Rating: 
Summary: Close but no cigar!
Review: I will have to give this book, 3 stars. I enjoyed it, but toward the end things were sloppy. First though. Romano was a great character. Funny too.Okay, here is my beef. It was not until very deep in the book that anyone actually wondered why a 10 year old kid was in an alley in the early AM hours. Also Claire is not at all a great therapist. Here she was, with Web under hipnosis and Romano walks in. She didn't stop the hypnosis, she didn't seem worried that the others persons words he spoke would ruin Web's hypnosis, either. Also, why and how would a psychologist person know about a wiring device, a bug. She glanced at it and just boom, new what is was. And of course, her office going blank while hit that web site. If it was just her office alone, that is shaddy. If it were part of that floor, then most of the devices in the closet would have been dark too. Very hard to detail. Also, the whole dialogue part with Obannon and Strait, toward the end. Didn't seem to fit, more explanation than story. Striat was the man who ran the major drug trade. Well, when we find this out in the book, he was believed to be up in KY selling horses. His boss was asked to stay behind by the FBI., this trip. Well, Strait's boss was believed to always go on these trips, so how did straight sell his product on those times. It is just too easy that he sells it this time when the FBI asked his boss to say. And his boss had said he most of the trips. I think something should have been said about this man who planned so well and how he planed sales when his boss was around. I think the novel is great, only that the last hundred pages seem rush and take the power out of the first part of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Convoluted tale that is not author's best
Review: I've enjoyed David Baldacci's books before . . . in fact, I
particularly enjoyed his last novel (WISH YOU WELL) because
it was so different from his previous efforts; i.e., it was not a
conventional thriller . . . but Baldacci reverts back to form with
LAST MAN STANDING, a rather convoluted tale of an FBI
agents surrounded by a conspiracy of violence . . . I wanted
to care for the main character; however, by the end of this
book that is far too long, I only was sticking around to see what happened . . . and then I was disappointed in the
ending. There was often excessive description, along with gratuitous
violence . . . only the dialogue held my attention . . . it at
last felt "real" to me. In addition, I did like the following passages:
* Web had not anticipated this sort of mental process from
Strait. He thought he had big, dumb Neanderthal figured out,
and here the guy was being thoughtful and maybe even
sensitive. "I take it you've been around horses a long time." "All my life. Folks think they can figure them out. You can't.
You just have to go with the flow and never make the mistake
of thinking you have them pegged. That's wen you get yourself
hurt." "Sounds like a good formula for people too." Strait almost
smiled, Webb noted. Almost. * After being divorced for so long, Claire was close to accepting
that she would forever remain single. There were a few eligible men
in the social circles where she mingled and none of them had
captured her interest. She had girlfriends always on the lookout
to fix her up with yet another tech mini-mogul or lawyer, but she
found them to be so egotistical and self-centered that she figured
marrying one of them wouldn't be all that different from remaining
single. As a rebuke, she had asked one very self-involved high-tech
chap at a party if he had ever heard of Narcissus. He had wanted to
know if it was a new type of Internet software and then gone right
on talking about how fabulous he was. * As the cover slid into its holding trench at the far end of the pool,
web squatted down and examined the current-machine built into
the deep end of the pool. He looked up in time to see Gwen step
out of her sandals and slip out of her robe. She had on a one-piece
suit that was cut a little low at the bosom and a little high at the
hips and buttocks. Her body had a nice tan, and the muscles
in her thighs and calves matched those he had already seen in
her arms and shoulders. Forget the butt-burners and thigh-masters,
women should just go horseback riding.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, unrealistic ending.
Review: The first 400 pages of Baldacci's novel were fantastic. It was fast paced, great characters and many plot twists that keep you fixated to this novel. However the last few chapters become rife with coincidence and a feel that the plot had to "forced" to go the way it was written. I like the character of Web London and believe there is ample opportunity to develop a series exploring Web further, but if there is a next time a less fanciful ending is required!
Rating: 
Summary: Whoever Wrote the Jacket Cover - Never Read Ludlum
Review: This book is so ridiculously predictable that it would have been better if he'd left out chapters. (If you buy it, please skip chapter 21 as from there on... well, you'll get the idea.) At times you felt like the writer wrote himself into a corner and had to backtrack and insert a chapter to help the book make sense. Even then - the absurdity of all the pieces coming together - as they do in the end - is laughable. This guy writes nothing like Ludlum, Grisham, etal, and should not, however remotely, be considered to be in the same class. It is a beach book at best. NB: The review by Kristen White is one of four, three for Balducci, that she has written. Clearly she is his publicist, publisher, sister or in some way connected to Balducci. There is no way a review for this book, like the one she has written, is put forth without some outside motivation.
Rating: 
Summary: Big book, big disappointment
Review: Superhero stuff centered totally around one character. The author tries to make him more than one dimensional by putting him in therapy. Shades of "The Sopranos". Some books you enjoy and think they would make a great movie. This just seems to be written for the movies and not a very good one at that. It's Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger territory. Not up to Baldacci's best. I should have given up after the first few chapters. As an American living overseas, I'm afraid the most enjoyable parts of the book were the descriptions of my native Virginia.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Predictable
Review: Just finished this novel - my first by Balducci. The action scenes are okay but spaced very far apart. The suspense is practically nonexistent given the predictability of every move in this book. Balducci tried to throw in twists at the end which are lame and feel to have been concocted just to tie in absurd story lines. Don't bother with this one. For great mystery/detective novels, I highly recommend the earlier works by Robert Crais and Michael Connelly.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best of Baldaaci
Review: The Last Man Standing is disappointing. The hero is so interested in what has happened to him and his own self-analysis is so detailed that it's hard to maintain any real interest. Baldacci's previous books were page turners. This one sat around for a long time waiting to get a page turned.
Rating:
Summary: Ponderous machine
Review: At the beginning ,action every 100 pages, and boy do those pages drag. The plot is movie style convoluted and not close to reality based. How come we keep witnesses alive so long, when all that is intended is their demise?
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre and Long
Review: The book has a good setup. You've got a elite Hostage Rescue Team at the FBI that gets utterly wiped out in a mysterious surprise ambush and one man happened to freeze and survive. That makes two big mysteries and there are another few piled on top of it. Unfortunately the characters aren't as formed as you'd like and it makes it hard to get attached to them. In fact, almost all the male characters turn out to be your classic tough guy with a kind sensitive interior and tragic past. I found myself just waiting to find out what the next character's childhood issue would be. The book does its best to pull up a surprise ending by forcing a few disparate stories to become strangely connected. The book is okay as an action/suspense read. I was entertained throughout, but not moved or inspired in the slightest. I finished unattached to any of the characters and somewhat annoyed at the way four or so plotlines just kind of loosely fall together.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but too long!
Review: Baldacci writes a good story but at 548 pps it is too long because he goes into detail on any thing that comes up:guns,cars,horse farming,functions of FBI units. I'm surprised he didn't spend 25pps on Viet Nam. I enjoyed the plot and subplots, the characters, and all the action but the bookshould be about 400 pps long. i wasglad to put the book down just torest my mind. The main character isWeb London, the last man standing.He is a member of the Hostage Rescue Team or HRT. There is a lotof action and murders or killings but you won't know why until the end. Drug lords are at each other'sthroats to make money on Oxycontin.a prescription drug sweeping intothe cities. Web and his partner,Paul Romano, are using their ownmethods to complete their assignments and ferret out the plans made by psychiatrists and drug runners and even higher-ups in the FBI. This is a good read but be prepared to plod thru the dullpages to get into the action,
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