The Whole Truth

I was reluctant to purchase David Baldacci's The Whole Truth as some of his most recent books have been lacking in quality. Fortunately, this latest book reminds me of his earlier and better works.

Nicholas Creel owns a defense contracting business called Ares. In an effort to bolster sales, he hires Dick Pender whose specialty is perception management. Perception managers fabricate facts and then pass them off to the public as truth. "Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?" Pender hatches a scheme to create an international incident that will result in a number of superpowers on the verge of war. These countries will then increase their defense spending and order weapons and equipment from Ares.

Part of the scheme is called "The Red Menace." Pender and staff are planting false stories about the Russians in the news and over the internet. Several people suspect that these stories are false, including journalist Kate James, consultant Anna Fischer and operative A. Shaw. In usual thriller fashion, the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous their lives become. How The Whole Truth unfolds will have you turning pages at breakneck speed.

Baldacci is good in that he incorporates many present day current events to make The Whole Truth very realistic. While almost all thrillers have an element of disbelief, you can actually imagine many of these situations taking place.

I am happy that Baldacci took a break from his Camel Club series and has given us something totally new. The Whole Truth is the kind of book that I have come to expect from Baldacci. Overall, I'd rate it four and a half stars.

Dick Pender, a former employee in the White House press office, is an expert in perception management. His motto is: "Why waste time trying to discover the truth, when you can so easily create it?" In David Baldacci's "The Whole Truth," some very influential people pay Pender big bucks to bury inconvenient secrets and manipulate public opinion, using cleverly crafted lies packaged for maximum media impact. Pender's most important client is Machiavellian billionaire Nicholas Creel, the head of a defense conglomerate called the Ares Corporation. Creel, who believes that "a peace based on lurking terror was the best kind of all," hires Pender to manufacture an artificial conflict that would generate a stepped-up arms race among the world's superpowers.

Baldacci's hero is Shaw, a globetrotting troubleshooter for a shadowy international law-enforcement organization, "sort of like Interpol on steroids." He is a strong and physically imposing man whose knowledge of surveillance, hand-to-hand combat, and weaponry makes him a highly valuable asset. His acting ability, uncanny intuition, courage, and coolness under pressure have helped him prevail in a number of dangerous situations. On any given day, Shaw's quarry might include ruthless drug dealers, bloodthirsty terrorists, or vicious neo-Nazis. Although Shaw dreams of retiring and living a sedate life with his beautiful and brilliant girlfriend, German-born Anna Fischer, his boss has him in a stranglehold from which he cannot easily break free.

Complicating matters is Katie James, an award-winning investigative journalist. As a result of a traumatic experience in Afghanistan, she became an alcoholic who has been relegated to writing obituaries. Through happenstance, Katie meets Shaw and both narrowly escape after a run-in with a group of murderous thugs in Scotland. When an unexpected tragedy sends an enraged Shaw on a mission of revenge, Katie decides to risk her life in order to help him and, in the process, pursue the biggest story of her career.

Although it is action-packed and suspenseful, "The Whole Truth" is marred by cliché-ridden dialogue and cartoonish villains who utter such lines as: "I didn't bring you here for a lecture. I brought you here to die." The story is convoluted and extremely violent, and the author repeatedly hammers home his heavy-handed message that unscrupulous individuals and even governments intentionally mislead us by disseminating false information. At best, "The Whole Truth" provides escapist entertainment for readers who are willing to overlook the book's one-dimensional characters, far-fetched plot, and pedestrian writing.

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.

Why indeed? Far outside the world of spin doctors (whose words generally contain at least a kernel of truth) are the `perception managers' whose role it is to create particular situations or the fear of those situations in such a way that people, organisations (and governments) react in specific ways.

Far fetched? Hmm. That may depend upon your own perceptions of the powers of those who are solely motivated either by self-interest or by a view that only they know what is real and what is not. We can each make up our minds there.

The worlds of Nicolas Creel, Shaw, and Katie James are not pleasant places. You may make up your own mind about how far people might actually go in the pursuit of ends they consider important.

This novel was an excellent `rainy day read' for me. I didn't care for the character development, nor did I always accept some of the reactions. For these reasons I am not giving the novel five stars. However, this is a fast-moving story that does, if you are so minded, catch you up within a world where facts are relative, where some will stoop to nothing in order to try to manipulate for the outcomes they are seeking. A little like someone starting a fire to demonstrate how effectively they might put it out. Some of you may see parallels in other recent world events, others may dismiss it as pure hyperbole. Your choice: but definitely worth reading. I'd like to read more from Mr Baldacci in this particular space.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

In every story there is a premise. The plot can be real or a figment of one's imagination. If it is unreal or illogical, it can interfere with the reader's enjoyment. Such is, perhaps, the case with this novel.

The plot is a fairly simple one. Nicolas Creel, the head of a large defense contractor somewhat on the skids, undertakes to recreate the Cold War to encourage another arms race. Along the way, to accomplish this aim, the collateral damage is widespread, with many people left dead, Russia and China at each other's throats. Only Shaw, a larger-than-life protagonist, and Katie James, a two-time Pulitzer Prize journalist turned unemployed alcoholic (along with a little help) can uncover the plot and prevent Armageddon. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars of arms contracts flow to the instigator of the plot, as well as other defense companies.

The problem is, the premise is highly improbable. For a defense contractor to sell weapons and other materiel overseas, permission and a license has to be granted by the United States Government. Without such an OK, no sale. So the truth is the premise for this novel is pure fiction. But, after all, that's what novels are for. So, if the reader can by-pass this little impediment, a highly charged and entertaining read is available.