I just finished reading True Blue, Baldacci's latest. The book did not "track" any of Baldacci's regular characters but rather was the story of Mace Perry, a young woman, formerly a Washington, D.C. police officer, and just released from prison for a crime she did not commit or says she did not commit. Her sister, Elizabeth Perry, is the Police Chief of Washington, D.C. and her father was a United States Attorney for D.C. who had been murdered when Mace was twelve years old. This particular book was, I would have to say, Baldacci's weakest contribution to the world of "thriller" fiction. The story really never picked up until maybe the final twenty pages or so. I didn't do what I normally do with books that retain a slow pace (I usually toss them) but I finished this one. I can't say after finishing that it made any difference. The pace of the story was slow and never really quickened. I know that often times, what appears slow and rather boring to one reader, will not be the same for other and for that reason I wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this latest Baldacci effort. He's written enough compelling stories in the past and shouldn't be put down for one that one reader found to move slowly.
I was really kind of disappointed with this Coben book, his newest. The main characters were a television news reporter, five men, all room mates and graduates of Princeton University sometime in the late 1980s. All five suffer staggering defeats and obstacles in their personal lives. One of the five has been branded as a pedophile and murderer and is actually murdered himself. The television news reporter, Wendy, feels responsible for the man being classified as a pedophile and sets out to find out the truth in all the tragedies involved in the story. I thought the pace was slow but the writing was in the typical easy style of Harlan Coben. Anyone who likes his writing should, of course, still read this book.
