The Whole Truth - Softcover

Baldacci, David

4.07

38,732 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330456520 ISBN 13: 9780330456524

Publisher: Pan, 2008

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‘I need a war . . .’

Nicolas Creel, a super-rich arms dealer, decides that the best way to boost his business is to start a new cold war – and he won’t let anything or anyone get in his way.

As international tensions rise and the superpowers line up against each other, the lives of three very different people will never be the same again. As intelligence agent Shaw, academic Anna Fischer and ambitious journalist Katie James are all drawn into Creel’s games, can anything stop the world from spiralling out of control?

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.

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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

Review:

"When Baldacci is on fire, nobody can touch him." ""Booklist "(starred review)""

"When Baldacci is on fire, nobody can touch him."--Booklist (starred review)

"High-stakes action, shadowy government agencies, and [a] neo-Cold War backdrop . . . Baldacci pushes his plot ahead at such a blistering pace."--Washington Post

"Delicious . . . [a] roller-coaster adventure . . . an utterly enjoyable escapist page-turner."--Tampa Tribune

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