The Whole Truth by David Baldacci Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.01 You Save: $26.98 (100%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Whole Truth
Book Review: Baldacci's new hero, A. Shaw, shines
Summary: 4 Stars
It looks like David Baldacci may be trying to create a new James Bond-type hero. Shaw is a secret agent who has nerves of steel to take on terrorists single-handedly.
Shaw is a man of action, but he wants out and he wants to settle down with the woman he loves. That is, until she is killed.
Now he's on a mission to find the person responsible. The mastermind is Nicolas Creel, a philanthropist, but also a man who believes the world is better off believing nuclear holocaust is only a button push away.
As a defense contractor Creel benefits from the weapons build up so he not against creating public opinion where it serves his needs. However, it isn't necessarily the truth.
The Whole Truth has some great plot twists and it reads quickly (with the help of short chapters). While it's a great thriller, the central question of the book is intriguing: Just how easily can public opinion be manipulated and to what ends?
Book Review: David's finest work
Summary: 5 Stars
This book gets several five stars ratings though I have to only give it four stars in the international aspect. I never really felt like I was Dublin or London or on the Mediterranean. It gets ten stars for timing, and five stars for importance and entertainment.
It is usually hard to be highly entertaining and important at the same time. Clive Cussler is the master of entertainment but he hardly tries to educate or sound alarms. "House of War" and "The Creature from Jekyll Island" are extremely important but hardly entertaining.
This book is easily worth several hundred dollars but I can't hardly do it justice right now because the Bushbarians and the perception managers drove me to drink.
While the author laments on the fact that bloggers often don't double check facts, he overlooks the fact that the Pentagon did the same thing until Reagan gave them the desired budget. The USSR had four ICBMs during the 50's 'missile gap'. There was a missile gap alright. Kennedy went on the air encouraging Americans to dig a nuclear bomb shelter in their back yards. Administrations running with unconfirmed information is hardly new.
Book Review: Do Not Waste Your Money!
Summary: 1 Stars
For one thing, I'm a reader, not a publishing house shill, so if you would like to read what an actual fan of the genre thought, here it is: the characters and dialogue are cliches. The plot is simple minded. I would have put the book down but 1) I didn't have another one on hand to start up; 2) it was like a literary car wreck, I just couldn't pull my eyes away; 3) it actually got funny after awhile (probably not the author's intention). If I hadn't seen the author's name on the book, I would have assumed it was a failed romance novelist taking a stab at breaking into a different genre. I have liked Baldacci's previous efforts. In the future, I'll read a sample before I plunk down the cash.Book Review: Does anyone know THE WHOLE TRUTH?
Summary: 4 Stars
If you were a fan of Robert Ludlum, the late, great espionage writer, there's reason to cheer. Even though the Cold War days are over, there are still a bevy of bad guys out there - and this time they don't have turbans on their heads.
David Baldacci's "The Whole Truth" will make you sit back and take a long look at who's really running the show and who's reporting the news these days.
Gazllionaire Nicholas Creel (even his name sounds smarmy), the world's largest defense contractor, doesn't like the way things are going. Russia's been too quiet and China's not currently mad at anyone. He pays a "perception management" team to stir the pot, with violent and fatal results.
In the middle of the action is Katie James, a journalist whose dependency on alcohol has landed her at the obit desk of her newspaper. After covering the funeral of a Scottish hero, James lands in the middle of what she thinks is an international drug smuggling ring. A chance encounter with Shaw (no first name) pulls James into the biggest story of her life, if she can live to tell the tale.
While you'll need to suspend your attachment to reality and there are times the writing goes stale, with "The Whole Truth," Baldacci has established himself as a big man on campus when it comes to political terrorism.
Book Review: Easy, simple, fun!
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the first Baldacci novel I have read and I have to say I did enjoy it, and will see about some of his other books.
The novel is around 300 pages with about 100 chapters, making for very fast paced and easy read. In The Whole Truth Baldacci gives a descriptive narrative that is easy to follow and very simplistic. It impressed me that the vast conspiratorial plot contained in this book was not confusing in the slightest. The characters are likable and plot twists only semi-predictable. If you're looking for an easy read and something that's not very deep you will like this book.