THE SIMPLE TRUTH

This reviewer learned a simple truth from listening to David Baldacci's latest legal thriller: Be patient and give the narrator a chance. Marosz starts the book with a nasal, singsong, whining voice. But when he becomes comfortable with the story, his voice is more expressive and his characters more believable. Truth is the story of the murder of a Supreme Court lawyer-clerk committed to covering up a 25-year-old crime and the resultant miscarriage of justice. The principal character, the clerk's brother, a trial lawyer, sets out with a female Supreme Court clerk to untwist the web of murder, frame-up and complicity. This is one of Baldacci's better efforts. A.L.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/MAR 99]