Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5026 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-04
• Released on: 2008-06-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Many are the lawyers who have ditched the day job and had taken up an even more lucrative profession: that of writing thrillers. But of the army of hopefuls who have followed the example of John Grisham, few are as talented and inventive as David Baldacci, who (in such books as Simple Genius) has demonstrated a writing skill streets in advance of most of his career-shifting contemporaries. The Whole Truth continues his upward trajectory, and adds a new level of narrative complexity that still avoids getting in the way of sheer storytelling momentum.

Wealthy arms dealer Nicholas Creel is facing his own personal credit crunch, and needs to find a way to kickstart his business. Would starting a war help? Creel would hardly be averse to that. Anna Fischer is enjoying her professorial activities, but is growing dismayed at world events. Her life is transformed when her new lover proposes marriage -- but there is a side to her boyfriend's life that may threaten all she holds dear. Journalist Katie James is casting around for a way to salvage her stalled career, when something falls into her lap -- a story with very dangerous elements. And the mysterious Shaw, operative for a clandestine intelligence organisation, wants to give it all up -- but finds that an employer wants him to tackle one final all-important job.

As this very varied dramatis personae suggests, we are in the presence of an ambitious global thriller here, with a host of elements juggled to facilitate an ever-accelerating plot. Baldacci -- a writer who prefers the straight-ahead effect rather than the more nuanced touch -- is an absolute master of the blockbuster thriller, and as well as keeping the narrative on the boil, manages to delineate his cast of characters with a sure touch. The Whole Truth is Baldacci's most entertaining novel yet. --Barry Forshaw

Synopsis
'I need a war.' With the world relatively stable, Nicolas Creel, a super-rich and super-powerful arms dealer, is losing money fast. And if a war won't start naturally, he is more than willing to help move things along ...Academic Anna Fischer is becoming increasingly curious about the strange twist in world events. When her boyfriend proposes, she couldn't be happier - but can she handle the truth about the man she loves? Katie James, an award-winning journalist whose career is on the slide, will do anything to get back to the top of her profession. But can she keep her demons at bay long enough to get the story? Shaw, a man with a mysterious past, reluctantly travels the world for a secret multinational intelligence agency trying to keep the world peaceful - and safe. He dreams of retirement and marriage, but will his employers ever let him go? This terrifying global thriller delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters, and can't-put-it-down pacing that Baldacci fans expect - and still goes beyond anything he's written before.

Customer Reviews

Stunning
David Baldacci, has done it again, this book was very difficult to put down, it had me hooked from page one, brilliantly written as usual, strong story, great character detail, I would have liked to know what happened to Shaw's mother though, and why Kate did not really have her siblings or parents to help with her addiction, this story could lead to another installment as to what happened next between these two, there is a certain chemistry between them, and surely more adventures, Highly recommneded

Interesting, if not Far feched
This isn't my type of book, but having read the book cover it sounded interesting.

In all, it was a pretty good book. The plot was interesting and always had you engaged, ready to find out what happened next. Unfortunatly, what happened next was always predictable.

It took a few twists and turns, which obviously keeps you turning the page, but not as much as you'd hope or expect.

I often got the feeling that rather it being a fiction story, it was more of someone telling me of something that had once happened. You rarely get a feeling of a 'real time' story. Something that is actually happening as you read it.

The characters were good and well portreyed, and you got a good idea of their personality within a few pages of their arrival. The relationsips between the certain characters was the best aspect of the book. The relationships were interesting.

Overall a pretty good book.

Dreadful disappointment
In the past Baldacci's books have been well written, exciting and the scenarios contained a sufficient element of believability to be disturbing. This is just rubbish, and rather badly written rubbish at that. It relies on several "With one bound Carruthers was free" situations, the characters are strictly cardboard cut-out, and not even consistent, and Baldacci clearly knows very little about London. By the end I was beginning to develop a good deal of sympathy for the aims of the archetypal arch-villain.