FEBRUARY 2011 - AudioFile
Brad Meltzer loves secrets. He proved it in DC Comics’ “Identity Crisis"; on his weekly television show, “Brad Meltzer: Decoded”; and always in his novels, like this latest. Using generous amounts of historic fact, spiced up with imaginative fiction, Meltzer tells secrets of the White House that are shared only by presidents and their inner circles. But who is part of that select group, and who is trying to destroy it? Narrator Scott Brick is the perfect partner to tell the story of a hidden America. His energetic delivery heightens the drama of the story of a humble Washington archivist who is caught up in a deadly game that could destroy not just the president but also the presidency. Brick's intense style adds to the excitement of Meltzer's best work yet. M.S. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
A fascinating look at the hidden treasures of the National Archives is the one strength of this otherwise unsatisfying thriller. Archivist Beecher White, to impress childhood crush Clementine Kaye during a tour of the archives, shows her the "Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility" reserved for President Orson Wallace, who often visits the SCIF. The accidental discovery of a rare volume linked to George Washington starts White on a perilous journey involving the Culper Ring, a secret spy group reaching back to the nation's first president; Nico Hadrian, a failed presidential assassin confined in a mental institution; and a presidential secret entrusted only to a few of Wallace's closest friends. Kaye's ambiguous re-entry into White's life adds another challenge. Bestseller Meltzer (The Book of Lies) fails to dial up much suspense with too many sketchy characters and a plot that never lives up to its promise, but the December 2 debut of his History Channel show, Brad Meltzer's Decoded, is sure to win him new fans. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
"Meltzer has earned the right to belly up to the bar with John Grisham, Scott Turow, and David Baldacci."—PEOPLE
"Meltzer is so good."—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Meet the next John Grisham."—MIAMI HERALD
MIAMI HERALD
"Meet the next John Grisham."
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Meltzer is so good."
PEOPLE
"Meltzer has earned the right to belly up to the bar with John Grisham, Scott Turow, and David Baldacci."
Miami Herald
Meet the next John Grisham.
Entertainment Weekly
Meltzer is so good.
People Magazine
Meltzer has earned the right to belly up to the bar with John Grisham, Scott Turow, and David Baldacci.
FEBRUARY 2011 - AudioFile
Brad Meltzer loves secrets. He proved it in DC Comics’ “Identity Crisis"; on his weekly television show, “Brad Meltzer: Decoded”; and always in his novels, like this latest. Using generous amounts of historic fact, spiced up with imaginative fiction, Meltzer tells secrets of the White House that are shared only by presidents and their inner circles. But who is part of that select group, and who is trying to destroy it? Narrator Scott Brick is the perfect partner to tell the story of a hidden America. His energetic delivery heightens the drama of the story of a humble Washington archivist who is caught up in a deadly game that could destroy not just the president but also the presidency. Brick's intense style adds to the excitement of Meltzer's best work yet. M.S. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
A fast-moving tale of murder, deception and intrigue linked to George Washington's Culper Ring and its espionage descendants.
Beecher White works in the "nation's attic"—the U.S. National Archives. Dumped by his fiancéand thoroughly depressed, the young archivist's mood improves after he's contacted by Clementine Kaye, a young woman he's had a crush on since school days. Raised by a single mother, Clemmi wants to search the Archives records to help find her father. Beecher wants to impress Clemmi, and so, with the help of a friendly security guard, they make a surreptitious foray into a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility), a secured room where presidents examine top-secret material. There they stumble upon a hidden antique dictionary, one possibly owned by Washington. Soon the guard turns up dead. Is the dictionary a code book once used by the Culper Ring, a group of double agents, spies and messengers organized to assist Washington in the republic's chaotic early days? Does the Ring still operate? Hints pop up that President Orson Wallace uses the SCIF to communicate with today's Ring members. The mystery grows to encompass the president's doctor and barber, other archivists and Clemmie's father, who is revealed to be Nico Hadrian, institutionalized as the attempted assassin of a former president. Hadrian, paranoid and violent, seems to know things about the Ring, and about "the inner circle," the ring-within-the-ring that some less-than-ethical presidents have used to shape history. Meltzer's chapters are short and cinematic, and the conclusion—some bad guys dead and buried, some not—suggests he plans a series.
Conspiracies make for good reading, and this book could turn skeptics into believers.
