基本信息出版社：Pan Books
页码：576 页
出版日期：2003年11月
ISBN：0330419641
条形码：9780330419642
装帧：平装
正文语种：英语
内容简介 "Accomplished and amazing - one of the hottest reads around" - "Daily Mail." Set in Washington D.C., this fascinating thriller of unparalleled suspense dares to explore an unthinkable abuse of power and criminal conspiracy: a vicious murder involving the US President and a cover-up orchestrared by his zealously loyal Chief of Staff and the Secret Service. But, unknown to the President and his lackeys, one unlikely witness saw everything. Trapped behind a two-way mirror in a country house in Maryland, Luther Whitney, a professional burglar, witnesses an event that destroys his faith in justice. By the time he escapes, pursued by two Secret Service agents, a young woman has been sexually assaulted, then shot dead. And a breathtaking cover-up has been set in motion. "Baldacci's prose is fluent and amazing ...this book is sure to make a killing"- "The Times." "A high-octane legal thriller. An almost Shakespearian study in the nature of evil - horror in its purest form" - "Spectator".
作者简介 David Baldacci is the seven-time New York Times best-selling author of ABSOLUTE POWER, TOTAL CONTROL, THE WINNER, THE SIMPLE TRUTH, SAVING FAITH, WISH YOU WELL and LAST MAN STANDING. His most recent novel, SPLIT SECOND, will be published by macmillan in December 2003. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
媒体推荐 'Accomplished and amazing - one of the hottest reads around' (DAILY MAIL) 'Baldacci's prose is fluent and amazing... this book is sure to make a killing' (THE TIMES) 'A high-octane legal thriller. An almost Shakespearian study in the nature of evil - horror in its purest form' (SPECTATOR)
编辑推荐 Amazon.com Review
Can the President get away with murder? The fictional answer to this question results in a fast-paced page turner that combines political intrigue with gritty, hard-boiled suspense --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Casting the president of the United States as a crazed villain isn't a new idea?Fletcher Knebel worked it 30 years ago, in Night of Camp David?but in this sizzler of a first novel, Baldacci, a D.C. attorney, proves that the premise still has long legs. The action begins when a grizzled professional cat burglar gets trapped inside the bedroom closet of one of the world's richest men, only to witness, through a one-way mirror, two Secret Service agents kill the billionaire's trampy young wife as she tries to fight off the drunken sexual advances of the nation's chief executive. Running for his life, but not before he picks up a bloodstained letter opener that puts the president at the scene of the crime, the burglar becomes the target of a clandestine manhunt orchestrated by leading members of the executive branch. Meanwhile, Jack Graham, once a public defender and now a high-powered corporate attorney, gets drawn into the case because the on-the-lam burglar just happens to be the father of his former financee, a crusading Virginia prosecutor. Embroidering the narrative through assorted plot whorls are the hero's broken romance; his conflict over selling out for financial success; the prosecutor's confused love-hate for her burglar father; the relentless investigation by a northern Virginia career cop; the dilemma of government agents trapped in a moral catch-22; the amoral ambitions of a sexy White House Chief of Staff; and the old burglar's determination to bring down the ruthless president. Meanwhile, lurking at the novel's center like a venomous spider is the sociopathic president. Baldacci doesn't peer too deeply into his characters' souls, and his prose is merely functional?in both respects, he's much closer to Grisham than to, say, Forsyth; but he's also a first-rate storyteller who grabs readers by their lapels right away and won't let go until they've finished his enthralling yarn. Major ad/promo; BOMC alternate; film rights sold to Castle Rock; simultaneous Time Warner AudioBook.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Expect to see lots of this first-time novelist: with foreign rights sold, a media blitz planned, a BOMC selection offered, and a film in the making, Absolute Power is already catching fire. Baldacci's page-turning thriller features a philandering U.S. president whose actions provoke a murder and subsequent cover-up. A complicating factor is that someone witnessed the crime. Another twist concerns a female chief of staff who is as ambitious as her boss. The novel's hero, Jack Graham, is a Washington attorney on the way up. Although crass and cold-blooded President Alan Richmond is a distasteful character, this will surely be a popular book. Baldacci combines all the needed elements: power, money, sex, intrigue, thwarted love, a few heroes, and more than a few villains. For all popular collections.
-?Rebecca S. Kelm, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
This entry in the Washington murder mystery sweepstakes has plenty of commercial potential, yet, on the literary side of the ledger, Baldacci's first novel could stand some polishing in plot and story structure. Here's the premise: the wick-dipping president gets into a drunken knife fight with his mistress; the Secret Service rescues him but kills her; and scandal will erupt unless all witnesses are eliminated. Quite a few are, lending the story its high-velocity pace, which is its chief attraction. The chase takes off from the swanky hunt-country mansion where the killing occurred; there aging but wily burglar Luther Whitney, on site for his last heist, inadvertently witnesses the death of the presidential mistress through a handy one-way mirror. When the coast clears, Whitney leaves the scene with a letter opener covered with presidential DNA, which the cover-uppers naturally are anxious to recover. The murderers' efforts eventually lead to hero lawyer Jack Graham, a rising yupster conflicted by women and career. A finishing action chase through the Washington Metro portends the probable climax scene in the movie slated to be made from this material; such celluloid prominence plus BMOC selection ensures demand for a tale that is all action and no message. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
'Accomplished and amazing - one of the hottest reads around' (DAILY MAIL) 'Baldacci's prose is fluent and amazing... this book is sure to make a killing' (THE TIMES) 'A high-octane legal thriller. An almost Shakespearian study in the nature of evil - horror in its purest form' (SPECTATOR)