The Winner

Product Information

There is something about the mystery genre that allows for the forgiveness of god-awful, terrible writing. Provided that the plot is there, a simple whodunit could, ostensibly, be written by a person with no more than a fifth-grade vocabulary and still be engaging. At least, that's my opinion. And that's why Grisham had to share nightstand space with my eighth grade graduation invitations. It's also why I'm conflicted on how to review David Baldacci's The Winner. The Winner is a surprisingly interesting and good book. The characters seem very real and you choose your sides very early on. The plot is something else. Even though I'm a writer, I can't imagine coming up with something that intricately planned. It just baffles the mind the twists and turns in this book. Just when you think you've got something figured out, it takes another direction and you're left scratching your head. To let readers know where I'm coming from, my preferred genre is romance novels. The fact that I liked this should mean something since it is off genre for me. Throughout the book there was the underlying frustration of how can anyone ever stop this bad guy, but he gets it eventually. The story was excellent mechanically with good showing not telling. I would have liked more emotional draw to the characters. Not necessary, but I also would have liked more witty or thought provoking dialogue. I liked the LuAnn character a lot. She was physically very strong. Her strength of mind and body actually scared some men. David Baldacci is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and popular writer of twenty-six novels as well as three children’s books. He has sold over a 100 million copies worldwide in print of his novels and over 3 million ebooks. His books have been translated into over forty-five languages and his books are sold worldwide in eighty-eight countries. Baldacci’s novels deal with scandals and compromising situations, cover ups and pursuits, romance and the search for the truth.

Fast forward ten years and our damsel-in-distress is a force of nature - wielding a gun whenever possible and chopping wood faster than her groundskeeper as well as being indescribably beautiful. In fact, her youthful beauty is so unbelievable that she is often mistaken to be her 10 year old daughter's sister. Of course, there are troubles to deal with [tax-evasion has never been so thrilling] and a man who may or may not be an FBI agent steps in to rescue her. This lottery scam even involves the president! Mercy! David Baldacci's authoritative legal thrillers operate on the irresistible notion that a sinister undercurrent threads through the country's most powerful institutions. Were you satisfied by the ending? Did it fulfill your hopes? Was it predictable, or were you surprised?

Publication Order of Shaw Books

My main problem with this book is that I could see the pieces, parts and elements of this book while reading it rather than ever reading it as a whole work. The protagonist needs to look sympathetic, so there will be an element added…here. The villain needs to escape from this situation, so he will have this skill revealed…here. There needs to be some tension introduced, so Matthew Riggs and his mysterious past will be introduced…here. Matthew Riggs needs to have a skill that will help at this exact moment, so one will be revealed just…here. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. The Club discovers a spy is selling secrets, and with the help of an unexpected ally, they may just be able to triumph. The Shaw and Katie James series consist of two books, The Whole Truth and Deliver Us From Evil. James is a journalist about to get her breakout story and Shaw is a mysterious man with a past and a plan. In Zero Day and Forgotten, John Puller is a combat veteran and a military investigator, searching for the truth in cases and in the sequel investigating the death of his own aunt. I have never read anything by David Baldacci before even though I have a few of his books in my to-be-read pile. The Winner appealed to me because of the story about an individual that wins the mega lottery. Isn't that something that we all wish for? You bet it is. Most of the supporting characters are cliché. Some of that I can forgive, even from a best-selling author, but that was not the worst of it.

Baldacci writes under his own name except when published in Italy, where he uses a pseudonym because it is the homeland of his ancestors. I had seen the name many times, but had never read anything by David Baldacci until last week. That Baldacci is a prolific writer is evinced in any airport book store. I was expecting something light and easy like Grisham, but it was a whole lot worse.

In fact, when handing my money to the cashier at the sale, the lady said that this was her favorite David Baldacci book. She had good taste. In addition, the villian was a master of disguise. OK fine. But in this case, it was over the top. Nobody is going to be so good at disguise that they can basically mimic individual people to the extent that they will fool people who are closest to them. Baldacci cuts everyone's grass—Grisham's, Ludlum's, even Patricia Cornwell's—and more than gets away with it.

While his stories hinge on the complex machinations behind the presidency, the FBI, the Supreme Court and other spheres of influence, Baldacci (a former Washington, D.C.-based attorney) finds his way into a mystery through the eyes of the innocents. Semi-innocents, at least: small players who often don't realize they're players at all end up hunting down answers, and their hunt becomes the reader's. But when she gets home to the trailer she shares with the no-good father of her child, she walks into the middle of a drug deal gone wrong. In self-defense she ends up killing a man who has just fatally stabbed her boyfriend. At least she The story, ultimately, is about the possibility of recreating one's identify, changing one's life, and leaving behind a less-than-happy past. For many, it might be wish fulfillment. Is it for you? If you could make yourself over again, what kind of life would you create? Who would you be, what would you do, where would you live? And what would you be getting away from? A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read.LuAnn Tyler is quintessential Georgia "white trash" - a young, beautiful, uneducated and unmarried mother with a typical Southern drawl living in a beat-up trailer with Duane Harvey, a no-account beer-guzzling low-life drug runner! But she is sharp enough to realize that her meaningless life is a dead end and she's trying to find a way out for her daughter. The series is about two Secret Service agents who have fallen from grace after the political candidate King is guarding gets assassinated and the person Maxine Maxwell is guarding gets kidnapped. Split Second is the first book in the series published in 2003. In it, Maxwell is drawn to King’s case which is a good thing since a string of murders have him under suspicion. The action and pressure heat up as they get deeper into a series of coincidence that may have more to do with the past than the present.