A Review: Saving Faith by David Baldacci

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: Vision (September 1, 2000)
ISBN-10: 0446608890
ISBN-13: 978-0446608893







 The characters in this book are pretty typical for a Baldacci novel...

• Smart beautiful heroine
• Strong handsome hero
• Evil political bad guy
• Hired assassin

Although not his best, Saving Faith is enjoyable, but not riveting.  Faith Lockhart works for Danny Buchanan, a highly successful Washington, D.C. lobbyist, and together they bribe politicians to gain support for their humanitarian causes.  Evil done in order to do good.  CIA super-patriot Robert Thornhill knows about their activities and begins blackmailing Buchanan.  Thornhill is obsessed with regaining primacy over the FBI and will stop at nothing to attain his goal.  He is not above hiring an assassin to get rid of Faith after she goes to the FBI.  In the meantine, Buchanan hires our hero, private investigator Lee Adams to follow Faith and report back to him. 

Lee saves Faith from the assassin and together they go on the run.  The CIA follow Lee and Faith, and the FBI follow the CIA on an exciting chase from Washington to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  The novel is a bit overdone with too many heroes and too many sub-plots, making it a bit cumbersome to get through at times.  However, it moves fast and is full of suspense and action.
 

Synopsis (from the author's website)

Not far from Washington, D.C., in a wooded area of Northern Virginia, a small house at the end of a gravel road serves a secret purpose. With its sophisticated security apparatus and hidden miniaturized cameras, it is being used by the FBI to interview one of the most important witnesses the agency has ever had, a young woman with an incredible story to tell. But a few people know about the secret meeting. And for them, a violent drama is about to begin.
One man -- a local private investigator named Lee Adams -- has come to the house on the orders of his client. Another man, a hired killer, stakes out the house on orders from his powerful paymasters. And the witness, Faith Lockhart, is coming to tell the FBI everything she knows about the powerful lobbyist with whom she has worked, a man who manipulates U.S. government policy and who, in the process, made some very dangerous enemies.

Then, before Faith can tell her story, the hit man pulls the trigger and the wrong victim falls. Now Faith Lockhart is on the run -- from the most dangerous people in America -- with Lee Adams, a man she doesn't know, yet must trust. A relentless chase novel that unfolds as both the FBI and a killer search for Faith and Lee, this is also a searing and utterly suspenseful tale of power gone mad in Washington, and of one woman's desperate attempt to break out of a web of corruption and terror that reaches much further than even she can know. Saving Faith elevates the thriller to a new level and poses stunning questions about the rules we live by, the rules we are governed by -- and what happens when some people make rules of their own.

A Review: Dead Watch by John Sandford

Hardcover: 373 pages
Language: English
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group May 2006
ISBN-10: 0399153543
ISBN-13: 9780399153549




I'm an avid John Sandford fan, especially of his "Prey" series and its main character, Lucas Davenport. In Dead Watch Sandford has created another interesting, though not as complex, main character, Jake Winter. While Winter is smart and diligent, he doesn't have the edge that Davenport has. Still, he is interesting enough to keep you reading. Actually, the most interesting and challenging character in the book is Jake's love interest and estranged wife of a kidnapped politician, Madison Bowe.

Ex-Senator Lincoln Bowe disappears and the White House asks Jake to investigate. Madison is very vocal about her belief that Virginia Governor Arlo Goodman is behind the disappearance. When Bowe's headless corpse is discovered, Jake is under even more pressure to find out what happened. Aided by Madison (and wondering if she may be involved), Jake follows a trail of deception that suggests that the disappearance and murder may be a plot to derail Governor Goodman's ascent to the presidency.

I think Jake has a lot of potential as a main character and hope that Sandford writes another novel featuring him. However, the plot in Dead Watch was rather convoluted, with too many suspects to keep track of. The nature of the murder plot was just too unbelievable and sensational. That said, it still was an interesting read.

Synopsis (from the author's website)

Late afternoon, Virginia, and a woman is on the run. Her husband, a former U.S. Senator named Lincoln Bowe, has been missing for days. Kidnapped? Murdered? She doesn't know, but she thinks she knows who's involved, and why. And that she may be next.

Hours later, a phone rings in the pocket of Jacob Winter. An Army Intelligence veteran, Winter specializes in what he thinks of as forensic bureaucracy. Congress, the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security – when something goes wrong, Winter kicks over rocks until he finds out what really happened. The White House is his main client, and the chief of staff is on the phone now.

If Bowe isn't located soon, he is told, all hell will break loose.

What Winter doesn't realize is – all hell will break loose anyway. And he will be right in the middle of it. Large forces are at work, men determined to do whatever it takes to achieve unprecedented ends. Before the next few days are out, Winter will discover he has to use every one of his resources not only to prevail... but just to survive.

And so will the nation....