The simple truth a novel

Amazon.com Review Rufus Harms is rotting in a Virginia military prison. As readers learn in the terse opening of The Simple Truth , he was convicted 25 years ago of the brutal killing of a young girl. Readers also learn that Rufus did not commit the crime; out of a haze of memories and with fragments of evidence, he has reconstructed the truth about the horrid event that ruined his life. He knows his discovery could cost him his life, so he breaks from prison after sending an appeal to the Supreme Court that details a massive conspiracy tied into the foundations of Washington. The complex drama of Rufus Harms is only one of the interwoven threads in this massive, violent legal thriller that also draws from the vocabulary of hard-boiled crime fiction. Baldacci offers glimpses into the arcane politics of the high court, where Justice Elizabeth Knight wages war with the manipulative Chief Justice Harold Ramsay. And while Harms struggles to keep out of harm's way and the justices duke it out, Supreme Court law clerk Sara Evans toils with ex-cop John Fiske to discover the import of Harms's appeal (and, simultaneously, to uncover the murderer of Mike Fiske, John's law clerk-brother and the original holder of the appeal). Their interest in the document apparently draws the attention of the same deadly conspirators who manipulated Harms over two decades earlier. While the armed mayhem sometimes rises to the point of excess, Baldacci's novel continues to offer new surprises until the final pages. --Patrick O'Kelley From Library Journal Will Baldacci's most recent title be another Winner, like his recent New York Times best seller? Here, a man convicted of a murder he's convinced he committed suddenly realizes that he's been framed and launches an appeal that leads to more murder. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. Twenty-five years ago, Rufus Harms was convicted of a murder he doesn't remember committing. When his memory is jogged by a letter from the army, he has a shocking realization: he never intended to kill anyone--he was coerced. From prison, Rufus files an appeal with the Supreme Court, unaware that the real killers are on to him. But the long-time convict knows he's running out of time when the Supreme Court clerk, who is the first to see Rufus' appeal, is murdered. Sprung from prison by his brother, Rufus must now elude capture long enough to expose a shocking cover-up and save his own life Michael Fiske broke the law when he took Rufus Harms’ prison letter from the Supreme Court. But he also sealed his own fate. Now Michael’s brother, a cop turned attorney, is coming to Washington to find out why his brother was murdered – and what it had to do with a crime that Rufus Harms committed twenty-five years before... When Rufus Harms, a convict in a Virginia military prison, smuggles a letter to the Supreme Court requesting an appeal, claiming that he was forced to commit murder twenty-five years ago, "suddenly everyone who has anything to do with Harms or the appeal mysteriously dies."--Jacket of Warner Books ed Convicted of a murder that took place twenty-five years ago, an innocent Rufus Harms secretly files an appeal with the Supreme Court, but the real killers embark on a deadly campaign to ensure that the case will remain closed, eliminating all who could reveal the truth