Spine tingling…no. Engaging and plausible, absolutely.
The Whole Truth
David Baldacci
Synopsis
“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.
Richard says
Baldacci is near as current as a reporter in this novel. He writes about “perception management,” a process that allows you to understand how your behaviors, words, appearance, and choices influence the ways that others see you. Within a professional setting, these perceptions can present opportunities for advancement if you understand how to manage them. What this means is one manages their behavior, their words, and their appearance to influence how others perceive them. Project a regal appearance with all the accouterments it entails, and you likely will be viewed as royalty.
Now expand this to the world stage and you can see how any organization that excels in perception management has the potential to affect the perception the world has about something. Conspiracy theorists would be passionate users of such a tool. Baldacci incorporates the concept into The Whole Truth into an attention-grabbing but plausible plot.
The United States is the largest arms exporter in the world holding almost 40% of the world market with its closest rival, Russia, controlling just 19%. Now imagine a military arms producer in the US wanting to increase its sales using the tool of perception management. They begin by planting seeds in the news, on the Internet, in diplomatic circles, seeds which increase international fears that some kind of war is imminent and that your nation, any nation, every nation needs to arm itself more. As the momentum increases, the bigger nations join in the militarization, and the perception snowballs. The manufacturer using the tool smiles with glee as its profit column increases.
Now imagine that no one suspects that perception is being manipulated. What is being published, reported, and broadcast is viewed as authentic and true. More nations would get on the military bandwagon, adding to the momentum of the moment.
That’s the essence of Baldacci’s plot in this novel. It is more intellectual plausibility than espionage or murder intricacies. Baldacci’s hero, Shaw, a man with no first name, digs deep to uncover the plot.
Once again, Baldacci writes an unexpected but very engaging story. Could it happen? Maybe. Is it happening? Maybe, but not likely to the extent that Baldacci writes. Could it really happen? Maybe.
The Whole Truth may not be spine-tingling and exciting in style, but it is an intellectually engaging plot. The fear it develops is that what Baldacci writes is plausible in the real world. That is very frightening.
