Customer Reviews

Winner

5 star:		(160)
4 star:		(89)
3 star:		(47)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

I read this book a few years ago but it has retained it's place in my top ten ever since. This is a a wonderfully crafted story that keeps you turning the pages until the end. This was the 2nd Baldacci book I had read; the first having been The Simple Truth. Although that book was enjoyable, this one was, in my opinion, just better. Baldacci is better well known for his political thrillers and this one doesn't quite fall into that genre, which is a welcome change. Always a good thing when a writer can be diverse with his subject matter.

The story itself is interesting, and what makes it interesting is that it is sort of unique. A little far fetched that someone could fix the lottery and cook up such an elaborate scheme to control people's lives? Perhaps. But that is not something you think about while reading this book-the characters are engrossing. Particularly the character of LuAnn. You can't help but care about what happens to this woman, and no matter how much wealth is bestowed upon her, you can't help but feel for her and sympathize with her situation. She is definitely someone you can identify with, whether you are male or female. I didn't particulaly care for the character of Charlie, but it would have been nice to know a little more information about him. Jackson is a wicked and diabolical character that you just love to hate. The combination of this and an excellent storyline that keeps moving at a good pace equals a great read. I would definitely recommend this book!

David Baldacci's books always leave me on edge. Wondering what will happen next, are we really to believe what we have just read, what strange twist will the plot take next. Never predictable and always a mystery up until the last page are two statements that sum up Baldacci's writing.

The Winner appealed to me because it was about a young woman who had the opportunity to change her life and her daughter's life. Once I was taken in by the novel I was immersed in the world of schemes, role-playing, and incredable twists and turns that only a writer as skilled as Baldacci could introduce into the story line.

Jackson, Charlie, LuAnn, and Matthew Riggs are unforgetable characters who are now emblazoned upon my memory forever.

This book is terrific! Go out and buy it today!

The Winner is my first David Baldacci book, and was I ever impressed! I normally read 2 to 3 books a week, and I must say this was one of the most riveting reads I've encountered in some time. The action is nonstop; there's absolutely no part of the book one could find boring. The plot is clever and unique, and the characterization is excellent. Add to this a very satisfying ending, and you have a true winner...maybe that's why the author chose The Winner as his book title! I'd enjoy hearing any recommendations from other readers who loved this book...

The idea is fascinating- what would you do if someone offered you a guaranteed chance to win 100 million and all you had to do was to keep your mouth shut? What would you do? How would you spend the money?

Of course nothing is that simple, or you wouldn't have this third rate "thriller." Naturally the person who "wins" is flawed and on the same day she is to buy the winning ticket gets involved with what looks like a murder, with her as the murderer. Of course.
And it goes downhill from there, one unbelievable thing after another happens, stretching even the most open "John Grisham" minded minds. The main villain here continently speaks in "expose," like some James Bond villain, telling his would be victims exactly how he did things. This is lazy writing folks, show, don't "tell."
There are "amazing" coincidences that pop up in the book, connections between characters that you never see coming because they are not necessary to tell the story, people being able to anticipate other's actions- 100% of the time, the list just goes on.
The story also skips a ten year period that would have been interesting and helpful to character development. Instead the ten year period is used as a handy way to explain away an changes in the characters.
Good idea, lazy execution.

This book was one of the best suspense novels i've read in a LOOONG time. I personally want to pat the author on the back if i ever had the chance. THe character "Jackson" was so unbelievably cold and remarkably intelligent, you almost want to be him, despite the fact that he's the villain! Or at least I did. And a book about money...earning money, the way people do things or manipulate people to gain more money, etc. It was a flawless, edge-of your-seat novel to me!

This is the first Baldacci book I have read and found it to be quality reading that stimulated my mind. Some thrillers move very quickly and mindlessly fly by, but this book was a page turner that required you to emerse yourself into the nove. I will read more Baldacci.

I read this book about 5 years ago, and then again recently. I had forgotten enough that the re-read felt like I was reading it for the first time. And as I re-read it, I remembered why I had liked it so much.

In short, Baldacci gives us both a fantastic protagonist and an equally fantastic antagonist in this story. He delivers an excellent thriller with a highly imaginative, highly original plot. It's all the right ingredients for a best-selling page turner.

Our heroine, LuAnn Tyler, is poor white trash but with supermodel looks, tomboy athletic prowess, and never-say-die tenacity. A single mom barely out of her teens, LuAnn works nights waitressing at the local truck stop to make ends meet for her and her infant daughter. She dreams of giving a better life to her daughter, but with no money, no education, and no prospects, it appears that LuAnn's life is destined to be nothing more than unrealized dreams in a shabby trailer at the end of a shabby dirt road.

But all of that could change in the blink of an eye as LuAnn stumbles across a remarkable opportunity when she goes to interview for a job at the local mall: a man who never reveals his identity explains to LuAnn that he has rigged the national lottery and offers to give her a winning ticket. However, there's a catch - she must leave the USA and never return while the mystery man invests her millions for her.

Fast forward 10 years. Now we find our protagonist fabulously wealthy, fabulously educated, fabulously refined, and still fabulously beautiful, but fabulously unfulfilled as well. LuAnn is profoundly weary of living as a quasi-recluse in countries not her own - and ultimately ashamed of the facade she's constructed to shield her daughter from her mother's true origins.

LuAnn breaks her promise, sneaking back to the USA - only to find out that her return wasn't as secret as she hoped. Now, the one man she hoped would never find out - Mr. Lottery - is hunting her in deadly earnest to keep his secret concealed.

Baldacci pits this not-so-country bumpkin against a refined killer - a killer with the intelligence to rig the lottery and remain undetected while amassing his own private fortune investing the winnings of LuAnn and his other "clients." It makes for a terrific story and Baldacci tells it with skill, building to a satisfying climax and satisfying conclusion.

It's a great read, and although it's cliche, be forwarned: you really will have a hard time putting this one down.

LuAnn Tyler is quintessential Georgia "white trash" - a young, beautiful, uneducated and unmarried mother with a typical Southern drawl living in a beat-up trailer with Duane Harvey, a no-account beer-guzzling low-life drug runner! But she is sharp enough to realize that her meaningless life is a dead end and she's trying to find a way out for her daughter.

When a shadowy character known only as "Jackson" offers her the opportunity to win a $100 million jackpot in a national lottery long before the drawing takes place, she's not able to figure out how it will happen but her lack of education doesn't stop her from realizing that however it will be done is well outside of the law.

Despite her poverty, LuAnn holds onto her integrity. Although she has reached the decision to turn down Jackson's "offer", a violent encounter with Duane's "colleagues" in the drug trade turns nasty and she is forced to run from the long reach of Georgia law. The $100 million becomes an offer she can no longer refuse and with her winnings, LuAnn Tyler and her daughter become lifelong fugitives from US law and from "Jackson", the sociopathic criminal mastermind who can do anything - fix a national lottery and savagely kill anyone who stands in his way or who threatens his world wide empire.

These characters are so OVER-written as to have crossed into the realm of cartoonish caricatures - LuAnn Tyler, the brash Southern belle heroine; Jackson, the evil megalomaniac who is a master of disguise; Thomas Donovan, the super sleuth investigative reporter who doesn't know enough to recognize danger when he's knee deep in it; Matthew Riggs, the former hot shot FBI agent now in deep cover in a witness protection program; and Uncle Charlie, the retired boxer who has a soft spot in his heart for LuAnn and her daughter! But, what the heck, they are phenomenally entertaining and - darn it all - every reader is going to fall in love with LuAnn and will be on their feet cheering for her in her battle against Jackson, the FBI, the Georgia state police force and even the IRS.

And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that Baldacci also wanted to make a political statement about lotteries being an irresponsible regressive form of taxation that prey upon the weak represented in their totality by LuAnn and her daughter. I think Baldacci was talking about the very story that he had his reporter Donovan attempting to chase down. You know ... he could be right!

Highly recommended!

Paul Weiss

Let's get this out of the way first. David Baldacci is a brilliant writer whose books are riveting mysteries with heart-pounding suspense - and whose plots are impossibly unreal. But no other recent author I know of delivers more satisfying and entertaining escapism.

At first glance LuAnn Tyler, 20-yr old single mom, appears to be trailer court trash going nowhere. We learn to care and root for her while she partakes in a mysterious someone's scheme of swindling themselves into a lottery super-jackpot. Though she initially refuses, a murder charge against her devolves from inexplicable events to put her on the run for her life, seemingly forcing her into acquiescing to the plan in exchange for rescue.

Fast forward to 10 years later. Building on almost unnoticed seeds strewn throughout the first part of the story, we now see a woman who has steadily grown and educated herself to have become a powerful and supremely capable self-determinant force. The characterizations of the main protagonists are devotedly well drawn (great romance story within); the "bad guy" is chillingly constructed to appear unstoppable. The story's culmination is instigated by an investigative newspaper reporter and FBI curiosity that strips her of her protective anonymity. LuAnn has several instantaneously vital friend-or-foe decisions to make and a hide-and-seek chase sequence before the blood-pounding final confrontation.

David Baldacci is a truly gifted writer. He has that unique ability to paint a picture such that one can actually picture themselves in the trailer with LuAnn, holding our breaths as we wish her the best in making her escape.

I had a hard time putting this book down. In fact, I finished it in two days.

After winning her millions and making a successful break, we are re-introduced to LuAnn a decade later. The two LuAnn's are not even comprable--a testimony to what millions and proper tutoring can do!

For anyone who enjoys suspensful fiction, this is a great read.