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The Simple Truth
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Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Average Customer Rating:
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The Simple Truth Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780446607711
ISBN: 0446607711
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 544
Publication Date: 1999-11-01
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780446607711
ISBN: 0446607711
Label: Grand Central Publishing
Manufacturer: Grand Central Publishing
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 544
Publication Date: 1999-11-01
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Studio: Grand Central Publishing
Editorial Review of The Simple Truth
Rufus Harms is rotting in a Virginia military prison. As readers learn in the terse opening of The Simple Truth, he was convicted 25 years ago of the brutal killing of a young girl. Readers also learn that Rufus did not commit the crime; out of a haze of memories and with fragments of evidence, he has reconstructed the truth about the horrid event that ruined his life. He knows his discovery could cost him his life, so he breaks from prison after sending an appeal to the Supreme Court that details a massive conspiracy tied into the foundations of Washington.The complex drama of Rufus Harms is only one of the interwoven threads in this massive, violent legal thriller that also draws from the vocabulary of hard-boiled crime fiction. Baldacci offers glimpses into the arcane politics of the high court, where Justice Elizabeth Knight wages war with the manipulative Chief Justice Harold Ramsay. And while Harms struggles to keep out of harm's way and the justices duke it out, Supreme Court law clerk Sara Evans toils with ex-cop John Fiske to discover the import of Harms's appeal (and, simultaneously, to uncover the murderer of Mike Fiske, John's lawclerk-brother and the original holder of the appeal). Their interest in the document apparently draws the attention of the same deadly conspirators who manipulated Harms over two decades earlier. While the armed mayhem sometimes rises to the point of excess, Baldacci's novel continues to offer new surprises until the final pages. --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews of The Simple Truth
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: complex conspiracy
Review: Rufus Harms has been in a military prison for 25 years of a life sentence for killing a young girl. But he's been having flashbacks, and remembers now what really happened. So he sends an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Michael Fiske, a Supreme Court clerk, finds the appeal, which doesn't follow the proper procedures and should be turned down, but something about it interests him, so he takes it with him to check it out. One of the calls he makes is to his semi-estranged brother John, who's an ex-cop turned defense lawyer.
Before John returns the call, though, Michael is killed, and Sarah Evans, the Supreme Court clerk Michael had proposed to shortly before his death, contacts him, and they begin an investigation that brings them closer together and deeper in danger.
I really enjoyed the conspiracy plot, but the backstory and the Supreme Court tutorial went on too long and interrupted the story too much. It was interesting, but it really wasn't part of the story.
The romance plot, too, bugged me in spots. I had a very hard time understanding why Michael would propose to Sarah, when they'd only dated casually and hadn't even slept together. I also had trouble believing that Sarah fell in love with John at first glance.
But overall, the complex conspiracy and John's complex character saved the story for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Good mass appeal
Review: My first Baldacci book and I enjoyed it. It is a fast paced and easy read. Good for the beach, airplane or bedtime. The truncated chapters and simple sentences are appropriate for the impatient attention span of the Internet generation! I hope his marriage is better than the cold, calculating interaction between the sexes, though! I will try other Baldacci "brainbusters".
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: David BAdacci
Review: Book arrived in excellent condition. I have not had the time to read it but it is next.
thank you
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Author is Consistently Good
Review:
David Baldacci attended law school at the University of Virginia, and went on to work as a trial lawyer, and later as a corporate lawyer, in Washington, D.C. He is now a full-time writer whose best selling novels include Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner and Saving Faith. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
First published in 1998 this is yet another winner for the author, whose books are consistently good and have well thought out plots and believable and well-rounded characters. Baldacci has established himself as one of the best suspense thriller writers around at the moment.
Rufus Harms is an old hand at prison, he should be, he has been rotting there for the last 25 years for the brutal killing of a young girl. The he receives a letter smuggled into the jail by his brother. It reveals that a possible massive miscarriage of justice has occurred, something that threatens to blow the justice of the Supreme Court wide open . . .
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Simple Review
Review: Quite a good story with interesting characters and a well-paced plot.
I did have a few nits with it, though. (Mainly because I've made the same mistakes in my own writing. ^_^) The main one was the constant subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb sentences. Quite a few times I noticed over half the sentences in any one paragraph beginning with "he," "she," and the like. And, of course, once I saw that, I couldn't un-see it, so it bothered me for the remainder of the book. In general, the writing is good, but a little more variety in sentence structure would have been wonderful.
And I felt bad for John for losing his brother before being able to become friends with him again. There's quite a gulf between me and my own brother that I doubt will ever be bridged, but seeing it from an outsider's perspective is sad.
I would definitely read this author again.
Review Summary: complex conspiracy
Review: Rufus Harms has been in a military prison for 25 years of a life sentence for killing a young girl. But he's been having flashbacks, and remembers now what really happened. So he sends an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Michael Fiske, a Supreme Court clerk, finds the appeal, which doesn't follow the proper procedures and should be turned down, but something about it interests him, so he takes it with him to check it out. One of the calls he makes is to his semi-estranged brother John, who's an ex-cop turned defense lawyer.
Before John returns the call, though, Michael is killed, and Sarah Evans, the Supreme Court clerk Michael had proposed to shortly before his death, contacts him, and they begin an investigation that brings them closer together and deeper in danger.
I really enjoyed the conspiracy plot, but the backstory and the Supreme Court tutorial went on too long and interrupted the story too much. It was interesting, but it really wasn't part of the story.
The romance plot, too, bugged me in spots. I had a very hard time understanding why Michael would propose to Sarah, when they'd only dated casually and hadn't even slept together. I also had trouble believing that Sarah fell in love with John at first glance.
But overall, the complex conspiracy and John's complex character saved the story for me.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Good mass appeal
Review: My first Baldacci book and I enjoyed it. It is a fast paced and easy read. Good for the beach, airplane or bedtime. The truncated chapters and simple sentences are appropriate for the impatient attention span of the Internet generation! I hope his marriage is better than the cold, calculating interaction between the sexes, though! I will try other Baldacci "brainbusters".
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: David BAdacci
Review: Book arrived in excellent condition. I have not had the time to read it but it is next.
thank you
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Author is Consistently Good
Review:
David Baldacci attended law school at the University of Virginia, and went on to work as a trial lawyer, and later as a corporate lawyer, in Washington, D.C. He is now a full-time writer whose best selling novels include Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner and Saving Faith. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
First published in 1998 this is yet another winner for the author, whose books are consistently good and have well thought out plots and believable and well-rounded characters. Baldacci has established himself as one of the best suspense thriller writers around at the moment.
Rufus Harms is an old hand at prison, he should be, he has been rotting there for the last 25 years for the brutal killing of a young girl. The he receives a letter smuggled into the jail by his brother. It reveals that a possible massive miscarriage of justice has occurred, something that threatens to blow the justice of the Supreme Court wide open . . .
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The Simple Review
Review: Quite a good story with interesting characters and a well-paced plot.
I did have a few nits with it, though. (Mainly because I've made the same mistakes in my own writing. ^_^) The main one was the constant subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb sentences. Quite a few times I noticed over half the sentences in any one paragraph beginning with "he," "she," and the like. And, of course, once I saw that, I couldn't un-see it, so it bothered me for the remainder of the book. In general, the writing is good, but a little more variety in sentence structure would have been wonderful.
And I felt bad for John for losing his brother before being able to become friends with him again. There's quite a gulf between me and my own brother that I doubt will ever be bridged, but seeing it from an outsider's perspective is sad.
I would definitely read this author again.