Product Description

"Dick, I need a war."
Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world's largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to "perception manage" his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind.
Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace.
Willing to do anything to get back to the top of her profession, Katie James is a journalist who has just gotten the break of a lifetime: the chance to interview the sole survivor of a massacre that has left every nation stunned.
In this terrifying, global thriller, these characters' lives will collide head-on as a series of events is set in motion that could change the world as we know it. An utterly spellbinding story that feels all too real, THE WHOLE TRUTH delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters, and can't-put-it-down pacing that readers expect from David Baldacci-and still goes beyond anything he's written before.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1352 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-22
• Released on: 2008-04-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Usually a sophisticated plotter, bestseller Baldacci (Absolute Power) offers a story line and villain on a par with an average James Bond film in what's billed as his first international thriller. Nicholas Creel, the head of the Ares Corporation, a huge defense contractor, hires a perception management firm to start a second cold war by planting fake news stories on the Internet about Russian atrocities. The propaganda campaign soon turns violent with the massacre of the members of a London think tank, the Phoenix Group, apparently by a Russian hit team. Creel hopes that the Phoenix Group's links with the Chinese government will lead to war between Russia and China as well as feed a worldwide arms race that will profit his company. A shadowy operative, A Shaw, whose fiancée perished in the London attack, allies himself with a disgraced female journalist in an effort to thwart Creel's evil plot. While some readers may find it a stretch that a resurgent Russia should so easily overshadow all other world crises, Baldacci in an author's note makes an eloquent case for the very real threat of perception management. (Apr. 22)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
A hired gun named Shaw finds himself involved in an impending war, deliberately incited through an elaborate fabrication created by a specialized PR firm hired by a large defense contractor. When his fiancˆ©e is killed in an incident relating to the ruse, Shaw focuses on finding those responsible--and the truth about what's going on. Ron McLarty delivers the consistent narration the listener depends on to follow Baldacci's plot twists. McLarty's best voices include that of the agency boss, whose tough-guy tone comes through loud and clear. Also well done is Nicolas Creel, the billionaire behind the scheme, as well as various female and foreign characters. Baldacci's plot and McLarty's voices guide the listener as Shaw crusades for the truth. M.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author
David Baldacci lives with his family in Virginia. He and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. He invites you to visit him at: www.david-baldacci.com and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org , and to look into its program to spread books across America at www.FeedingBodyandMind.com.

Customer Reviews

Sometimes the Whole Truth isn't the Truth
Welcome to the world of Perception Management an art that takes spin to a whole 'nother level. Spinning is spinning the truth. Perception Management is spinning lies and turning them into the truth or rather, what people believe is the truth. It took a guy like Hitler awhile to spread the Big Lie, in the online world, if done right, the lie moves like wildfire.

Nicholas Creel wants a war, or at least, the threat of one, because he wants to sell arms. He'd love for Russia and China to be at each other's throats, for America to be afraid of the Red Menace once again, love for them all to be lining up and lining his pockets. World War III, is that a problem? Well, maybe not for Creel.

There's a clip going around on the internet of a Russian telling of how he had been tortured, about how his family had been killed. He says it's time the world knew, "The Whole Truth." Soon the mainstream media picks up the story, the whole world believes it, only problem is, it's not the whole truth and the super secret government agency Shaw (a super spy of the first order who only has the one name) works for wants him to investigate and Shaw, tough as he is, does what he's told, because his super secret government agency bosses have him on a short leash as Shaw has a bomb embedded in his arm.

Anna Fischer, the girl Shaw wants to chuck it all for and go off and live happily ever after with, works for a London think tank and when she's killed, because she doesn't believe the lie, Shaw wants to get even. Now throw in a disgraced female reporter named Katie James, who'd love to make her bones all over again and team her up with super tough guy Shaw and give them larger than life enemies and you have a David Baldacci story that would make Robert Ludlum proud.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Ah, Nicholas can dream.
Not quite up to par with his first book, but David Baldacci has mastered the art form known as political intrigue. Nicholas Creel is the protagonist of Baldacci's latest suspense novel and with the war in Iraq coming to an end, this Defensive system mogul seeks to create a new cold war. Ah, reminisce in the good old days of Ronnie Reagan. So Nicholas out sources the job to management guru Mr. Pender who begins to flood the Internet, newspapers, and television with bogus stories and misinformation to create a media frenzy. But when the Phoenix Group is slaughtered by Russians, Pender tries to connect it to China. Just think of the money to be made by a defense specialist if China and Russia went to war. Ah, Nicholas can dream. Like I said earlier, this isn't Baldacci's best work, but I guess when Baldacci set the standard so high with his earlier works, what is?

Editor of the highly recommended novel: Fates by Georgiou, Tino Fates (2nd Edition)

Pulse-pounding thriller with great characters, plot, etc.
The Whole Truth is my second Baldacci book, the first being The Collectors. Although the two are stylistically similar, if I did not know beforehand, I would have never suspected they were written by the same author -- The Whole Truth is much, MUCH better.

The Collectors was good "fluff." Well this is EXCELLENT fluff! Where The Collectors was corny, tongue-in-cheek, and unbelievable, this book was much more realistic (though still enjoyably cinematic). The protagonist, Shaw, is so hard-boiled, he reminds me of Micky Rourke's character in the Sin City movie, but he's an entirely likable figure, and you can't help but root for him.

This book is also quite timely. Although the device used to stir up anti-Russian sentiment in the book was not at all believable, in real life, the neocons have put into action a much better plan. My only beef with the novel's version of of events is that the U.S. government was blissfully ignorant, and it was all defense-contractor doing. Like The Collectors, and, I presume, Baldacci's other books, The Whole Truth is very skeptical of Big Government and the military-industrial complex. Baldacci is not a hardcore libertarian, but he's a thriller author that hardcore libertarians can more than stomach -- they can enjoy.

This is not great literature, of course, but it was a thoroughly entertaining read. I literally could not put the book down, and for that, it more than merits five stars. Hooray for Baldacci! I hope he keeps this up and lets the corny Camel Club recede into oblivion.