2008: #49 – The Whole Truth (David Baldacci)

Book #49 was The Whole Truth by David Baldacci. The back of the book reads:

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.

Willing to do anything to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James is a journalist who has just gotten the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.

In this terrifying, global thriller, these characters’ lives will collide head-on as a series of events is set in motion that could change the world as we know it. An utterly spellbinding story that feels all too real, THE WHOLE TRUTH delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters, and can’t-put-it-down pacing that readers expect from David Baldacci-and still goes beyond anything he’s written before.

This was a slow starter for me, but once Katie and Shaw met, I was hooked. The conspiracy is deep, actually plausible, and I think it does raise some questions about what the “truth” of anything really is — especially in the digital age. I had a hard time respecting Katie, but I wasn’t unhappy with how things turned out. Not my absolute favorite Baldacci, but definitely a book he shouldn’t be ashamed of.

Page count: 416 | Approximate word count: 111,305

2007: Holiday in Death (J.D. Robb)
2006: All That Remains (Patricia Cornwell)
2005: I’ll Be Seeing You (Mary Higgins Clark)