Absolute Power by David Baldacci: The set-up of the story is simple: Luther Whitney, an aging thief, witnesses the lady of the house he is robbing in a tryst with Allen Richmond, the President of the United States. Things get out of hand and she is killed by secret service agents. Luther gets his hands on a key piece of evidence and is suddenly on the run for his life. Seth Frank is the detective on the murder case; Walter Sullivan is the millionaire husband of the deceased and good friend to the President; Jack Graham is Luther’s defense lawyer, the ex-boyfriend of Luther’s estranged daughter Kate, and the target of the President’s men for much of the book. It’s a decent cat-and-mouse tale, with a high body count and reasonably likeable characters. There were a surprising number of first-names-as-last-names in this book: Frank, Collin, Simon, Graham, Russell, Whitney. Usually I don’t notice things like that, but it got a little confusing at times. I don’t see myself picking up any more Baldacci titles, but it was decently engaging.

I am now very interested to see the movie made from this book, as apparently they cut out Jack Graham entirely.

I listened to this on audiobook read by Scott Brick, whom I thoroughly enjoyed as a narrator of Card’s Ender series. He was no disappointment here. Included in this version was the short story “No Time Left”. It was, in a word, terrible. The second the client said his name I knew exactly where it was going, and I was exactly right. Don’t bother with it.

Also posted on BookCrossing.
Read as part of the Books Won Challenge