The Simple Truth - Hardcover

Baldacci, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446523321 ISBN 13: 9780446523325

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 1998

Synopsis

When cop-turned-attorney John Fiske comes to Washington to investigate his brother's murder, he unearths decades-old secrets and discovers the truth is anything but simple in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.

It's never what it seems...

Young attorney Michael Fiske broke the law when he took Rufus Harms's prison letter from the Supreme Court. But he also sealed his own fate. Suddenly everyone who has anything to do with Harms or his appeal mysteriously dies. Now Michael's brother John, a cop turned attorney, comes to Washington to find out why his brother was murdered--and what it had to do with a crime that Harms committed twenty-five years before. But the one man who can help John, the one man who knows what really happened more than two decades ago--and why--has escaped from prison and is running for his life.

About this title

About the Author

DAVID BALDACCI is a global #1 bestselling author, and one of the world's favorite storytellers. His books are published in over forty-five languages and in more than eighty countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. His works have been adapted for both feature film and television. David Baldacci is also the cofounder, along with his wife, of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. Still a resident of his native Virginia, he invites you to visit him at DavidBaldacci.com and his foundation at WishYouWellFoundation.org.

From the Inside Flap

With his New York Times bestsellers ABSOLUTE POWER, TOTAL CONTROL, and THE WINNER, David Baldacci proved beyond a doubt that he can break new ground every time out of the box. Now he does it again with his most powerful work yet, a heart-pounding thriller that brings to life two vastly different worlds joined by a deadly secret, and by a man and woman searching for...

Behind the scenes, the U.S. Supreme Court is a battleground of egos, intellects, and power. Here brilliant young attorney Mike Fiske toils as an elite foot soldier. His colleague Sara Evans is clerking for a female Court justice who is powerfully connected to Congress. But Sara, whose career has limitless possibilities, is becoming a key player in a struggle that will link a convicted murderer to the Court.

Far from the imposing facade of the High Court is the world of street crime, prison time, and bare-knuckles criminal courts defense. In a Virginia military prison Rufus Harms is just one more lifer claiming innocence. Convicted of killing a girl on an army base twenty-five years ago, Harms smuggles a desperate letter out of his prison cell. It's a bombshell-an appeal to the Supreme Court-that claims he was forced to commit murder.

Suddenly everyone who has anything to do with Harms or the appeal mysteriously dies, including Mike Fiske. When his brother, John, an ex-cop, investigates and asks for Sara's help, they both face a conspiracy that is shaking the very foundations of power in Washington. And the one man who can help them, the one man who knows what really happened twenty-five years ago-and why-has escaped from prison and is running for his life.

From scenes of swift, savage violence to scenes of the cloistered, intricate workings of the High Court itself, from the heat of a summer night on the Potomac to the cold reality of a lifer's prison cell, David Baldacci has written a novel that is passionate, brawling, and electrifying-and as vividly courageous as only the truth can be...

A Main Selection of Book-of-the-Month Club(r)

Reviews

A tiresome potboiler in which an appeal to the US 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 druggedfor reasons of a sketchy natureby 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, Michaels 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, 1997, etc.), the justices behave like ill-tempered childrenexcept 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 lies elsewhere.'' In the final, bloody act, the villain is revealed and denounced amid a Hamletlike body count. Just another big, silly book about lawyers. (First printing of 500,000) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Who is killing Supreme Court law clerks? Michael Fiske is the first to drop, and police do what they do with every mystery: canvass work colleagues for clues. Clerk Sara Evans has one that she keeps to herself. She knows Fiske read something scandalous in an appeal that he filched before the justices could read it. She knows, too, that the appeal was from a Rufus Harms. The reader knows that Rufus is a lifer in an army stockade whose grievance about his murder conviction starts the action. The plot problem is to get Rufus moving. Baldacci engineers that by writing in an escape and pursuit by army officers who want Rufus and anyone who knows about his case dead. Meanwhile, Sara hooks up with the dead Fiske's brother John, an ex-cop who insinuates himself into the investigation. As Sara and John piece together Michael's interest in Rufus' appeal, it becomes obvious that everyone has to meet, sort things out, and empty a few clips of ammo. Baldacci scripts this necessity into three different scenes before revealing the cover-up that accounts for the high body count. The crime being covered up is stale beer compared to the Supreme Court setting, but as with a scenic drive, the destination of a Baldacci cliff-hanger is less important than the route taken. Baldacci's passengers, repeaters and new ones alike, will be clamoring to ride along. Gilbert Taylor

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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0446523321
• ISBN 13: 9780446523325
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 480