This story takes place in and around Washington DC. It centers around an old man who has spent the last 25 years of his life in a military prison for murder. He files an appeal (I won't tell you why), and a star clerk for the Supreme Court gets involved.

There are lots of twists and lots of suspense. There's murder, cover-up, romance, and everything else that David Baldacci is great at. If you've read anything else by him and liked it, you'll love this one.

Who doesn't love a story with a hulking beast of a man unjustly imprisoned for 25 years? Reminiscent of King's "The Green Mile's" hulking character--John Coffey or Steinbeck's Lenny of "The Grapes of Wrath," Baldacci's Rufus Harms and his imprisonment draws you into the question, "Did Rufus or didn't Rufus kill an innocent, young girl?" Cue two brothers, one a clerk of the Supreme Court and the other, a practicing criminal lawyer. Baldacci attracted my attention from the start with his descripti More...

NO FLAWS IN THIS ONE

The story is about a black military con who is seeking justice after serving 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. After receiving a letter he discovers that he is innocent and files and appeal with the US Supreme Court because he is well aware that he was a victim of a conspiracy of a group that will do the impossible to cover it up, this appeal is found by a clerk who gets so astounded that begins an investigation on his own bending the standard procedures of t More...

Entertaining and suspenseful Grishamesque legal thriller!

"Truth" was our first novel by Baldacci, and a pleasant surprise indeed. From first learning that a long-imprisoned military convict is probably innocent of a young girl's murder, to the series of deaths the investigation into these old events precipitates, we can hardly wait to see what will happen next, not to mention "whodunit"! Supreme Court law clerk Michael Fiske gets in over his head when he begins to pursue the truth in the priso More...

I did enjoy this book and had a very difficult time putting the book down at night. I love reading books that take place in Richmond and DC, places I have actually been. Baldacci creates characters of great strength but also with flaws that effect their human interactions. Rufus Harms has been a prisoner for 25 years in a Virginia Military Prison for killing a girl. Through his fight for freedom you learn of prejudice in the justice system, abuse in the military such as testing PCP on soldiers, More...

David B. has created a page turner in his novel SIMPLE TRUTH. A black man, Rufus, was attacked while in the Army and given a syringe of PCP. The attackers, we do not find out actually who they are until the last 20 pages, hope to kill him. Why? because he spends the Vietnam Era in the Army land side. They being "macho" think he deserves to die, for not seeing combat. He does not die but blacks out. He spends the rest of his life in an Army Prison. The book starts at the epoch when he asks for an More...

I liked this book because it was a mystery.
It is very well written and an easy read. It is about a lawyer who sets out to clear a man who was sent to prison for a crime he did not commit. It certainly shows how the judicial system sometimes fails people. People are getting killed because of the research this lawyer is doing to find out the real truth.

David Baldacci's "The Simple Truth" was a good read. Good characters, suspense in the Richmond, VA and Washington D.C. area. I took 8th graders to D.C. and toured many of the locations. I recommend the book to suspense fiction lovers, and anyone interested in D.C.

"This is my first foray into David Baldacci's legal thriller world and it probably won't be my last. Baldacci crafts a decent, if unspectacular, book about Rufus Harms, a black man locked away in prison for the brutal murder of a little girl. Harms, however, has a piece of paper from the United States Army that will exonerate him and he demands an appeal from his lawyer.

This piece of paper quickly sets the plot in motion as a Supreme Court clerk finds it and later is murdered. John Fiske, the c More...

I got lost in this one. David Baldacci wrote what could have been a very good book but there were so many characters with similar -- or not different enough -- names that I kept forgetting who was who.

There were some very interesting characters and some really interesting information on the Supreme Court but I felt lost in this book.

There are too many moments where things just were not plausible. I am not giving anything away of great importance here so stick with me.

There are people with motive More...

Overall I felt that the book was very enjoyable. I liked the characters and the story built nicely to the end. A few of the twists actually surprised me, which is rare in this type of book. My only complaint (which is why I docked a star) was that it started a little too slow for my taste. I almost stopped reading but was very glad that I continued. !!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!! I think the problem was that when Michael died I felt that I was restarting with a new main character. Maybe if the first part w More...

The Simple Truth by David Baldacci is a thrilling and exciting book. The book is based around a complex attempted murder that involves a Vietnam vet named Rufus Harms. Some people drugged him one night expecting that the drugs would kill him however they don’t he goes crazy and accidentally kills a little girl. Then jumping forward 20 years the people behind this plot attempt to finish the job because Rufus has remembered what ha happened that night and so Rufus filed a claim with the supreme co More...

This is one of Mr. Baldacci's older novels that I missed. All I can say is "WOW!" Taking place in and around the Supreme Court, with its Justices and Law Clerks, this book is powerfully written and not only draws one into the intrigue of the story but gives one pause to consider how cases heard there can affect each of us. A Law Clerk to one of the Justices is found murdered. A second Law Clerk is murdered. What are they working on that someone is attempting to cover up? We can quickly figure ou More...

When Rufus Harms receives a letter from the Army, it sets into motion a series of events that will shake the Supreme Court. When attorney John Fiske receives word that his brother has been murdered, he is determined to find out who was responsible. His brother Mike was a clerk for the Supreme Court and John along with D.C. detective Buford Chandler believed that Mike saw something that got him killed. Evidence found did not corroborate a simple robbery. John receives assistance from Sarah Evans, More...

David Baldacci is, in my view, on of the finest political-thriller writers today (and darn good apart from genre). His books keep me going much faster than many other enjoyable authors. The Simple Truth is an early work detailing foul deeds at a military prison that led to the death of a young girl and the incarceration of her soldier killer. Except, of course, the situation is not quite as simple as that, which begins to come to light when the prisoner receives a letter from the US Army that tr More...

This is an excellent crime/mystery/thriller. The story unravels slowly enough and had enough twists and turns that it keeps you guessing until the end. There are surprise all along the way. I started and finished it today. Rufus Harms has been in a military prison for 25 years, accused of killing a young girl.While it is true that Rufus murdered Ruby, there are circumstances that he knows exist that he just cannot remember. A letter arrives from the U.S. Army that sets off a sequence of events t More...

This book defied my low expectations. When I noticed how many books this guy had written I thought it would be a fill-in-the-blank kind of story. The kind that read like the names have been changed, but are otherwise the same old story. Surprisingly, it turned out to be interesting.

I didn’t have it all figured out before I got to the end of the book. (I hate when that happens.) There was a twist concerning one of the characters that I didn’t see coming. (That’s always fun.) And best of all, it h More...

I do like a good thriller, especially with twists and turns. The first few pages of this book are so well written, that I found it promising. Reading further I was wondering if it was necessary to introduce so many characters in the beginning. Now I think it wasn’t. Some of them could appear later, and the first part of the book could be better paced.

Baldacci kept the secret hidden until the crisis, which was supposed to give suspense. Actually I found it out at the half of the book, so the fina More...

This is the second Baldacci novel I've read, the other being The Collectors. Although the two are very different, there's a similarity in the quality. Both were very interesting and grabbing, as well as well written. Both had a very good plot, and interesting perspectives throughout. However, I think this one trumps The Collectors through the amount of twists this book has. It kept me guessing until the very end, and had new surprises around every corner. This is definitely worth reading.

Final R More...

I usually find mystery/thriller books to be full of flat and unrealistic characters with poorly conceived stories. Realizing that most people who try out science fiction and fantasy -- my usual forte -- have the same complaints about those genres I decided to give a few of the more popular mysteries a try. I picked up a stack of books from a yard sale and started with the first one alphabetically.

This didn't do anything to dissuade from my opinions. The story was filled with useless details, rid More...

Another great crime novel by Baldacci. This one takes place around the Supreme Court. A man in jail for 25 years just received a letter from the Army. Well, actually his brother received it and snuck it in. When you read about what really happens in prison, it seems un-likely. Well, I am now believing the stories. In this book, I believe that the people 'running the prison' are worse than the ones put there via a trial. I had a real hard time trying to figure out who were the bad guys. At ome ti More...

Ceritanya penuh twist, tebakan gue gak ada yang bener, hiks..

Inti ceritanya Rufus Harms, seorang ex Army, dihukum penjara semumur hidup karena telah membunuh Ruth Ann Mosley, seorang gadis berumur 8 tahun. Setelah 25 tahun mendekam di penjara, Harms menerima surat dari Army yang membangkitkan memorinya tentang kejadian 25 tahun lalu, tentang apa yang terjadi di malam saat dia membunuh gadis kecil tersebut, dan bahwa dia hanyalah korban perlakuan keji dari sekelompok orang, bahwa ia melakukan pem More...

A good legal thriller, with the emphasis being on the thriller rather than the legal which has got to be a good thing. In fact, the legal bit is really just the backdrop for a pageturning thriller, centering as it does around the US Supreme Court. You get an interesting insight into the workings of the Supreme Court, without being bored by all the legal cases, lawyers arguing etc. [return][return]Not as good as his other books I've read, but still a good read that didn't take me long to read.

I'm a Baldacci fan. I'm not too picky; I'm just there to be entertained. This book was OK, not the strongest of his novels, but a good story. I loved that the underdog was championed. I loved that people were forced to be out of their comfort zone. Our hero finds the truth, the simple truth and we are happy in the end. The most fun part about this book is that I listened to it with my husband while driving to southern Utah for a family event. I like shared books. Fun.

a customer and I were talking about favorite authors. He knew I had read GRishom and Connelly and recommended this author. His books tend to be about government espionage, the bad FBI guy, Bad US President. So they don't promote any faith in gov positions. I still think Connelly is a better author. My customer brought in and gave me 12 of Baldacci's books. So I have read 3-4. They are handy to grab when I'm without reading material. But I still don't like his books that much.

I finally got around to reading one of these Baldacci books that my brother loaned me. It was a fun read with a twist at the end, but overall is your standard fare for lawyer-adventure books.

Lawyer with ethical law questions? Check
Romantic interest? Check
Being Chased by Bad Guys? Check
Corrupt Government Types? Check
Murder? Of Course

It's definitely worth it as it's a fun read, but nothing life changing or too insightful.

Rufus Harms had been in prison for 25 years for killing a little girl while he was in the army. Then the letter came which jogged his memory of the night it happened. Michael Fiske clerked at the Supreme Court. When he saw the appeal that came from Rufus' lawyer, he took it and went to see Rufus in the military prison. . .but he never made it home. Michael's brother, John, former cop and now attorney, along with Sara Evans, who also clerks at the Supreme Court, work together to find out why he w More...