Simple Genius
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Product Description
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With a series of ever more accomplished novels, David Baldacci has been building something of a reputation for himself as one of the most reliable practitioners of the modern crime/thriller novel. The emphasis is, of course, usually on Baldacci's métier, the legal arena, and it's clearly the field he is most comfortable in -- as in Simple Genius. His long-term protagonists, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, have found that the aftermath of their last case has stayed with them in an unpleasant way, and Michelle is obliged to undergo therapy. Sean, his financial circumstances straightened, takes on a job. A scientist is dead in a nearby town -- the scene of the (possible) crime is a clandestine research institute peopled by a large cast of neurotic scientists. There are secrets galore to be unearthed here, and just across the river from the institute there is another clandestine institution, the CIA training ground, Camp Peary, where the dead man's body was originally discovered. Sean finds himself at bay, with several government security services on his tail, even as Michelle struggles to regain her mental equilibrium.
As in such page-turning thrillers as Hour Game and Split Second, David Baldacci knows how to keep the reader thoroughly engrossed, and never loses the capacity to surprise us with the revelations that his beleaguered hero and heroine become party to. This is one of the longest Baldacci books, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, and there are lengthy appendices after the novel proper has finished. These may not retrospectively add to the appeal of the book of the reader has just finished, but they show that Baldacci has -- as always -- done his homework. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Review
There's nothing simple about SIMPLE GENIUS, a complicated novel involving murder, geniuses, and the CIA. The story marks the return of former Secret Service Agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, now in business for themselves. Scott Brick captures the excitement of this thriller with his unique pacing and style, which are perfect here. Brick even manages to sound somewhat feminine when he needs to be, and his voice for the Southern black gentleman is classic. The beginning of the novel is a story within a story, as Maxwell ends up institutionalized after inexplicably attacking a man in a sleazy bar. Everything comes together in a mysterious settlement for geniuses, where people are being murdered. There's a lot of heart in this work. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you love books about secret codes, Simple Genius will be a book you'll long treasure. If you like thrillers that teem with action, sex scenes, obscure martial arts, and high-tech weaponry, this book will seem like a yawn.
As Mr. Baldacci warns you, don't read the Author's Note until after you finish the book. But don't miss that note if you read and like the book. It's a marvelous look into how the story was constructed.
What I found most delightful about Simple Genius was that the plot development kept surprising me. Sure, the general outlines are foreshadowed intentionally (so that you don't get lost in the maze of details), but the specifics shift unexpectedly. In fact, midway through the book, I literally jumped out of my chair with surprise when one change occurred involving the medical examiner.
Simple Genius is intellectually dense. You'll be exposed to more psychology, code breaking, quantum computers, and history than you would normally find in 20 thrillers combined. To Mr. Baldacci's credit, he keeps it as simple as possible without insulting your intelligence.
As the book opens, former Secret Service agents turned PIs, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell have hit bottom. They don't have any work, and Michelle picks a potentially lethal fight with the toughest guy she can find in the roughest bar in town. It takes the last of Sean's money, but he persuades Michelle to seek psychiatric help from an old friend, Dr. Horatio Barnes. Barnes quickly concludes that Michelle is punishing herself, but for what?
Desperate to keep Michelle in treatment, Sean calls his former love and begs for a job. He gets the job, on the condition that Michelle is kept away.
Sean is to find out why Monk Turing, a scientist, appears to have committed suicide inside the CIA's highly classified facility informally referred to as the Farm. The scientist had worked at a very secretive installation cross the river from the Farm. No one wants to tell Sean anything. He cannot even find out who his clients are.
Sean's heart is deeply touched by Viggie, the 11-year-old daughter of the scientist, a mathematical genius whose emotional and social development is retarded.
Sean finds he cannot make much progress until Michelle releases herself from the mental hospital. But can either of them count on her mental stability? Michelle finds herself in the unexpected nurturing role for Viggie.
Michelle is by far the most interesting character in the book. She's super human physically and intensely flawed psychologically at the same time, reminding me of the myth of Achilles. I found in her a metaphor for the modern world with its ability to do increasingly great things materially while becoming ever more spiritually and psychologically barren.
In addition to enjoying the thriller, you'll find this book will also leave you with lots of food for thought.
Enjoy!
As Mr. Baldacci warns you, don't read the Author's Note until after you finish the book. But don't miss that note if you read and like the book. It's a marvelous look into how the story was constructed.
What I found most delightful about Simple Genius was that the plot development kept surprising me. Sure, the general outlines are foreshadowed intentionally (so that you don't get lost in the maze of details), but the specifics shift unexpectedly. In fact, midway through the book, I literally jumped out of my chair with surprise when one change occurred involving the medical examiner.
Simple Genius is intellectually dense. You'll be exposed to more psychology, code breaking, quantum computers, and history than you would normally find in 20 thrillers combined. To Mr. Baldacci's credit, he keeps it as simple as possible without insulting your intelligence.
As the book opens, former Secret Service agents turned PIs, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell have hit bottom. They don't have any work, and Michelle picks a potentially lethal fight with the toughest guy she can find in the roughest bar in town. It takes the last of Sean's money, but he persuades Michelle to seek psychiatric help from an old friend, Dr. Horatio Barnes. Barnes quickly concludes that Michelle is punishing herself, but for what?
Desperate to keep Michelle in treatment, Sean calls his former love and begs for a job. He gets the job, on the condition that Michelle is kept away.
Sean is to find out why Monk Turing, a scientist, appears to have committed suicide inside the CIA's highly classified facility informally referred to as the Farm. The scientist had worked at a very secretive installation cross the river from the Farm. No one wants to tell Sean anything. He cannot even find out who his clients are.
Sean's heart is deeply touched by Viggie, the 11-year-old daughter of the scientist, a mathematical genius whose emotional and social development is retarded.
Sean finds he cannot make much progress until Michelle releases herself from the mental hospital. But can either of them count on her mental stability? Michelle finds herself in the unexpected nurturing role for Viggie.
Michelle is by far the most interesting character in the book. She's super human physically and intensely flawed psychologically at the same time, reminding me of the myth of Achilles. I found in her a metaphor for the modern world with its ability to do increasingly great things materially while becoming ever more spiritually and psychologically barren.
In addition to enjoying the thriller, you'll find this book will also leave you with lots of food for thought.
Enjoy!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first Baldacci book I've read and I'll now go back and read others, including the previous Sean and Michelle books (plus I hope there'll be another). I found the book a fun, thrilling and fast read with enough background research to provide added interest (hadn't heard of quantum computers). OK, so at times it felt quickly written and could have done with a little more depth, but I still found the book very enjoyable and I'm surprised at the negative reviews.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was my first Baldacci and I found it all surface shine with very little underneath. The premise sounded intriguing: a quasi-secret code-breaking establishment working on inventing the quantum computer, set in the midst of both a US Naval establishment and a CIA facility. And with all the gumf about code-breaking etc (which Baldacci inserts well) I was looking forward to a bit of intellectual puzzlement. Sadly this is all pretty much irrelevant to the actual story, which doesn't really involve code-breaking or ciphers at all, and could equally well have been set anywhere that happened to be next door to the CIA.
The two protagonists are pleasant enough company, and the writing has an ease and flow that keeps the pages turning in a leisurely but never edge-of-your-seat kind of way. As another reviewer has mentioned there are really two stories going on here and while they sort of integrate, they don't add anything to each other.
With a whole load of stuff thrown in: the said quantum-computers, WW2 Enigma machines, buried colonial treasure, murder, drug-smuggling, secret airplanes, the possibility of terrorist torture chambers, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA... there's more than enough to keep us occupied, but at heart this is a very simple story. I had to giggle at the end when the police are called in to `arrest' the CIA!
So overall this is a competent and fun read: not obtrusive and desperate over-writing, characters whose company you can enjoy, a bit of gentle mystery etc, but it's no more than that. As other reviewers have said, Baldacci rather over-eggs the whole thing with his characters' names (Turing, Ventris, Chadwick, Champ Pollion: the `inventor' of the computer; the decipherers of linear B, the decipherer of the hieroglyphs) and there are likely to be others that I just wasn't aware off. This seems a little childish and unnecessary since code-breaking isn't really necessary to the story... and he caps it with Valerie Messaline, a nod to Valeria Messalina more commonly known as Messalina the wife of the emperor Claudius immortalised by Tacitus and Robert Graves' I, Claudius...
So an entertaining 3.5* read but completely throw-away, and it didn't leave me keen to read any more Baldacci.
The two protagonists are pleasant enough company, and the writing has an ease and flow that keeps the pages turning in a leisurely but never edge-of-your-seat kind of way. As another reviewer has mentioned there are really two stories going on here and while they sort of integrate, they don't add anything to each other.
With a whole load of stuff thrown in: the said quantum-computers, WW2 Enigma machines, buried colonial treasure, murder, drug-smuggling, secret airplanes, the possibility of terrorist torture chambers, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA... there's more than enough to keep us occupied, but at heart this is a very simple story. I had to giggle at the end when the police are called in to `arrest' the CIA!
So overall this is a competent and fun read: not obtrusive and desperate over-writing, characters whose company you can enjoy, a bit of gentle mystery etc, but it's no more than that. As other reviewers have said, Baldacci rather over-eggs the whole thing with his characters' names (Turing, Ventris, Chadwick, Champ Pollion: the `inventor' of the computer; the decipherers of linear B, the decipherer of the hieroglyphs) and there are likely to be others that I just wasn't aware off. This seems a little childish and unnecessary since code-breaking isn't really necessary to the story... and he caps it with Valerie Messaline, a nod to Valeria Messalina more commonly known as Messalina the wife of the emperor Claudius immortalised by Tacitus and Robert Graves' I, Claudius...
So an entertaining 3.5* read but completely throw-away, and it didn't leave me keen to read any more Baldacci.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
David Baldacci Simple Genius
A wonderful read as have been all his books I have read so far, clever, witty and very pacey. Looking forward to the next read.
Published 1 month ago by PCGreenhalgh
Dip in form
The first Baldacci I read was "First Family" (the 4th King and Maxwell) which was really good so I played catch up and bought the first 3. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. Pjk Patching
A thoroughly entertaining read
Simple Genius is a fun read with several intertwining subplots. In keeping with David Baldacci's style, you have a longish novel with a relatively bounded premise and few locations... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Leaveitwithya
OK thriller if you don't look too deep
The first Baldacci I've read, and an interesting premise - a modern day code-breaker and relative of the legendary Alan Turing is found dead in a CIA facility having evidently... Read more
Published on 11 May 2010 by Daren Fulwell
what a time waster
I had the book on my way to holiday and by the time I got back to UK I still got half of the book untouched. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2009 by qb776235
Simple? - yes, genius? - if you've got a negative IQ, maybe.
I enjoyed Baldacci's first books but this has got to be the worst book I've read in a long time. Usually I would give up if it doesn't cut it by 100 pages but for some reason, I... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by P. Woowat
I want my money back, this is dross
The simple genius is Baldacci getting away with this.
I thought I would get an intelligent book about what seemed to be a subject that offered the potential for... Read more
I thought I would get an intelligent book about what seemed to be a subject that offered the potential for... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2009 by Peter Lynch
A reflection on the miserable Bush-ist West
There is a fascinating style in Baldacci's books. We are always dealing with state business and crime intertwined in the plot. Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2008 by Jacques COULARDEAU
not up to standard
Sometimes authors are tied into a set amount of books and then they struggle to complete the books in the time span allowed. This is how Simple Genius feels to me. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2008 by White Rose
How the mighty can fall....
This is the second Baldacci I've read recently and the deterioration in the quality of his writing over time is now very noticeable. Read more
Published on 23 May 2008 by johnverp
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