The Book of Fate (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set against a backdrop of Oval Office corruption, bestseller Meltzer's overblown thriller opens with a frantic assassination attempt on President Leland Manning, who manages to elude the gunfire. Manning's deputy chief of staff, Ron Boyle, is killed, and his top aide, the cocky, ambitious Wes Holloway, is left facially disfigured. Eight years later, his motivation and confidence drained by his handicap, Holloway still toils away for the out-of-office Manning, fetching refreshments and handling the daily social calendar. On a goodwill junket to Malaysia, however, Holloway spots Boyle, surgically altered, but unmistakably the same man who was supposed to be dead and gone. From this turning point, Meltzer (The Zero Game) follows Holloway step by excruciatingly slow step as he tries to find out what really happened eight years earlier. Authentic details about Washington politics and historical mysteries enliven the predictable path. While readers looking for efficient plotting may be disappointed, Meltzer's many fans will enjoy this substantial meal of a book. 15-city author tour. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Wes Holloway, a hotshot presidential aide, is wounded in an assassination attempt that kills the president's close friend. Eight years later, the dead man reappears, disfigured but very much alive and apparently stalking the former president. Wes thinks he can figure out what's going on, but to do so he must decipher a two-century-old code and penetrate the secrets of Masonic history. From his first novel, The Tenth Justice (1997), through his sixth, Identity Crisis (2005), Meltzer has served up exciting thrillers that take readers behind the scenes of American politics. The pattern doesn't change this time. Like the television series The West Wing, Meltzer's novels focus on the political people the public never sees and tells the stories we never hear. He could be accused here of jumping on the Da Vinci Code bandwagon, but that wouldn't really be fair. He's too good a writer to waste his time imitating someone else's work, and this novel is much more skillfully written--and far more plausible--than Dan Brown's tedious best-seller. The characters are genuine human beings--not all that common in the world of high-concept thrillers--and the plot fluidly integrates historical fact and fiction, which is even less common. Fans of thrillers that reach far back into history will be, well, . . . thrilled. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (September 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446530999
• ISBN-13: 978-0446530996
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (167 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #96,196 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A huge caveat should come with this book, September 19, 2006

By	Brian Baker (Santa Clarita, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've enjoyed Meltzer's work in the past, and I have to admit that the title grabbed me. Further, the blurb on the inside jacket really piqued my interest. This book sounded like a combination of "National Treasure" and "All the President's Men", with a hint of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. I quote from the inside book jacket: "The Book of Fate holds everyone's secrets. Especially the ones worth dying for. The Book of Fate. What does it say about you?"

Well, after reading this book, I don't have the foggiest notion what that blurb's supposed to mean. I don't even have any idea what the Book of Fate is.

This book turns out to be simply a political conspiracy book, a pale imitation of a Baldacci book, and nowhere near as good. I have absolutely no idea at all what the title refers to, there's no Jeffersonian or Masonic history in here worth mentioning, and whatever that blurb's talking about never takes place. Maybe the blurb and title were meant for some other book and got mixed up in the computer; who knows?

The plotting is pedestrian. The characters are unsympathetic; I didn't care one bit about any of them. The "conspiracy" was so contorted I couldn't even follow it. And didn't even care. This was a very clumsy book.

1.5 stars, and I'm being generous with that.

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars garbage, October 13, 2006

By	C. Elgin "akitonmyers" (Palo Alto CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have read all of Meltzers books and have to say that I am shocked at just how bad Book Of Fate is. Meltzer has a lot of talent. Its apparent if you read his earlier books. Sadly it is greatly mis-spent here.

The Book of Fate has so many holes it is difficult to point to them all. From Wes, the main characters disfiguring involvement in an assassination attempt on a future president to the "three", a group of law enforcement officers who pull off evil escapades far beyond belief.

The whole story is a house of cards. One damnably idiotic silly plot strain stacked upon another and bringing it to a point in the end that is almost laughable. I wonder if Meltzer sketched out the story before starting on this book, or if he just had some idea and it built momentum as he wrote. Either way, its a disaster. I cant think of an author actually penning out the ideas for this book and saying "hmmmmm, this is a good idea."

The worst thing is Meltzers use of the Da Vinci code phenomena. He plops in a few bits of cryptic gobley gook pertaining to Thomas Jefferson and the Masons, only it leads nowhere at all.

I would not recommend this book to anyone. I was totally looking forwards to reading it, and ended with thoughts of disgust.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Confusing, at best, September 21, 2006

By	A. Husted (Overland Park, KS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Too many "what if's" in this book make it a lesser read. The author spends so much time spinning different scenarios, that by the time the mystery is actually solved, I didn't care anymore. I thought maybe it was just another "what if." The main character, Wes, is such a whimpy, low self-esteem character, that I had a hard time relating. (Okay, I know, he was shot and that would get me down, too, but MOVE ON ALREADY!) And the ending Epilogue section was just pointless and full of filler. I would not recommend this book for anyone looking for a "thinking man's" thriller.