The Whole Truth [Paperback]

Nancy Pickard (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket Books; Advance Reading Copy edition (2000)
• ASIN: B0011N9XOE
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,118,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Whole Truth is a Whole Lot More, February 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Whole Truth (Hardcover)

It's easy to see why this novel earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Pickard leaves the sprints behind and breaks out in a marathon! This exciting new novel is a major page-turner and quite a dramatic shift from the Jenny Cain novels, with the best opening chapter I've read in twenty years (don't miss it). Why some people commit heinous crimes is an area too often left unexplored by mystery and suspense authors, wherein villains are likely little more than caricature. Not so in this riveting story of the human heart gone astray. Pickard's characters open like rosebuds releasing strong perfume. But she doesn't stop there. Her story gathers in the thorns and the skin of individuals badly bruised and torn by life, and, finally, exposes the bare roots of evil. With perfect pacing, the author here seems pulled along by the story as much as by the characters. And you will be too. Reading the Whole Truth is like being shoved downhill... you can't stop running and, breathless, you can't stop reading. You can't stop, period. The whole truth is a villain is someone who weeps. Pickard's strongest work to date, The Whole Truth outpaces her previous novels and represents the full flower of the masterful talent she has shown in her short stories. It is such a great dare for an author of this stature to leave off a successful series! It pays off handsomely for the reader. This one will be a movie. And, if we're lucky, they'll leave the lights on in the theatre when the show it.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mesmerizing!, April 5, 2000

By 

Sherrie Martin "sherchez" (Roanoke, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whole Truth (Hardcover)

Raymond Raintree, an odd looking, oddly behaved young man withno family, no friends, and no history, has been arrested, tried, andconvicted in a Florida court for the senseless murder of a young child. The pace of this complex and mesmerizing novel only gains momentum from there. Marie Lightfoot, a true crime writer, is instrumental in finding the keys to unlock Raintree's cryptic past. As she delves deeply into the lives of victim, suspect, and those intertwined with them, she begins to suspect that there is more to the case than meets the eye, including an enigmatic link to a little boy who disappeared in Kansas over 20 years ago. Although you will be repulsed by the creature who is Raymond Raintree, Ms. Pickard will also wring from your depths a profound sympathy for him. I stayed up late to read this in one night and couldn't stop thinking about it the next day. This is a masterful piece of story-telling which will stay with you for a long time. END

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Buildup Only To Fizzle Out at The End, June 29, 2000

By 

Joey R. (Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Whole Truth (Hardcover)

As a first time reader of Nancy Pickard, I didn't know what to expect. I can tell you, I was very impressed with the opening of the book and the way that the author had written a book within a book to tell us the story of the killer. Ms. Pickard is very talented and pulls you into the story with ease. But what kept this from being a great book was the lazy and abrupt way the book is concluded. Several improbable plot twists, including a right place at the right time shooting, caused me to have a dissatisfied feeling when I finished the book. It seemed like the author, after building up our expectations with a very fine beginning, just wanted the novel to end as quickly as possible without any imaginative twists that characterized the first half of the novel. I will read Ms. Pickard again, but I hope she spends a little more time in crafting an ending that lives up to the promise and suspense the beginning of her novel creates.