The Winner by David Baldacci Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Winner
Book Review: Another Big Score!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a novel that defies you to put it down until you finish it. It is a lengthy but fast read. I thoroughly enjoyed Baldacci's ABSOLUTE POWER and the action here is no second banana. I highly recommend this book. You care about LuAnn and her crew and you ache to see the destruction of her chief nemesis. The character development of all of the characters is rich and believable. Baldacci has the knack of creating characters that you can easily visualize. The action is non-stop and you really don't care if the plot is a tiny bit flawed. After all this is fiction...very good fiction. Baldacci knows how to tell an intriguing tale.LuAnn Tyler is a twenty-year-old mother with a two-year-old child living in rural Georgia. She is smart, she is beautiful and she is trapped in a relationship with the abusive and lazy father of her daughter. LuAnn is trying to make the best of a bad situation when fate enters into her life in the person of a mysterious stranger named Jackson or so he calls himself at their first meeting: a meeting she believes is a job interview but she soon learns it is a meeting that is dramatically going to change the rest of her life. Circumstances engineered in part by the mysterious Jackson conspire to persuade LuAnn to participate in a lottery fraud that allows her to win a hundred million dollars. The only thing LuAnn has to do is promise to leave the country and to let Jackson manage her winnings.
In LuAnn's forced sojourn she acquires an education, numerous skills and a pronounced degree of sophistication. For ten years LuAnn, her bodyguard Charlie and daughter Lisa move from place to place in Europe so as not to become a spectacle. Eventually however LuAnn wearies of her Bedouin existence and longs for home...no matter what the cost she plots her return. This, of course, promises to upset Jackson's intricate plan. Rather than allow that to happen Jackson plots his own intrigue to end the threat: a threat he views as having the potential of destroying him. The twists and turns on this rollercoaster ride should satisfy even the most cynical critic of this type of genre. Enjoy and hold on tight!
Book Review: Average book; Excellent Author
Summary: 3 Stars
I have always enjoyed David Baldacci's work and make an effort to pick up anything I may not have read. For the most part I consider them well written; unfortunately, this one misses the mark. First, it is undeniably a "chick book." Second, the ability to suspend disbelief is relatively impossible (even for this chick,) considering the outlandish premise, the superhuman deeds, and occasional contradictions. LuAnn supposedly has incredible athletic ability, and states she remembers every minute of the last 10 years. Even allowing for hyperbole, how on earth does she forget, even briefly, what her even more superhuman nemesis looks like? I'm afraid this book should be considered more in the genre of Iris Johanson and Katherine Coulter.
Come on, David! You can, and have, done much, much better than this.
Book Review: B aldacci Continues to Amaze
Summary: 5 Stars
I have been a fan of Baldacci since I read the first book. He keeps the plot moving. I have found a new author who I enjoy as much although their styles are very different. Andie Peterson, author of Northern Explosion, keeps the plot moving with believable characters and setting. I gave her a five star rating, too. I recommend these authors wholeheartedly.Book Review: Back so Soon? Yes, and This One is Much Better than Saving Faith!
Summary: 5 Stars
I took the advice of other Baldacci readers after my previous review and picked up The Winner. I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the best suspense thrillers I have read that doesn't involve a serial killer in a long time. My first Baldacci book was Wish You Well, and that will appeal to people who love stories about southerners and loyalty to family. Saving Faith was a good political thriller. The Winner, so far, is my absolute favorite of the three I have gotten my hands on.
As I often have the misfortune of coming along to write reviews long after other people have beaten the plot to death with their own, I will save long-winded breath and tell you that this book is irresistibly hard to put down, audio or otherwise. LuAnn Tyler is not just some whimpy, helpless country hick heroine, but a very good and admirable person who did something you and I would most likely do if we were in her situation--accepting fixed lottery winnings to get herself and daughter Lisa out of a very hopeless situation and escaping from the scene of a murder she did not commit. You really care about this person and hope for the best in the end. She becomes a different person in ten years thanks to the mysterious and wicked Jackson aka Peter Crane, but she is also a victim of her fixed fortune.
She also has two great and likeable allies in "Charlie" the man who has been at her and Lisa's side for the entire decade, having become so loyal to her that he places his own life in jeopardy as he eventually turns his back on the evil and cunning Jackson, and also in a mysterious builder who also has something in his own past to hide.
Nonstop twisting and turning plot, a strong and admirable female protagonist, and a truly dispicable villain (in fact, among my favorite villains in modern literature) guarantee you one very fine and satisfying read. Baldacci is fast becoming one of my very favorite writers, and I have another of his books I'm starting tomorrow. One thing the back of the jacket says is that you will think twice about playing the lottery. Sorry, but Mr. Baldacci did not scare me THAT badly, masterful and versatile writing talent that he is! Pick this one up, because it is definitely not a loser.
Book Review: Baldacci Pens a Winner!
Summary: 5 Stars
An entertaining page-turner, each chapter is packed with riveting suspense. Rings true with authenticity. Leave the reader believing the author has actually figured out how to rig the lottery. Baldacci is at the top of his game with this novel. Highly recommended.