who is revealed to be the architect of the HRT murder and the takeover of the drug business on the Eastern seaboard, shoots Randall Cove, but has to run before he can make sure the undercover agent is dead. Turns out that was a big mistake because Cove was wearing a bullet proof vest. One would think he'd pop up in the final shootout and help Web and Romano, right? Well, he doesn't. We find out in one of the final chapters that he made it to a hospital. That's really lazy plotting. Baldacci might as well have had Cove die. He also sets up a reunion between Web and his father, but that happens after the book is over. Very disappointing.The book isn't all bad, however. The conspiracy, with all its different players -- each with their own motives -- is well thought-out and parts of it are very original. Having Dr. O'Bannon be the traitor, who not only sold the secrets agents and their wives told him to his paymasters but also hypnotized Web into freezing during the ill-fated mission, is more interesting than just another crooked agent. It was foreshadowed well, with Web learning that many of the agents' wives visit psychiatrists as well. I also enjoyed the subplot where Web sees Claire Daniels and she attempts to help him figure out why he froze up. I liked how calm she was, particularly since Web is so nasty to her. I went back and forth between two and three stars for this one. Ultimately, I think there's enough that's good about the book to make it worth reading. I'd never read it again, though. And I'm glad Baldacci never used Web London as a hero again.
I’ve read several Baldacci novels and enjoyed them, but this one disappointed me.Cover blurbs call this book a ‘killer thriller’ and the action nearly nonstop.I disagree. A ‘killer thriller’ should have me on the edge of my seat from page one. This one didn’t. Yes, it had sections that had my heart racing and my breath rushing. But those sections were separated by pages galore of exposition, long internal musings by the main character, and side trips into unnecessary info including a detailed tours of a horse farm, one character’s taxidermy hobby, and horse trailers. In the end, Baldacci tied most of these into the main story line, but dumping all that information in when he did almost brought this novel to a halt.I wonder if sometimes authors (I’m not singling out Baldacci here) pad books this way to either meet some predetermined word count or show off their research efforts or just because they’re in love with their own words. Or they had all this neat stuff they couldn’t use elsewhere but couldn’t resist sharing.A thriller should run fast all the way. This one starts that way with the sudden brutal slaughter of an HRT team. But then that race morphs into a strange marathon, sprinting a ways then strolling then trotting then jogging then walking then sprinting then jogging then… You get the picture. The nonstop action claimed on the cover slows to a walk (and sometimes stands on the sidewalk) too often.I expect a thriller to be a page turner. This one wasn’t until I waded through five hundred pages of this 638 page novel. Then things started happening at the break-neck pace a thriller should have. That’s way too late in a thriller for the action to burst into a flat-out run.Sorry, Mr. Baldacci, you'll have to do better if you want me to read more of your work.
What do You think about Last Man Standing (2002)?
I come from that school of stoic readers who feels that if he begins a book, he must see it through until the bitter end. Alas, in this case, the terrible writing, clichéd characters and macho "stercore tauri" defeated me. I gave up after only 100 pages.One hundred pages was enough for me to grow utterly indifferent to the fate of the book's protagonist, Web London, the FBI superagent who battles mysterious forces in his attempt to unravel the mystery of a disappeared African-American boy and the death by ambush of his elite team of shoot'em up good guys.It was also enough for me to feel I had experienced every single cliché in the genre: The cop hero being ordered to 'stay the hell away from this investigation', the obligatory weeping widows to whom the hero vows he will 'find those responsible', the tougher than tough macho man who is slowly destroying himself on the inside...It was also enough for me to cringe, literally cringe, at the racial stereotypes and the contrived dialogue.No fear of plot spoilers from this reviewer. In plot terms, I didn't get deeper into the story than the back page blurb. And while I feel disappointed in myself for not sticking it through, there are too many good books in the world to waste time on this kind of garbage.
—Graham Stull
Last Man Standing by David BaldacciThis is one of Baldacci's early stories that put him on the map. The lack of a really good editor shows in that this book is hugely and ridiculously long. 19 CDs and 18 of them had a full 20 tracks. LMS is a long, convoluted story that centers on Web London, FBI Hostage Rescue Team member. The story was good and creative even if 25% of the dialogue could be done away with. Some of the plot points were pretty obvious to me although DB did fool me with the identity of the sniper behind some of the shootings. And the load of psych-babble that passes for psychiatry these days is annoying, but that's my personal opinion.Web's HRT team is led into an ambush and Web is the only one to survive. Suffering from survivor's guilt, other FBI agents and the media, of course, are wondering out loud if he's a traitor. DB wrapped up all the loose ends so nicely I wish he had done something fitting with Buck Winters. Unless he was saving him for a future story, but unfortunately no new Web London stories have emerged this 'Last Man Standing'. Interestingly, the only other DB character to on the Law enforcement side is John Puller, all the others have been outsiders. Unless you count Will Robie, the CIA sniper. I wouldn't mind seeing one more Web London story, if only to see the political idiot, Buck Winters, done away with. I didn't love the reader, Jason Culp, either. While his voices were pretty good, there was something that rubbed me wrong about him. I do like Ron McLarty from the later books. Be prepared for a time commitment if you read "Last Man Standing" but if you like mysteries I think you'll like it. Let me know.
—Gina
I wasn't really sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It was my first david Baldacci book and I certainly enjoyed it, but just found certain bits of it a little implausible. The book covers an elite member of an FBI team recovering from an ambush and trying to figure out what went wrong. It was definitely a page-turner, and entertaining but some of the characters motivations were a little over the top. However, the action was good, and I liked the ending, so all in all I would say it was worth a read for anyone who enjoys an easy thriller with quite a bit of action.
—Cormac Healy
