The Inner Circle [Hardcover]

Brad Meltzer (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 11, 2011

"There are stories no one knows. Hidden stories. I love those stories. And since I work in the National Archives, I find those stories for a living."

Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself...Until now.

When Clementine Kaye, Beecher's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help tracking down her long-lost father, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents. After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact - a 200 hundred-year-old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington, hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder.

Soon a man is dead, and Beecher is on the run as he races to learn the truth behind this mysterious national treasure. His search will lead him to discover a coded and ingenious puzzle that conceals a disturbing secret from the founding of our nation. It is a secret, Beecher soon discovers, that some believe is worth killing for.

Gripping, fast-paced, and filled with the fascinating historical detail for which he is famous, The Inner Circle is a thrilling novel that once again proves Brad Meltzer as a brilliant author writing at the height of his craft.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this political thriller with historical-conspiracy overtones (or perhaps it’s the other way around), Meltzer creates his most engaging protagonist in years. Beecher White is an archivist with the National Archives, who stumbles upon an old book hidden away in a room used exclusively by the president. But did the president know that the book (a spelling dictionary that once belonged to George Washington) was there? And—almost impossible for Beecher to imagine—could it be that the president or someone close to him is willing to kill to regain possession of the book? Meltzer teams Beecher with an equally strong character, Clementine Kaye, a woman from the archivist’s past whose estranged father is, perhaps not coincidentally, the man who tried to kill the current president’s predecessor. Meltzer expertly develops the story, throwing in twists and turns at appropriate intervals, and he does an excellent job of putting us in Beecher’s corner and making us care about what happens to him. The story has a surprising and satisfying conclusion, and Meltzer leaves the door wide open for a sequel. --David Pitt

Review

"Meltzer has earned the right to belly up to the bar with John Grisham, Scott Turow, and David Baldacci." (PEOPLE )

"Meltzer is so good." (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY )

"Meet the next John Grisham." (MIAMI HERALD )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (January 11, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446577898
• ISBN-13: 978-0446577892
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (367 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

160 of 171 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, Confusing and Convoluted ... For Die-Hard Meltzer/Thriller Fans Only January 14, 2011

By Jennifer VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Like most Brad Meltzer books, The Inner Circle concerns a bright young man who works in Washington, DC. This time, instead of working on Capitol Hill (The Zero Game) or at the Supreme Court (The Tenth Justice), our "hero" works in the National Archives. (I can't help but wonder if Meltzer is running out of high-powered DC settings for his characters. Yet, sadly, the setting of the National Archives was the most exciting aspect of the book for me.) Beecher White is a serious young man who is struggling to recover from a recent split with his fiancee. His path to recovery is helped when his childhood crush, Clementine Kaye, shows up and asks for his help in tracking down her long-lost father.

Although Beecher and Clementine haven't seen each other since high school, Beecher has never really gotten over his crush. During a tour of the archives, Beecher tries to impress Clementine by showing her the secret vault where the president reviews classified documents. However, while inside the vault, they stumble across a hidden document--a dictionary that belonged to George Washington. Although their find seems innocuous at first, within moments a man turns up dead. Beecher and Clementine seem to have stumbled into a high-level conspiracy linked to the President ... but who is involved and what do they want? And what does an old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington have to do with it? As Beecher and Clementine struggle to find out what is going on, things get more convoluted and confusing (for Beecher as well as the reader). As events unfold, Beecher begins to question the motives of everyone around him, including Clementine.

As with previous Meltzer books, this is meant to be a fast-paced thriller involving innocents stumbling into conspiracies at the highest echelons of power. However, I think Meltzer is off his game as I found the plot confusing (by the end, I still wasn't 100% sure what was going on) and the characters dull and uninspiring. I really enjoyed Meltzer's first few books; they were fun, exciting and drew me in. However, I thought his recent books got progressively weaker. The last one I read, The Book of Fate, seemed like a bad Dan Brown book--and that is saying something as I'm not a huge Dan Brown fan. (Note: For fans of The Book of Fate, I should mention that a character who appeared in that book shows up in this book as well.) I'd written off Meltzer as having "jumped the shark," but when I saw The Inner Circle offered for review on NetGalley, I decided to give him another shot. Sadly, I regret that decision.

Although The Inner Circle isn't outright bad, I found the plot confusing and overly convoluted. By the end, I wasn't even sure who was on whose side and what the purpose of the book was. Then I read Swapna's review at S. Krishna's Books and discovered that The Inner Circle is the first book of a planned series, which probably explained why I was left with such a sense of confusion and "unfinishedness." Yet, at the same time, I wasn't compelled enough by this book to continue reading the series. Honestly, I didn't feel all that invested in Beecher and don't feel the need to find out what befalls him next. Not a good sign for the series, I think. However, there is always the possibility that I'm just being a crank.

As far as my recommendation, I can't really recommend this book unless you are a hard-core Meltzer fan or really love thrillers. I would recommend Meltzer's earlier books though; I remember being very fond of them, and I was a devoted Meltzer reader until I thought his books started to decrease in quality. If you're looking for a good thriller, you'd be better off reading The Zero Game or The Tenth Justice and giving this one a pass.

114 of 126 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Loved it! January 13, 2011

By Tina

Format:Hardcover

Once upon a time I was a huge fan of Brad Meltzer and then I hit a few of his books that were not as entertaining and I stopped reading his stuff.

However, the Inner Circle sounded like a great read and I found myself completely engrossed in the storyline from the very first few pages. Of course, there has been, of late, a huge increase in the "historical - present day' type of novel - easily compared to the DaVinci Code (which I hated by the way) and Inner Circle reminded me of this type of genre.

Actually the storyline is quite clever if a little far fetched. Our main character Benjamin meets up with his long lost Clementine who is asking for his help. As it turns out Benjamin's job is about old documents and archives, some of which are directly associated with the President.

While Benjamin is trying to impress Clementine by showing her a vault where the President reads classified and, for the most part, priceless documents, they `discover' an old dictionary and immediately start to wonder why the President would have kept it from being discovered.

Yep, like I said the storyline is just a tad `out there, but I have to say that I completely loved to read this book. The pace is perfect and the suspense is extremely engrossing. I found myself anticipating the next move (and the next page).

The ride is a little crazy and I loved every moment of it. It kind of reminded me of the National Treasure movies - completely off the wall and so much fun that I have rewatched them over and over again - much like this book I suspect.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A plot that was very intriguing in concept, but very poorly executed February 12, 2011

By Jon Eric Davidson

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I had not read any of Brad Meltzer's previous works before, but was drawn to "The Inner Circle" because the plot synopsis soundly very intriguing, and it had been recommended by some individuals whose opinions I generally tend to trust. Sadly, as it turned out, all the positive buzz turned out to be untrue.

"The Inner Circle" focuses on Beecher, a young staffer at the National Archives, who gets drawn into a historical mystery of sorts by the accidental discovery of an artifact that ties to George Washington's ultra-secret spy ring. Also drawn into the mystery is Clementine, a classmate (and childhood crush) that Beecher recently reconnected with. Of course, their discovery has ties to the President, and - without completely spoiling all the details for those who might still want to read the novel - involves numerous other characters, all of whom Beecher cannot be sure to trust.

As it turns out, Mr. Meltzer bogs down the plot - and makes it far more convoluted than it ever should have been - with almost unnecessary side stories and flashbacks to Beecher's childhood. Probably 99% of these side stories and flashbacks didn't seem to be fully fleshed out, or worse, had absolutely no bearing on the supposed outcome of the main plot. Additionally, characters came and went in the story that had what seemed to be significant roles in the plot, but that ultimately were left hanging out there, leaving the reader more questions that were unresolved.

So as the chapters flew by, I figured this would be a classic storytelling style of the genre, where the first three-quarters of the novel was setup, followed by a lightning-fast final quarter where everything was satisfying tied up and resolved. That never happened. It was all buildup, side story, flashback, buildup, buildup, flashback, side story, flashback, until suddenly there was a conversation with the President, followed by a drive off into the night - and that was it. Absolutely nothing - except for maybe one plot thread that was never really interesting - was resolved. Instead, it felt to me as though Mr. Meltzer created what to me is a cardinal sin of storytelling: leaving a major plotline - or series of plotlines - open for what is likely to be a sequel. Tom Clancy did this a few years ago with "Teeth of the Tiger", which drove me away from his books. With "The Inner Circle", Mr. Meltzer seems to be doing it by setting up a future novel where the Beecher character continues his pursuit of this plot. What should have happened is that the major pieces of this plot should have been resolved in this novel. Then, if Mr. Meltzer intended to have the Beecher character return in a future novel, it could be with a different story, perhaps to include one of the minor story threads that wasn't necessarily key to this novel. In my opinion, that method of storytelling leads to a satisfied reader, and one who will be more inclined to return to other works from the author in the future.

In the end, I feel like I wasted my time reading "The Inner Circle", and also feel let down by being misled by the positive recommendations that led me to purchase and read this novel. I don't think the people who recommended it actually read it, or maybe hadn't finished the novel. It has been quite some time that I have read a book that had so promising a concept turn out to be so poorly executed. At any rate, I am hoping that my other friends and fellow readers who are looking for a good book will avoid "The Inner Circle", so that they don't experience the disappointment that I did. I will certainly not be returning to Mr. Meltzer's novels anytime soon.