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Overview
Sizzling David Baldacci's novels have been called "sizzling" (USA Today) and "superior" (Houston Chronicle). Now Baldacci is back, with the story of a death row inmate, a Supreme Court clerk, and a crime that is costing people their lives... Terrifying Michael Fiske broke the law when he took Rufus Harms's prison letter from the Supreme Court. But he also sealed his own fate. Now Michael's brother, a cop turned attorney, is coming to Washington to find out why his brother was murdered-and what it had to do with a crime that Rufus Harms committed twenty-five years before... Simply the Best In his new novel of corruption, romance, family, and justice at the heart of the American republic, David Baldacci takes us on a journey of harrowing conspiracy-and proves once again that in the realm of suspense, he is in a league of his own. The Simple Truth It's never what it seems...
Synopsis
Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he doesn't remember committing. When his memory is jogged by a letter from the army, he has a shocking realization: he never intended to kill anyone--he was coerced. From prison, Rufus files an appeal with the Supreme Court, unaware that the real killers are on to him. But the long-time convict knows he's running out of time when the Supreme Court clerk, who is the first to see Rufus' appeal, is murdered. Sprung from prison by his brother, Rufus must now elude capture long enough to expose a shocking cover-up and save his own life.
People
Lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci cuts everyone's grass — Grisham's, Ludlum's even Patricia Cornwell's — and more than gets away with it.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The author who stunned us with the brisk plotting and unique storytelling prowess exhibited in 1996's Absolute Power -- and has since served up the mega-bestselling Total Control and The Winner -- now delivers The Simple Truth, a towering roller-coaster ride of shocking twists and unrelenting action and suspense.Charles Winecoff
The cliches snowball in the TV movie of a thriller. . .— Entertainment Weekly
People
Lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci cuts everyone's grass — Grisham's, Ludlum's even Patricia Cornwell's — and more than gets away with it.Library Journal
Will Baldacci's most recent title be another winner, like his recent New York Times best seller? Here, a man convicted of a murder he's convinced he committed suddenly realizes that he's been framed and launches an appeal that leads to more murder.Kirkus Reviews
A tiresome potboiler in which an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court sets off a killing spree that produces enough corpses for each justice to go one-on-one.Rufus Harms was put away for murdering a little girl, and for 25 years that was okay with him because he thought he was guilty. But now, by dint of bureaucratic snafu, he learns the real story. On that horrific night, he was drugged—for reasons of a sketchy nature—by a group of wicked conspirators; ergo, he had no control over his behavior. Rufus is no mental giant, yet even he can see he may have an out. He contacts his lawyer, the reluctant Samuel Rider, and intimidates him into filing an appeal before the Supreme Court. One fateful morning, then, Michael Fiske, the brightest and best of the Supreme Court clerks, opens the Court's mail, spots the Rider-Harms document, and decides to steal it, hying himself off to the jailhouse to offer Rufus help. This very act tips off the suddenly wary conspirators, and, naturally, they kill Michael. Enter John, Michael's brother, a former cop, currently a somehow idealistic defense attorney, who vows to search out the perp, in turn making himself a suspect. And then, naturally, there's Sara, a superbrilliant, incredibly beautiful lawyer, whose faith in John is immediate and unshakable. Together, they sniff out clues, a process that takes them into the cloistered chambers of the highest court in the land, where, according to Baldacci (The Winner), the justices behave like ill-tempered children—except for the lone woman on the Court who behaves and talks like a character out of a romance novel: 'Sara respected your brother,' she tells John, 'but her heart lieselsewhere.' In the final, bloody act, the villain is revealed and denounced amid a Hamlet-like body count. Just another big, silly book about lawyers.