The Winner - Hardcover

Baldacci, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446522597 ISBN 13: 9780446522595

Publisher: Warner Books, 1998

Synopsis

He cemented his reputation with the blockbuster "Total Control" and now David Baldacci brings us another thriller that grabs hold and doesn't let go. It's the story of a rags-to-riches heroine. LuAnn Tyler is tough and smart, but she's plunged into a realm of corruption that will make readers think twice the next time they buy a lottery ticket.

About this title

Review:

What would you do to change your life? LuAnn is beautiful, young and dirt poor. She's married to a low-level drugs dealer whose infidelities and incompetent double-dealing put her and her child's lives at risk. Enter master-criminal "Jackson" who offers her vast wealth if she agrees to help him fiddle the lottery. She refuses until she finds herself on the run from false charges of murder. After years abroad she returns because she wants her daughter to be an American teenager. Can she escape the FBI, an inquisitive journalist and the murderous and endlessly ingenious Jackson?

The Winner is a departure for Baldacci. LuAnn is as plucky and resourceful as the heroines of Absolute Power and Total Control, but the plot she inhabits is a new departure for him. Normally he shows us a dark vision of how things really work, but here he brings to life and makes plausible what might have been pulp cliches. As in the description of Jackson, a master of disguise: "Sitting across from her was her double, or the double of the woman she had just become. The same short red hair, facial complexion, crooked nose, everything--it was as though she had suddenly discovered a twin". What's more, his method of rigging lotteries is clever and convincing enough to worry lottery organisers the world over. Perhaps the sunniest and least cynical of Baldacci's thrillers, The Winner is an intelligent, exciting and deeply moral read whose switchback plot is full of surprises and touching moments. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"Flat out fun to read...a wildfire of a thriller."--Publisher's Weekly

"His eye for a cinematic book doesn't waver...Enjoy the ride."--Cleveland Plain Dealer


"Baldacci has come up with another good one."--New York Times

"Aptly named...the devilish tale of a heroine who gambles her soul."--People

"He's hit the jackpot again...Baldacci pushes the pace pedal to the floor and takes the turns on two wheels."--New York Daily News


"It's hard to put the book down."--Chicago Tribune


"The action in this book is relentless...Baldacci has created one of the more amazing characters you're likely to run across--LuAnn Tyler."--Houston Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Warner Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0446522597
• ISBN 13: 9780446522595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528