The Whole Truth-David Baldacci

The Whole Truth
David Baldacci
Grand Central, Apr 22 2008, $26.99
ISBN: 9780446195973

CEO of Ares Corporation, a major Defense Department contractor, Nicholas Creel wants to drum up business so he needs a new crisis as Iraq only goes so far, but is nothing like the glory days of Reagan’s Cold War. He hires “perception management” guru Dick Pender to create a Cold War. Soon false news stories and supporting disinformation surface on the Internet with news bloggers and hounds having a feeding frenzy over “documented” Russian atrocities. Nicholas is ecstatic.

However, when the London based think tank, the Phoenix Group, is allegedly slaughtered by Russians, Nicholas hopes Pender can connect the murders to a Beijing government sponsored hit; hoping that leads to the immense profits to be made from a Russian- Chinese war. However, undercover operative Shaw is outraged as his fiancée died in the Phoenix Group mass murder and with the help of a defrocked reporter begins to uncover THE WHOLE TRUTH behind the perception management driven crisis.

This is an exciting thriller due more to the PM concept than to the Ares vs. Shaw contest. The PM crowd makes up truths using the Internet and other mass communication techniques to tell a Big Lie and not as David Baldacci says afterward “spin the facts”. In fact some in Congress claim this technique was used by the Administration leading to the Iraq invasion. Although the prime plot is entertaining, it is the perception management big lie that makes the difference of what otherwise would be another well written thriller.

Harriet Klausner