Rufus Harms has been in a military prison for 25 years of a life sentence for killing a young girl. But he's been having flashbacks, and remembers now what really happened. So he sends an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Michael Fiske, a Supreme Court clerk, finds the appeal, which doesn't follow the proper procedures and should be turned down, but something about it interests him, so he takes it with him to check it out. One of the calls he makes is to his semi-estranged brother John, who's an ex-cop turned defense lawyer.

Before John returns the call, though, Michael is killed, and Sarah Evans, the Supreme Court clerk Michael had proposed to shortly before his death, contacts him, and they begin an investigation that brings them closer together and deeper in danger.

I really enjoyed the conspiracy plot, but the backstory and the Supreme Court tutorial went on too long and interrupted the story too much. It was interesting, but it really wasn't part of the story.

The romance plot, too, bugged me in spots. I had a very hard time understanding why Michael would propose to Sarah, when they'd only dated casually and hadn't even slept together. I also had trouble believing that Sarah fell in love with John at first glance.

But overall, the complex conspiracy and John's complex character saved the story for me.

My first Baldacci book and I enjoyed it. It is a fast paced and easy read. Good for the beach, airplane or bedtime. The truncated chapters and simple sentences are appropriate for the impatient attention span of the Internet generation! I hope his marriage is better than the cold, calculating interaction between the sexes, though! I will try other Baldacci "brainbusters".

Book arrived in excellent condition. I have not had the time to read it but it is next.

thank you

David Baldacci attended law school at the University of Virginia, and went on to work as a trial lawyer, and later as a corporate lawyer, in Washington, D.C. He is now a full-time writer whose best selling novels include Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner and Saving Faith. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

First published in 1998 this is yet another winner for the author, whose books are consistently good and have well thought out plots and believable and well-rounded characters. Baldacci has established himself as one of the best suspense thriller writers around at the moment.

Rufus Harms is an old hand at prison, he should be, he has been rotting there for the last 25 years for the brutal killing of a young girl. The he receives a letter smuggled into the jail by his brother. It reveals that a possible massive miscarriage of justice has occurred, something that threatens to blow the justice of the Supreme Court wide open . . .

Quite a good story with interesting characters and a well-paced plot.



I did have a few nits with it, though. (Mainly because I've made the same mistakes in my own writing. ^_^) The main one was the constant subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb sentences. Quite a few times I noticed over half the sentences in any one paragraph beginning with "he," "she," and the like. And, of course, once I saw that, I couldn't un-see it, so it bothered me for the remainder of the book. In general, the writing is good, but a little more variety in sentence structure would have been wonderful.



And I felt bad for John for losing his brother before being able to become friends with him again. There's quite a gulf between me and my own brother that I doubt will ever be bridged, but seeing it from an outsider's perspective is sad.



I would definitely read this author again.

Quite a good story with interesting characters and a well-paced plot.

I did have a few nits with it, though. (Mainly because I've made the same mistakes in my own writing. ^_^) The main one was the constant subject-verb, subject-verb, subject-verb sentences. Quite a few times I noticed over half the sentences in any one paragraph beginning with "he," "she," and the like. And, of course, once I saw that, I couldn't un-see it, so it bothered me for the remainder of the book. In general, the writing is good, but a little more variety in sentence structure would have been wonderful.

And I felt bad for John for losing his brother before being able to become friends with him again. There's quite a gulf between me and my own brother that I doubt will ever be bridged, but seeing it from an outsider's perspective is sad.

I would definitely read this author again.

David Baldacci gives us Rufus Harms, a man unjustly imprisioned for 25 years, and an ex-cop, John Fiske, turned lawyer turned investigator again when his brother, Michael Fiske, a Supreme Court clerk, is murdered after inquiring into an appeal that came to the Supreme Court from Rufus. Sara Evans, another SC clerk, who was good friends with Michael Fiske becomes emotionally involved with John Fiske and they team up to try to solve the mystery of who would murder Michael Fiske. Along the way they are searching out the truth about Rufus. There are twists and turns and surprises. David Baldacci gives an a behind the scenes look at the Supreme Court and the surprising power the clerks actually have. You will have a hard time putting this book down once you open it.

If anyone has read Jack Olsen's book, THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF GERONIMO (ELMER)PRATT, you'll see the parallels in this fiction book to Jack Olsen's true crime story of Mr. Pratt. This was a fabulous book and should receive 5 stars from everyone that reads it. Spending 25 years in a prison for a crime you didn't commit is horrific. Can you imagine losing that many years of your life. Geronimo Pratt lost those many years, 26 to be exact. He is the only man that sued the FBI and the police and won and it was a long battle. "They" tried to kill him in prison to shut him up. You must read the book after you've read this fiction novel. I really have to wonder if David Baldacci read Jack Olsen's book before writing this novel. Excellent...superb!

If anyone has read Jack Olsen's book, THE TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY OF GERONIMO (ELMER)PRATT, you'll see the parallels in this fiction book to Jack Olsen's true crime story of Mr. Pratt. This was a fabulous book and should receive 5 stars from everyone that reads it. Spending 25 years in a prison for a crime you didn't commit is horrific. Can you imagine losing that many years of your life. Geronimo Pratt lost those many years, 26 to be exact. He is the only man that sued the FBI and the police and won and it was a long battle. "They" tried to kill him in prison to shut him up. You must read the book after you've read this fiction novel. I really have to wonder if David Baldacci read Jack Olsen's book before writing this novel. Excellent...superb!

David Baldacci has a knack for writing fiction that sucks you in and holds you no matter what the story. Part of the talent is to introduce interesting characters. This book is no exception. Sara Evans is a clerk working for a Supreme Court justice. She is quite close to another clerk (Michael Fiske) who works for a different judge. Michael asks Sara to marry him but Sara really loves Michael's brother John, who Sara has only seen once and never officially met.

Michael comes across an appeal that intrigues him (to say exactly why would be a spoiler and it is only revealed very late in the book as to exactly what intrigued him) so much that he pulls it out before it is filed and goes to visit the requestor. That happens to be a Rufus Harms who is serving a life sentence in an Army prison for murdering a girl.

When Michael goes to see Harms, practically all Hell breaks loose and Harms realizes he is in danger himself and some mysterious evil guys from the prison murder Michael. Apparently there was some secrets in Harms appeal that some powerful unknown men do not want known.

Michael's murder is investigated by his brother John (an ex-cop who is now a defense lawyer for the lowest of the low criminals) and he enlists the aid of Sara who was close to Michael and knows some things about Michael. Sara is instantly in love with John and the more they start investigating the more they put their lives at risk from the unknown powerful men. Additionally, the police start to suspect John of the murder of his brother especially when he is named as the sole beneficiary of Michael's life insurance.

Meanwhile Rufus Harms has escaped prison from some of those men that tried to kill him.

So we have tension throughout to see if Rufus will survive as well as John and Sara before the evil guys get them.

There is a lot of good information about what goes on behind the scenes at the Supreme Court. A good read

David Baldacci has a knack for writing fiction that sucks you in and holds you no matter what the story. Part of the talent is to introduce interesting characters. This book is no exception. Sara Evans is a clerk working for a Supreme Court justice. She is quite close to another clerk (Michael Fiske) who works for a different judge. Michael asks Sara to marry him but Sara really loves Michael's brother John, who Sara has only seen once and never officially met.

Michael comes across an appeal that intrigues him (to say exactly why would be a spoiler and it is only revealed very late in the book as to exactly what intrigued him) so much that he pulls it out before it is filed and goes to visit the requestor. That happens to be a Rufus Harms who is serving a life sentence in an Army prison for murdering a girl.

When Michael goes to see Harms, practically all Hell breaks loose and Harms realizes he is in danger himself and some mysterious evil guys from the prison murder Michael. Apparently there was some secrets in Harms appeal that some powerful unknown men do not want known.

Michael's murder is investigated by his brother John (an ex-cop who is now a defense lawyer for the lowest of the low criminals) and he enlists the aid of Sara who was close to Michael and knows some things about Michael. Sara is instantly in love with John and the more they start investigating the more they put their lives at risk from the unknown powerful men. Additionally, the police start to suspect John of the murder of his brother especially when he is named as the sole beneficiary of Michael's life insurance.

Meanwhile Rufus Harms has escaped prison from some of those men that tried to kill him.

So we have tension throughout to see if Rufus will survive as well as John and Sara before the evil guys get them.

There is a lot of good information about what goes on behind the scenes at the Supreme Court. A good read

I loved this book. It had some historical references, which tends to bring a story to life as one can relate them to familiar or current events. It didn't have typical hollywood ending, but it was a good ending nonetheless. The main-character was a bit underdeveloped, mentally and emotionally; thus I couldn't really feel sorry or bad for him.

I loved this book. It had some historical references, which tends to bring a story to life as one can relate them to familiar or current events. It didn't have typical hollywood ending, but it was a good ending nonetheless. The main-character was a bit underdeveloped, mentally and emotionally; thus I couldn't really feel sorry or bad for him.

This book keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. As good writers do there are twists and turns, which makes it all the more exciting. It has it all: innocent man in prison for 25 yrs, behind the scenes of the Supreme court, inner workings of an ex-cop's mind, they are all there plus more. This is a book you will not be able to put down.

On my recent trip to a user group meeting, I threw this book into my suitcase... The Simple Truth by David Baldacci. It ended up being better than I expected...

John Fiske is pretty much estranged from his brother Michael, who is a clerk for the Supreme Court. But when Michael is murdered, John decides to take a break from his defense attorney life and revisit his cop days to help out in the investigation. The key piece of evidence is a missing appeal that Michael took from the mail room but never logged into the system. It was filed by one Rufus Harms, a black soldier who has been in prison for a quarter century for murdering a little girl. The appeal must have something that others wish to have buried, because everyone who touches the appeal or someone close to it becomes a target... even John Fiske.

The book is structured such that you know the appeal must be personally damaging to many high-powered individuals, but you really don't know the what or why until close to the end. For a 500+ page novel, I was surprised he could keep the plotline moving enough to prevent me from wanting to put the book down. It probably could have been condensed a bit, and the love interest aspect seemed a little awkward. But still, an enjoyable summer/airplane read when there's some down time...

On my recent trip to a user group meeting, I threw this book into my suitcase... The Simple Truth by David Baldacci. It ended up being better than I expected...

John Fiske is pretty much estranged from his brother Michael, who is a clerk for the Supreme Court. But when Michael is murdered, John decides to take a break from his defense attorney life and revisit his cop days to help out in the investigation. The key piece of evidence is a missing appeal that Michael took from the mail room but never logged into the system. It was filed by one Rufus Harms, a black soldier who has been in prison for a quarter century for murdering a little girl. The appeal must have something that others wish to have buried, because everyone who touches the appeal or someone close to it becomes a target... even John Fiske.

The book is structured such that you know the appeal must be personally damaging to many high-powered individuals, but you really don't know the what or why until close to the end. For a 500+ page novel, I was surprised he could keep the plotline moving enough to prevent me from wanting to put the book down. It probably could have been condensed a bit, and the love interest aspect seemed a little awkward. But still, an enjoyable summer/airplane read when there's some down time...

I really liked this book by Baldacci. It is the first one I read from this author and it did not let me down. Gets you hooked till the last page. you can't stop reading !

Rufus Harms, a giant of a black man, has served 25 years of a life sentence in a Virginia military prison for the brutal killing of a young white girl. When some obscure government correspondence results in his recovery of hazy, clouded memories, he realizes he did not actually commit the crime for which he was convicted and he smuggles an appeal out of prison to be filed with the US Supreme Court. Shortly afterwards, Harms' lawyer and Michael Fiske, the young Supreme Court clerk who received the documents and had begun to investigate the truth of Harms' claim of innocence, are murdered. Michael's court colleague, Sara Evans, and his brother, ex-cop and small-time defense lawyer, John Fiske, pick up the task and the chase is on to find the real culprits who won't hesitate to murder again and again to cover up their part in a scandal involving the Supreme Court and high level US military personnel!

The thriller part of the novel is pretty standard fare but is exceedingly well written and will keep any reader flipping the pages relentlessly as Baldacci hauls us through multiple murders, chase scenes and gun battles, compelling human family drama and dispute, courtroom struggles, clues with lots of red herrings, and, of course, the mandatory love scenes. But the really hearty meat of this little tale is contained in the telling of the inside scoop on the fascinating detailed workings of the US Supreme Court - the surprising power of the court clerks who are actually still "wet behind the ears" young lawyers barely out of school; the political struggle of the Supreme Court justices as they barter with one another for votes on the cases before them; the astounding (well, it certainly was to me) revelation that US military personnel do not have the right to sue their employer; and the personal struggle of the justices as they realize their efforts will form new case law for years to come. Baldacci's description of the open court acrimonious debate between the young female newcomer to the bench, Elizabeth Knight, and long-standing male member, Chief Justice Harold Ramsey, was particularly fascinating.

This is one thoroughly enjoyable legal thriller! It won't take you long to plow through this one and I've no doubt that, just as soon as you turn that last page, you'll jump up out of the chair to head the store to pick up another one by Baldacci. Happy reading!

Paul Weiss

The plot is good but there are about 200 pages too many. Why a full chapter to tell us what the protagonists are thinking about the attachý case, when we already know it was not in the car and we could tell them where it is? We know where the precious document is : another useless quest. People are murdered by the half dozen, the characters are outrageous, most of the time improbable, and I felt the semi-erotic swimming episode totally stupid, not to mention the girl apologizing constantly about it.
I have read much better books than that. Sorry...

The railroading of an innocent man on charges of murder and subsequently enduring twenty-five years in a maximum security prison is horrendous by any standards, but surely appealing one's case to the Supreme Court would not, almost overnight, put one's life at risk. But that is precisely the tale that Baldacci has concocted in The Simple Truth.

The villains in this case are almost too formidable: too powerful, knowing, and menacing. The good guys, lawyers and law clerks for Supreme Court justices, are for the most part over-matched. It is only through the actions of the accused in an improbable escape and the aggressiveness of the older brother of one of the murdered clerks, as well as an infatuated female law clerk, that a massive cover-up finally starts to be unraveled. The development of that relationship, between the brother and the clerk, in trying circumstances has some appeal.

The story line stretches probability at several points, but for the most part moves right along. The machinations within the Supreme Court among the justices are interesting but are only marginally central to the story. The main difficulty is that the level of mayhem and ineptitude on the part of a variety of officials crosses over into unbelievability. Overall the book is okay.

All I can say is pass me some aspirin. This is a dozy of a bad novel. As it says on the dust jacket, a Supreme Court law clerk grabs a petition and ends up becoming deceased. Its up to the brother to uncover the truth by finding the real killer who had let a poor black man rot away for a crime he did not commit. At the same time the brother contends with mysterious bad guys out to get him and stop the unearthing of the evidence. Not only does he deal with his family, but his brothers friend, a sexy young law clerk herself and the duplicity on the bench she works for.

And that's only the start of the plot.

Its really pretty bad, it descends into mired pretensions and goofy resolutions. The characters are so shallow that you are left with little notion of who they are except for a faint nasty after taste over their conceded ways. Baldacci is along with James Patterson and Dean Koontz one of America's worst authors. If you want an author who writes on a similar vein to this, try one of Harlan Coben's last four or so stand alone thrillers with out the character Myron Bolitar in it. Or for a more sophisticated read, look for Denis Lehane, he wrote the amazing Mystic River, but his PI series located in Boston is pretty good as well.

I have enjoyed Baldacci's work before but this book was simply awful. I couldn't believe any of the characters and the storyline was terrible. I was very surprised to get such stilted writing from Baldacci. You can miss this one in my opinion.

Baldacci has created a great plot about a death row inmate who is actually innocent who escapes from jail and is aided by a Supreme Court clerk and her dead boyfriend's brother. All of the main characters are interesting and have great depth.

Yet the background characters are confusing and the action scenes are boring. Baldacci was unable to combine the characters and plot into a good story.

This book is typical popular fiction. It is exciting and suspenseful. Baldacci keeps you turning the pages, and the setting of the Supreme Court is intriguing. While the author keeps you interested, in the end, you might feel it lacks a certain something. The conspiracy theory aspect is not really used in a new or creative way. The charcters are fun to follow, but also predictable and seem to lack depth and development.

If you are looking for a deep read - this isn't it. But if you enjoy Baldacci or popular fiction, then this book has what you are looking for. This isn't Baldacci's best, but it is worth reading.

This is my third Baldacci book and none have been as good as I'd hope. The Simple Truth is like no other book I've read. The plot kept my interest all the way to the end, and all of the characters were well defined with distict personalities. Yet this novel had many deficiencies. Baldacci failed to combine the plot and characters into an exciting story.

Rufus Harms files an appeal with the Supreme Court stating his innocence. Brother of slain court clerk John Fiske and clerk Sara Evans race to find out what really happened to Harms while being pursued by several people, some friend, some foe.

The action scenes were horribly done, I often skipped over them. During the final shootout, characters appeared out of nowhere just to advance the plot. The flow of the story was non existant. Baldacci did a horrible job of putting a time frame into the story. I just finished reading and I have no idea of the action in the book lasted two days or two weeks. It seems like the events just ran together with no time of day ever given as reference.

All of Baldacci's books sound good based on the plot, but The Simple Truth fails to deliver an exciting story.

"Truth" was our first novel by Baldacci, and a pleasant surprise indeed. From first learning that a long-imprisoned military convict is probably innocent of a young girl's murder, to the series of deaths the investigation into these old events precipitates, we can hardly wait to see what will happen next, not to mention "whodunit"! Supreme Court law clerk Michael Fiske gets in over his head when he begins to pursue the truth in the prisoner's claims (fearing the celebrities that might get involved) before officially filing the appeal with the Court. He soon pays for that mistake with his life; and we know then a real conspiracy is on. Mike's brother John, an ex-cop and young lawyer himself, together with Mike's ex-girlfriend Sara, another law clerk, who takes an immediate romantic interest in John, pursue the bad guys with a vengeance. Whether much of that pursuit is realistic or not, being mostly outside the scope of the official police investigation of the murder(s) is about our only quibble with the tale.

The story not only weaves an entertaining, complex plot but also provides illuminating glimpses into the machinations and incredible internal politics of the Supreme Court. That weighty issues might appear or disappear due to personal influence, or even just the judgment of twenty-year-old "clerks" (really, young lawyers), gave us more than a few moments pause. Baldacci reveals that he also knows how to drop just the right number of clues, along with a few red herrings, to keep us beguiled until nearly the final page. This book not only goes up on the shelf right next to "Pelican Brief", but leaves us anxious to try some more novels by this fine author!

In Simple Truth, Baldacci gives us another of his action-oriented mysteries in which innocent people are unknowingly caught up in events over which they have no control. When Michael Fisk, a Supreme Court clerk opens and reads a new filing, he finds himself in the midst of events which actually started 25 years earlier when a young girl was brutally murdered by Rufus Harms, now a prisoner at Fort Jackson in Virginia. Although Harms confessed, and in the beginning of the story we are told how repentant he is, the crime is not as simple as it seems at first.

The story begins when Harms receives a letter from the Army, smuggled to him by his brother Josh. Rufus contacts the lawyer who defended him 25 years ago and through him files an appeal with the Supreme Court, based on the facts in the letter, which is the filing Micheal Fisk sees. He takes the papers to Ft. Jackson prison to ask Rufus about it. Soon after he leaves the prison, Michael is found dead.

When Michael's brother John learns of his brother's death, he goes to Washington to identify the body and try to tie up his brother's affairs. He immediately gets the sense that the crime was not a random robbery at all, a feeling shared by Detective Chandler who is investigating the crime. Within a short time, John meets, among others, an FBI agent named McKenna, several of the justices on the Supreme Court, the chief of police for the court -- and Sara, another court clerk and friend of Michael's. Before any progress can be made in the investigation, another clerk is found murdered.

More complications occur and questions are raised. Did John kills his brother for the half a million dollar insurance policy? What does Justice Knight have to do with it all? Is McKenna out to railroad John Fisk? And what is the secret information in the letter sent to Rufus Harms? The questions are all answered in the exciting end and Baldacci has wrapped it all up once again.