Customer Reviews

Simple Genius. David Baldacci

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3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(27)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

I have been a big fan of David Baldacci from the very beginning and have been impressed with the consistent quality of his work. Unfortunately, with his last three books, he now seems to be sacrificing quality for quantity and Simple Genius is a disappointment.

Baldacci brings back two former Secret Service agents, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. These two appeared previously in Split Second and Hour Game and are now private investigators. Simple Genius opens with Michelle Maxwell having a meltdown--the result of some long-repressed childhood memory. Meanwhile, King is hired by a super-secret company to investigate the death of one of their top mathematicians (which happens on CIA property). King stays at the company headquarters called Babbage Town, where he meets a whole host of scientists who are on the verge of some earth-changing discoveries. But he's not at Babbage Town very long before someone else ends of dead. This case will pit King against the FBI, the CIA and unknown spies and will involve drug dealing, secret codes, illegal detainments, illegal torture, buried treasure and an 11 year old autistic genius. Yup--it's that's hokey. While King is battling all these things, it is uncertain whether Maxwell will be able to pull through for him.

I really liked King and Maxwell in Baldacci's previous books. But in Simple Genius, they're just too one dimensional. It also seems as if Baldacci's plots become more and more far-fetched. I wonder if he's now writing books because he has to meet a deadline and not because he has a riveting story to tell. Baldacci is still much better than many mystery writers today. Unfortunately, I've come to expect much more from him.

The seeds of Baldacci's latest novel "Simple Genius" are sowed a book earlier.

Mentally stressed beyond her ability to continue a normal life, Michelle Maxwell simply breaks down. Her horrifying experience in "Hour Game" with a boyfriend who turned out to be a serial killer and the continuing anguish of a deeply buried secret we will later learn she has carried with her since she was only six years old drives her into a potentially suicidal bar brawl with a complete stranger. Her long-time friend and investigative partner, Sean King, convinces her to check herself into a psychiatric hospital for rest, recuperation and serious examination of the demons she is encountering. Assuming full responsibility for the financial costs of this care, he desperately searches for work and accepts a contract to investigate the suicide (murder?) of Monk Turing, a quantum physicist and computer scientist working for Babbage Town, a high powered corporate think tank located across the York River from Camp Peary, a top secret CIA training facility. (That name, by the way - Turing, that is - is no coincidence!)

But like any good modern thriller, "Simple Genius" draws in far more detail, many more twists and turns, unexpected plot diversions and absorbing information than one would expect from this straightforward plot development in the opening chapters - the basics of public and private encryption keys and the related use of enormous numbers and their correspondingly huge prime factors; rogue CIA agents; the history of German POWs during WW II in New England; a treasure hunt from Colonial England and America's first days as an independent nation; the moral issues of civil rights as they apply to prisoners in the current wars on terror and drugs; hypnosis and the difficulties of diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses; and much more.

Like some of his high-powered peers in the thriller racket (Jonathan Kellerman, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child immediately come to mind), Baldacci's side bars on science, history, geography and politics are diverting, informative, interesting and entertaining without interrupting the timing and flow of the plot. This has got to be an art in its own right!

Highly recommended summer escapist reading! If you enjoy thrillers, you won't be sorry for taking a copy of this one to the beach or the cottage with you. And, thankfully, the door is left wide open for return appearances by Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.

Paul Weiss

I started reading Baldacci with his very good "The Camel Club" and have slowly been working through his back list. Besides being one of the sexiest thriller writers alive, he also knows how to write compelling stories that keep me turning the pages. I was thrilled to get an advance copy of "Simple Genius" a few weeks ago. I hate to have to report though that this book felt a bit flat to me. The story brings back Sean King and Michelle Maxwell from "Split Second" which I have not read and could possibly had an effect on my view of the book but I don't think so. Michelle seems to have some sort of suicidal wish, which comes to a head when she lets a big oaf at a local tavern beat her into a stupor. With King's pushing she enters a treatment center to try and discover what terrible secrete is eating at her soul--but she is not a willing subject. At the same time Sean is also investigating the death of a scientist at a mysterious top secrete CIA installation. In the end I found the pacing very flat and the awaited trademark Baldacci plot twists were never quite delivered. Not a bad book, but not his best. If your new to Baldacci I recommend you read the "The Camel Club" or "Absolute Power" first.

One of the problems with the present national malaise about the War on Terror, is that the stream of revelations about certain practices in which our government engages contributes to the plot lines of new thrillers.

Here is a partial list-drug smuggling, extraordinary renditions, collateral damage, kidnapping, torture, waterboarding, and black ops. All of these find there way into David Baldacci's Simple Genius along with repressed memory, codebreaking, martial arts, autism, secret tunnels, suicide, martial infidelity and psychiatry.

This books reminds me of one of those silent films of the 1920's where the heroine would escape a burning building, only to be tied to the railroad track. She always escapes but only to find herself ensnared in another escape-proof situation.

Baldacci is too good a writer to fall into the kind of formulaic claptrap this book presents. Less time with the "thrill a minute" stuff and more with character would have better served Baldacci and his loyal readers.

David Baldacci former Secret Services Agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell should have stayed in finding.

Simple Genius, thir third novel as characters, leaves much to be desired. The heroes of Baldacci's Split Second and Hour Game make their third appearance in a Baldacci novel, we are told on the book jacket "as you've never seen them before."

That is true. But in my humble opinion, they would have been better suited if they turned down this appearance. Baldacci wrote a great novel with his first, Absolute Power. Since then, it has been downhill. While I am sure he has rung the register with his successive books, the reading public would have been better served if he remained a practicing attorney.

It is too bad. Baldacci has enormous talent. He is capable of writing great novels. At his current pace, however it is not happening. Perhaps it is time to reconsider his pace. More time in thought may result in better reads. I finished this one, but it was a stretch.

Simple Genius contains several threads.The reader spends time with Sean King and Michelle Maxwell who we met in two previous bookd I found the most entertaining story was Michelle in the mental hospital. I enjoyed the characters and the simple mystery which required deductive reasoning and had a wonderful ending. The other two stories involved Michelle's childhood and the reason for her suicidal streak and sloppiness. This reminded a bit about a Dr. Delaware mystery. It even contained an interesting therapist.

Finally the crux of the story is a convolutated tale about a secret government complex. It was a good page turner with its share of surprises. The young girl Viggie and the way she revealed the clues was great. It was all great until the last 100 pages when Baldacci decided to put every piece of action into it. I think this would have been a case where less was better.

All in all I enjoyed the characters. It kept my interest and it is worth reading. I would note parts of it reminded me of Plum Island by DeMille which was a far more memorable effort.

You've heard the adage, "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

Now, try this: "Too many plots spoil the book."

David Baldacci ruined his latest offering by overloading it with too many plots, strange twists and red herrings.

Let's start with the plots. In the first few pages, one of Baldacci's main characters does a great imitation of a suicide attempt. She ends up staring at a long time in therapy.

Then, the author sends his other main character to look into the real suicide of a top-notch quantum physicist.

Will the partner get well with the help of a Hell's Angels-wannabe therapist?

Did the genius really off himself or did he have help?

What's going on in the strange place/think tank where the genius lived?

Had Baldacci addressed just these three issues, the "broth" would have stayed clear, clean and crisp.

But, no. He had to keep adding stuff.

What of the departed's strange child, left in the care of a woman with an aluminum leg? Who is the mysterious woman in the bar? Why does the government seem to be the enemy? Who's the grizzled Viet Nam vet who seems determined to bring our hero down?

As if this wasn't enough, Baldacci starts with the red herrings.

Why did the secondary character end up at the bottom of his bathtub? What does the leader of the think tank have to do with the drowning? What is going on at the Naval Reserve just across the river? Can the think tank crack an ancient code? Will they be able to create an atomic computer? Will a treasure chest full of gold and jewels ever be found?

The final question here is: Who cares?

Baldacci is better than this. "Simple Genius" is a perfect example of overkill (pun intended): Too many plots; too many twists; too many red herrings that leave the reader with a colossal headache from trying to keep up with it all.

Blech.

I enjoyed this novel: the pace was quick and the plot was undemanding. The characters were interesting without being intriguing and, in short, this novel provided a welcome diversion during a demanding week.

The novel is action-filled and easy to read. A great way to spend a few hours.

Recommended. I'm currently reading 'Hour Game' in which the characters of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell also feature.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Something is very wrong at Camp Peary, a secure CIA facility in Virginia, and it's not just the dead body found there. The victim, a physicist working across the river in a compound called Babbage Town, appears to have trespassed on sensitive ground. The CIA could have simply claimed national security as a reason for the shooting, and no one would have questioned their actions. So why has PI Sean King been hired to investigate and decide between suicide and murder? And what was the scientist doing at Camp Peary in the first place? His job was in Babbage Town, working on some highly secret computer applications that they claim could change the world. Camp Peary and Babbage Town seem to have nothing in common.

Sean's partner, Michelle Maxwell (from SPLIT SECOND and HOUR GAME), is fighting big demons, big enough to take her down --- and soon. She has spiraled out of control in what looked like a personal death wish. While Sean is helping her to get well, he lands the Camp Peary case. It will not only pay some very demanding bills but will mightily test his skills, especially without Michelle to back him up.

Sean isn't at Babbage Town long before he notices a whole lot of strange behavior and way more activity in the middle of the night than makes sense. While the scientists can theoretically work around the clock, there is just too much sneaking around and too many furtive glances to be explained as normal behavior. And couple that with his employer having second thoughts about his very presence in Babbage Town and Sean's suspicion radar goes wild. Then another death occurs, and that tips the scales in favor of murder. A suicide and a fatal accident within that short a time span just doesn't fly with Sean. But the question remains: Why?

He longs to bounce ideas off Michelle, but she is still grappling with her issues, at least one of which threatens to unravel her entire life at any time. Her explosive instability puts them both at high risk that could end with disastrous results. Sean resigns himself to waiting for her doctor to drive out the insidious sickness. He fears it may take a long time.

His wait is much shorter than he expects, because Michelle decides she can handle whatever is eating at her and heads down to join her partner. Not only does she find Sean working on some thorny problems, while thoroughly annoying some folks in high places, but the victim's autistic daughter needs special attention. After all, her father is gone and her entire universe has been turned upside down. Not a good scenario for a savant.

As a nasty storm is brewing in the area, Sean and Michelle finally decode the clues they have uncovered and implement a plan to solve the murders, for they have come to the conclusion that they both most certainly are murders. But the motives are almost too fantastic to believe.

With links to foreign countries, clandestine meetings and post-9/11 jitters all wrapped up into a blockbuster plot, David Baldacci's SIMPLE GENIUS is no simple read. Just a great one.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

David Baldacci is a frequent best-selling author who has written 13 books and at least two have made into major motion pictures: Last Man Standing, and Absolute Power. A very talented portrayer of characters, the author tends to stick with the success of two of his characters as he does in this novel. That is: Ex-Secret Service Agents Michelle Maxwell and Sean King, who have gone private with their own investigative agency.

The story begins with Michelle, seemingly suffering from a mental disorder, goes on a rampage in a barroom brawl, intending to kill someone or herself.

She is arrested and placed in jail. Sean, using all of the resources of their successful firm, attempts to get her out of this bind and get her some help from an old friend, psychologist Horatio Barnes.

Sean, in the meantime, with his resources dwindling, seeks work from his old girlfriend, Joan Dillinger, who also runs a successful investigative agency.

Joan agrees to give him some freelance work in Virginia near Camp Perry, the CIA training center for spies. There has been a suspicious shooting death on the training camp's border. The deceased is an employee of another top-secret facility near Camp Perry. Joan's company represents a client who wants to know more about this case and wants it investigated by non-government investigators.

As Sean begins his work, more bodies begin to appear, apparent suicides, accidents, etc. The story evolves into a first-class mystery leading into U.S. secrets and strange events at the CIA training camp.

Author Baldacci, is as usual, innovative--providing us with a masterpiece in suspenseful story telling. The outcome is far less than obvious.

Armchair Interviews says: Baldacci does it again--as expected.