I stumbled across the book at a local Barnes and Nobles last year. Thought I’d give it a try, after reading the overview on the back cover. I was instantly drawn into the pages of this political thriller, which was expertly written by a man who is well versed in his craft. The author definitely did a lot of research before writing this story. And all of the praise presented on the early pages prior to the story’s introduction was well deserved. This is not an action story, it is more of an intellectual journey into the web of deception that takes place in Washington DC, involving crooked politicians and duplicitous Federal agents. And as the drama unfolds you get to see just how low certain government officials will be willing to go, in order to protect their own interests. The Life of the innocent seems to be a trivial thing, as men in powerful positions begin to move various lethal chess pieces in order to ensure that their powerful agencies get to be protected. And there is a lot of bloodshed that ensues as the diabolical individuals in the CIA strive to ensure that their secrets remain buried within the souls of dead witnesses. And the villainous government officials quickly prove that they are willing to kill even their own, in order to remain immune to future legal prosecution for their questionable acts.The story features a young lady named Faith Lockhart, and her mentor/father-figure Danny Buchanan – who happens to be a lobbyists that is bribing members of congress. Faith and Danny have been involved in a complex bribery scheme that has some very powerful officials roped into their net of deceit – so they both know secrets about a lot of crooked people in the legislative branch of government. And with time, Danny gets cornered by a very devious man who works for the CIA. And there is another protagonist called Lee Adams – he is a PI, who is hired by Danny to spy on Faith. And Faith has recently gone to the FBI, in order to see if she and Danny can confess their sins and gain joint immunity. And on a “faithful” night, Ms. Faith and an FBI agent head to a safehouse in the country side of Virginia, where an assassin is waiting in the woods. And Lee Adams also happens to be tracking Faith on that evening. Lee arrives at the scene before everyone else, without knowing that a battle was scheduled to occur at the safehouse – which he breaks into, in order to do his Private Investigator thing. A shootout occurs and blood is shed at the isolated venue. And after a series of twisting events, Faith and Lee become joint fugitives, and the FBI are drawn into the mess, in order to find out who killed their agent that was shadowing Faith on the faithful night.In this story, several Feds and civilians die along the way, as the author gives a gripping tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat, while making sure that the audience is resiliently drawn along from chapter to chapter.The entire book is well written, but I’ll point out that this is an old tale, written back in 1999; so its about 13 years old. Nothing wrong with that, its just that the technology described in the pages is a little dated, as are the methods of gathering Signal Intelligence that the writer describes. But that doesn’t stop the mysterious ride from being fast paced, without being overly laborious. I will point out that there are a lot of drawn-out conversations in this one, which are designed to explains “the what and why” of the ongoing investigations. And per the writing style of the author, I actually found myself laughing-out-loud as he described several segments of the story, giving comedic glimpses into the minds of the characters that gave them real depth. I felt a bit let down as the author built up the romantic tension between Faith and Lee, up to about half of the book. And then, when they finally got together and did it, the scene was described in just one sentence.... Honestly, there was far too much sexual attraction between them for just ONE SENTENCE and then a sole paragraph was added to close out that part of their “bedroom interaction”. Trust me, you will feel emotionally drawn into the plight of the characters, which is a sign of good writing.And at the very end, well, it just didn’t end well. Honestly, you may feel a bit let down - and even rather disappointed - by the final chapters, feeling as if the author could have rewritten some sections of the 3rd Act of the storyline, without subtracting from the authenticity of the story. Sometimes I wonder if authors are struggling to reach a large quota of pages, thus they stretch their story in order to make sure that their publisher has a 450-page or 500-page book for printing. As an author myself, I know that not every book has to be a lengthy one. I know of an author who writes 700-page science fiction books, and after talking to fans that actually read his stuff, I laughed to discover that the readers actually skip pages and even Chapters, when the long 700-page story gets too boring. That alone implies that the writer of the lengthy book ought to have literally trimmed out the fat, in order to stick to the central plot... which may clearly yield a shorter book, perhaps 355 pages. And there is nothing wrong with that, as long as it is written with a respectable plot.All right, I still give this book 4 Stars. It was well written, but the ending could have been executed in a better manner. David Baldacci is now one of the authors that I’ll have to keep an eye on for his future releases. It turns out that he’s written about 23 books and this is the first one that I’ve read – his first book was published back in 1996, so he’s been doing this for a while. In a few months I’ll probably take a look at his latest release in 2011, titled “The Sixth Man,” and see what the conflicted buzz is all about [according to Amazon.com reviews, some readers love it, but die-hard fans of David’s work seem to hate it]... but first, I’ve got some other unread books that are waiting for my attention...
This is one of Baldacci’s older books, first published in 1991. Being that old, I found a thriller involving Washington lobbyists and operatives from both the CIA and FBI with no reference to terrorism to seem a little odd. I wasn’t as impressed with this one as I’ve been with other Baldacci books. I still enjoyed the story but I think there was a little more fluff than I usually like. The main and title character is a Washington lobbyist who knows her job well, but her job is not the action in the book, so while she is at the root of the plot, she really doesn’t add to the action much more than a “damsel in distress” role. I guess I’m used to being in the minds of the likes of later Baldacci’s Will Robie or Alan Jacobson’s Karen Vail and by comparison Faith left little substance. Faith’s mentor, Danny Buchannan had the mental strength I like to read in main characters, but he was a supporting cast member.I did like the balance of bad guys gone good and good guys gone bad. It’s on the edge of overpowering but I don’t think it’s too far a stretch from reality to liken Washington morality to professional wrestling.I did find the very end to be a bit beyond belief. The final chapter is the chapter I might entertain wondering “what if” after finishing the book but I was disappointed to read it as the end.
What do You think about Saving Faith (2000)?
Looking good so far (about 1/3 through). Gotta tell you, though, I'm not a politically minded person and I'm trying hard to keep up with the story (lobbyists, voting, etc). I've never seen so much hate for the FBI in my life. I'm surprised. Had to ask my husband some federal agency questions, too. Baldacci isn't explaining it well enough for my understanding, or perhaps I just want to know more than the average reader (or maybe he'll explain later, who knows!)----------------------------------------------------------------okay, just finished. AWESOME! I'm all for conspiracy theories, and this one was excellent. Great main character. Had to keep reminding myself that the book was written 9 years ago, so the surveillance technology was not as sophisticated as it is now--shocking, I know.Looking forward to giving this to my sister. She works in the Capitol and should be able to offer some insight into the validity of some of the content,
—Julianne
Copywright - November 1999.Two things cught my attention. Ponzi Scheme - thinking Medoff, I questioned my meomory; I thought that all happened in 2000 something. Ponzi goes back to 1920.Acknowledgements - Rod Blagojevich - for allowing me a glimpse into the life of a member of Congress. An excellant source when the story is centered on manipulating government policy, corruption when connected with the rules we live by and the rules we are governed by.Think the rich versus working drones. Moving on from Congress, Rod became the 40th governor of IL (2003-2019) Current residence - Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood, CO.The story navigates back and forth between the FBI - CIA - House - Senate and those caught inbetween.Likeable characters - including 'the mole'.Travel experiences - not homeland security seaches (which we currently deal) - rahter FBI covering air, train and bus terminals in their quest to capture escaping suspects.The romances - past, present and future (perhaps). Action - yeah, that too.In all, a fun journey, an escape from our own realities.
—Papalodge
This novel, which likely is not going to become a series (in fact, since it was first produced in 1999, I think that’s a relatively safe bet) introduces an interesting character named Lee Adams, an extraordinarily resourceful private investigator. Lee has been hired by an unknown person to follow a young woman named Faith Lockhart and to find out what she is up to; having established that she is making periodic visits to a remote cabin in the wilderness, he goes there on one of the off-days to check the place out, with the result that he is surprised inside when she and her FBI handler show up. Unfortunately, someone else has also shown up: a professional assassin who has been employed by a special group of top CIA officials to eliminate Faith and her FBI handler before she can release all the details of an ongoing government corruption. I said he was resourceful: Lee shoots the assassin, after the latter has already killed the FBI handler, and then drags Faith away in his own car to save her from whatever is happening. Saving Faith, however, turns out to be a full-time job that is full of action and semi-suspense but with enough spare time for Lee and Faith to start becoming better acquainted. Meanwhile, the FBI female director who was originally handling faith is on the carpet to find Faith, herself, which somewhat compounds the complexity.
—JBradford
