Cover of THE WHOLE TRUTH
courtesy of Grand Central Publishing
THE WHOLE TRUTH by David Baldacci

David Baldacci has been on a roll of late. He has written several “Camel Club” novels and now starts on a new set of characters in THE WHOLE TRUTH. Once again murder and mayhem are the themes of his book but this time it is on a global basis rather than centered in the United States. It is an action packed thriller but unfortunately it is also packed with pages and pages of explanatory motivational material which brings the plot to a clogged up stop at times.

The central character is a man named Shaw. He is an involuntary soldier of fortune for a “gun for hire” secret organization headed up by a man named Frank. Shaw wants to leave the organization but Frank won’t let him. He has ways of keeping Shaw in this forced servitude. 

Frank, however, has fallen in love with a woman named Anna and wants to marry her. He tells Frank he will do one more job for him and then he is out. Frank does not agree with this but does indicate he might think about it.

While this is happening a very rich man named Nicholas Creel is orchestrating world chaos. He is a merchant of weapons of war and the world has become too peaceful for his taste. He has to come up with a way to bring the nations of the earth to the brink of war so they will buy up his weapons and make him even richer.

Meanwhile Katie James, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, is trying to get her career back on track. She has had a drinking problem in the past and it has set back her career. When she stumbles across Shaw doing some of his secretive things she becomes interested and begins to follow him. Little does she know that being around Shaw can get a girl killed.

Shaw, Anna, Creel, Frank and Katie are all pawns on the chessboard of Baldacci’s novel. He moves them around with assurance and with understanding of each person’s role in the greater scheme of things.

It is a pity Baldacci didn’t trust his story to be enough. Instead he gives us more information about Creel’s plans for world dominion than we need to know. We get it. Creel is a megalomaniac and uses his money and power to create havoc. We don’t need a million words to explain all that.

Maybe Baldacci’s publisher wanted a certain number of words in the story, or maybe Baldacci just got carried away with the sound of his own words. Whatever the reason the book feels padded and bloated. There is a good suspense thriller lurking inside all this verbiage so skim the excess and focus on the basics.

Shaw could well be as much of a franchise for Baldacci as “the camel club.” But next time he needs to edit the excess out.

THE WHOLE TRUTH is published by Grand Central Publishing. It contains 406 pages and sells for $26.99.
 

 

 

 

 

©2008 Jackie K. Cooper

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