Hot plot, or not? How David Baldacci racks up sales as reviewers throw punches

Baldacci, David, The Winner (Warner Books, 1st ed., 1st printing, December 1997). ISBN 0-446-52259-7. A woman on her way to a John Grisham novel gets hijacked by this tale of a rigged $100m lottery prize. "She is twenty, beautiful, dirt-poor, and hoping for a better life for her infant daughter when she is offered the gift of a lifetime, a $100 million lottery jackpot. All LuAnn Tyler has to do is change her identity and leave the U.S. forever."

A wildly successful writer in the wildly opposite genres of thrillers and children's stories, Baldacci has his fans. Kirkus Reviews wasn't one when The Winner came out: "Irritatingly trite woman-in-periler from lawyer-turned-novelist Baldacci...Too preposterous to work as feminine wish-fulfillment, too formulaic to be suspenseful. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)."

In The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt caviled, "As for storytelling, Baldacci is as amateurish as an untrained puppy. He is capable of changing narrative point of view in midpunch. He often describes the exchange of information between two characters without telling the reader what that information happens to be, a maneuver that comic strips used to represent with the words "Bzzzz, mumble." "One of his ways of filling you in on plot background is by having one character tell another information they both already know. And whenever he suspects that his characters' emotions aren't clear, which they always are, he overexplains what they're feeling instead of dramatizing it. "True, the ending is stronger. The plot's many planted bombs explode unpredictably, and Jackson's genius for disguise pays off surprisingly. But you keep wondering what the story would have been like if LuAnn had been believably affected by her millions, if Jackson's villainy had any depth or meaning to it, if the story could have realized its rich possibilities. "If only Baldacci could write half as well as he can dream up plot gimmicks. Then "The Winner" would deserve to climb the best-seller lists, even as high as it inevitably will."

But the Pittsburg Post-Gazette's Karen Carlin was wowed: "Sound compelling? It is, especially from the pen of Baldacci. The premise is interesting on its own, but Baldacci's unexpected twists and turns make the book even more of a can't-put- it-down tale. One of the things I enjoy about Baldacci is that he writes with a "isn't this a small world" mentality. Everyone in the story is connected in some way. Baldacci leaves no loose ends - no character or relationship is introduced without a reason, and the smallest of details adds fuel to the steadily burning plot."

528 pp. Hardcover, unclipped dust jacket, autographed on the title page.

Authenticating Border’s “autographed by author” sticker on the front end pages. Very good condition: $35.

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