Another freebie and just as bad as The Escape.Formula for Baldacci book:1. Tall, moody(= sensitive) male lead with a parent suffering dementia2. Tall, over-achieving brother 3. Pretty girl as sidekick and for occasional Mills&Boon moments4. Massive Bond-style conspiracy at the heart of a great US institution - preferably one that has been in place for decades without anyone noticing the problem5. Wicked baddies who discuss all the criminal things they have done or plan to do on the phone. A lot. 6. Abysmal dialogue - otherwise known as pages of exposition7. Clunkily obvious "tricks" he probably got from a how-to-churn-out-a-best-seller manual - ending a chapter with a 'surprise' that has usually been telegraphed for ages; double-crosses everywhere; teasing references to "a man" or "a person" - clearly someone else we already know who must be a double (or triple) agent. omg such tension8. Occasional manly tears and manly hugging - especially of tall brothers9. A happy ending with the police & other authorities glossing over all the laws bent or broken by the heroes in the process of exposing the dastardly baddiesThere's a strange scene near the end of this one where someone runs around a corner and unexpectedly meets someone else who shoots him. The shootee loses his footing so the bullet hits him in the shoulder instead of his brain (I'm pretty much quoting verbatim here - not going to bother finding the actual page). If you are falling down because your foot slipped out from under you how does your shoulder take the place of your brain in the shooter's sights? Perhaps he simply meant that the shooter failed to adjust correctly for the fall or he slipped to one side but managed to also jump up so that the outside shoulder rose up like doing cartwheels? Anyway I was distracted for a while by the idiocy of someone managing to fall down in this convoluted manner which was only necessary because the plot required the shot person not to die & even Baldacci would baulk at having someone shot in the head but continuing to function in order to assist the goodies.
Who doesn't love a story with a hulking beast of a man unjustly imprisoned for 25 years? Reminiscent of King's "The Green Mile's" hulking character--John Coffey or Steinbeck's Lenny of "The Grapes of Wrath," Baldacci's Rufus Harms and his imprisonment draws you into the question, "Did Rufus or didn't Rufus kill an innocent, young girl?" Cue two brothers, one a clerk of the Supreme Court and the other, a practicing criminal lawyer. Baldacci attracted my attention from the start with his descriptive writing and characterizations that may stop you for a second read: "The rookies still tense when the pop or light comes; some dribble pee down their cotton pants, watch if flow over their black low quarter shoes." Of the murdered girl, "Her thin dress clung to her diminutive frame, which had receded into the saturated earth, as though she had been dropped from a great height to form the shallowest of graves." Now, I'm a bit of a lazy (or plain old not so smart) reader, so I can't say I was able to follow all the twists, turns and connections or people contained in this complex story. It contained many interesting facets: -Supreme Court Justice interactions including the first woman on the bench and the intricately, tangled chess like machinations each person-group performs on a day to day basis supposedly for the sake of justice. -Insider scoop on what Supreme Court clerks do, especially Mike Fiske, and Sara. 2 of a 3 person love triangle involving two brothers. -Joe Schmoe lawyer asked to file an appeal with the Supreme Court on behalf of the Rufus Harms -The five (or was it 6) person team present on the night the innocent girl died....who find themselves dying off pretty rapidly That's at least 12 main players and I did find it difficult to remember and follow, but maybe more people than I read a mystery letting the unknown/confusing/complex fall by the way, trusting all will be revealed in time. Sure enough, plenty of twists, turns, action, gunfights, weaponry, and suspenses and surprise for everyone.
What do You think about The Simple Truth (1999)?
I do like a good thriller, especially with twists and turns. The first few pages of this book are so well written, that I found it promising. Reading further I was wondering if it was necessary to introduce so many characters in the beginning. Now I think it wasn’t. Some of them could appear later, and the first part of the book could be better paced.Baldacci kept the secret hidden until the crisis, which was supposed to give suspense. Actually I found it out at the half of the book, so the final bang was not so loud for me. But I liked the twist at the end, when the suspected bad guy turned out to be a good one, and vice versa.While I was curious what happen next, the book was too long and sometimes too slow for my taste. The characters were OK, even there were an interesting family connection between the Fiske brothers and the parents.If you have some free time to kill, it’s an OK read.
—Gyula
This is my second Baldacci read and a disappointment after reading one of his more current books. I know he grew as an author since writing this book but this is pretty marginal. Why?It is riddled with POV (point of view) errors. Not just the occasional lapse. I estimate that nearly half the scenes contain two to four POV's. This "head hopping" makes the story difficult to understand as you are jolted between POV's. IF this book was professionally edited, the editor should be flipping hamburgers in a fast food restaurant and not pretending to be an editor. This book never should have made it to print in its current form . . . and that was the publishers fault.This story involves the 1970's Army as an important theme. Baldacci obviously knows nothing about the Army and nearly everything involving the Army in this book is wrong. I know because I was there and so were millions of others. His characters use firearms. Baldacci know far less about firearms than about the Army. His use of firearms in the story borders on imbecilic. So far my issues have involved facts. It's poorly written/edited from a technical perspective, and contains really poorly researched information regarding the military and firearms. These issues could have been resolved with proper editing and research, but they weren't. But was it a bad story? No, the story line was creative and interesting. However, the first 100 pages are horribly boring. Then the story drags on far longer than necessary. Combined with the POV errors, the result just didn't do justice to the potential.Having read one of the author's more recent works, I know he learned to deal with writing about subjects he doesn't understand and that his current editor did a much better job of polishing his work. I'll blame his publisher for the poor rating on this book and give Mr. Badacci the benefit of the doubt. I think he has a wonderful talent that wasn't well managed or showcased in this book.
—Jim McCulloch
David Baldacci is known for his page turning thrillers and un-putdownable fast reads. True. This is another one of them. But, there's a difference. This one is a Powerhouse Never before since The Day of the Jackal has a thriller so impressed me. Why? Because the character development done is simply superb. The painful past, injuries and feelings portrayed by Baldacci through John Fiske are too spontaneous and human, making his character immediately realizable. This is one book whose movie adaptation I'd love to watch.
—Atishay
