Rating: 
Summary: Food for your mind
Review: "The Simple Truth" is the second book I read of David Baldacci's. Previously I'd read "The Winner" and recently I've finished "Saving Faith". All three books have much in common: the beautiful heroines, the evil masterminds who try their very best to kill those innocent angels and, of course, the big, muscular overachievers unexpectedly taking the role of the women's saviors. Whether they succeed, that's left to the author's imagination, Baldacci's novels are suspense thrillers after all.Having said this, I preserve to myself the right to object.Even considered Baldacci's simple formula, it's still pretty clear that Baldacci writes great books.The women of his books are not only good-looking, they're all beautiful persons in their own right. The other characters are not less compelling, which makes for a tense read. From all of Baldacci's books, this one particularly stands out. With all its heart, "The Simple Truth" fights against prejudice in the reader's mind and offers a fresh sense of humanity. You can easily identify with all characters, each of them resembles a part of yourself. "The Simple Truth" is by far not a timeless book, but it's a contemporary's view on our time worth reading and arguing. Enjoy this delicious food for your mind!
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty bad
Review: "The Simple Truth" has a lot of Baldacci's trademark derring-do and excitement. Alas, what it lacks is a believable plot and three-dimensional characters. The thriller genre requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, of course, but there is little that is believable here. Baldacci's first book, "Absolute Power" was outstanding but nothing he has done since has come close to its quality. Because of its utter preposterousness, I almost stopped reading "The Simple Truth about two-thirds of the way through but I finished it. I should have trusted my instincts.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and suspenseful Grishamesque legal thriller!
Review: "Truth" was our first novel by Baldacci, and a pleasant surprise indeed. From first learning that a long-imprisoned military convict is probably innocent of a young girl's murder, to the series of deaths the investigation into these old events precipitates, we can hardly wait to see what will happen next, not to mention "whodunit"! Supreme Court law clerk Michael Fiske gets in over his head when he begins to pursue the truth in the prisoner's claims (fearing the celebrities that might get involved) before officially filing the appeal with the Court. He soon pays for that mistake with his life; and we know then a real conspiracy is on. Mike's brother John, an ex-cop and young lawyer himself, together with Mike's ex-girlfriend Sara, another law clerk, who takes an immediate romantic interest in John, pursue the bad guys with a vengeance. Whether much of that pursuit is realistic or not, being mostly outside the scope of the official police investigation of the murder(s) is about our only quibble with the tale. The story not only weaves an entertaining, complex plot but also provides illuminating glimpses into the machinations and incredible internal politics of the Supreme Court. That weighty issues might appear or disappear due to personal influence, or even just the judgment of twenty-year-old "clerks" (really, young lawyers), gave us more than a few moments pause. Baldacci reveals that he also knows how to drop just the right number of clues, along with a few red herrings, to keep us beguiled until nearly the final page. This book not only goes up on the shelf right next to "Pelican Brief", but leaves us anxious to try some more novels by this fine author!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Thriller
Review: An appeal received by the Supreme Court from Rufus Harms, a convicted murderer from 25 years in a military prison revealing names cause an unchain reaction from those people who want the prisoner Harm silence forever to cover a mind control experiment with drugs that the US Army experimented with the prisoner and its terrible consequences for him and many more soldiers used as human guinea pigs without their knowledge or consent. An interesting thriller that give us a lot of details about the role of the Supreme Court and the gaps and failures of the criminal justice of USA.
Rating: 
Summary: Good characters and plot, but novel fails to deliver
Review: Baldacci has created a great plot about a death row inmate who is actually innocent who escapes from jail and is aided by a Supreme Court clerk and her dead boyfriend's brother. All of the main characters are interesting and have great depth. Yet the background characters are confusing and the action scenes are boring. Baldacci was unable to combine the characters and plot into a good story.
Rating:
Summary: The Simple Truth Hurts
Review: Cliche, formulaic, predictable, and mildly entertaining at best.
This is the only Baldacci novel I've read. It is what it is--a throwaway dime store detective novel. Good reading for the plane or the inside of a hotel room, but don't look for any life-changing catharsis or even an indulgent late night to finish just one more chapter. Or even one more paragraph.
The story at times is interesting and the characters, though nauseatingly melodramatic, are usually believable overall. A lame love story surges through the sub-plot, as seemingly required by all novels authored by men writing in this genre. The dialogue borders on the ridiculous, but Baldacci does a pretty decent job of steering clear of overly exposistional conversation between characters. The female lead is, of course, completely one-dimensional in comparison to her male counterparts, willing to give up everything simply to assist her one true love (at first site, mind you) in whatever he may need. Vomitous.
Although Baldacci "hides the ball" in terms of plot development, presumably as an attempt to build suspense, I was pretty certain how things would turn out about 200 pages prior to the conclusion. In fact, within a hundred pages of the finale, I basically just stopped caring.
Rating:
Summary: Painful to read
Review: I have enjoyed Baldacci's work before but this book was simply awful. I couldn't believe any of the characters and the storyline was terrible. I was very surprised to get such stilted writing from Baldacci. You can miss this one in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Painful to read
Review: I have enjoyed Baldacci's work before but this book was simply awful. I couldn't believe any of the characters and the storyline was terrible. I was very surprised to get such stilted writing from Baldacci. You can miss this one in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking
Review: I have read several of his books and have not been disappointed in any of them yet and this is no exception. A few years ago I may have thought it was a little far fetched, but I have been reading too many political books lately (trying to figure out what is going on in this country) and find that it is very believable. There are a lot of twists and turns and thrills and suspense, and romance (some have said they could leave it out, but I kinda liked it) to keep you interested. Rufus Harms has been in military prison for 25 years for killing a little girl. He knows he did it but he didn't know why until he receives a letter and then it comes back to him. He gets an appeal sent to the supreme court, but important people find out and anyone who has any knowledge about the case is murdered. Rufus knows he is in trouble and his days are numbered if stays in prison. Buy the book and find out what happens. I don't think you will be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A fine novel, but not his best
Review: I normally try to find all the good points in a novel when I'm ready to review it. I liked this one because it: a) dealt with the Supreme Court, something I'm not too familiar with. b) had good character devlopment. c) had a nice, stratigized plot, and d) it had good suspense. As in all previous Baldacci books, he tries to incorporate romance into them. No. Don't do that. Leave it out. It hurts the book. If my brother was blown away, I wouldn't be sleeping with another woman half a week later. It's unrealistic. Rufus, on the other hand, is a great character. The best chapter in the book, I think, is the first one. I read it about three times. I loved the beginning, and the end was okay. The dialogue analyzed the characters in itself, but Baldacci uses profanity when it's simply not needed. Profanity is used, in writing, to subdue emotions, to bring out feelings, to support the dialogue or a scene, not for chit-chat. It's pointless. All in all, despite some minor flaws and cliches, I'd give it four stars. It was good reading, and worth the time spent reading it. Keep it up, Mr. Baldacci.
|
