The Whole Truth (Shaw) - Softcover

Baldacci, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446539686 ISBN 13: 9780446539685

Publisher: Vision, 2009

Synopsis

A powerful defense contractor, a reluctant intelligence agent, and an ambitious journalist race to contain and control an international crisis that could destroy the world in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.

"Dick, I need a war."

Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world's largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to "perception manage" his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind.

Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace.

Desperate to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James gets the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.

In David Baldacci's first international thriller, these characters face a catastrophic threat that could change the world as we know it.

About this title

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)

"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

"Baldacci boldly steps into the arena of international thriller and may have created his most explosive and hard-hitting story to date."--BookReporter.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Vision
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0446539686
• ISBN 13: 9780446539685
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 544