Absolute Power
By David Baldacci
Time Warner Audiobooks, $17, 3 hours
ISBN 1570423571
Back to the seamy side of politics
Review by Sukey Howard
The opening of David Baldacci's Washington sizzler, Absolute Power, is an absolute knockout that gives the word "riveting" new intensity. Luther, a master thief, had planned the burglary of a grand Virginia mansion with infinite care, but we all know what can happen to those best laid plans. Instead of carrying out a major heist, Luther witnesses the President of the United States and the lady of the house in a steamy sex scene that first turns a little ugly and then turns into murder. The President, quite drunk and definitely disorderly, doesn't seem to know what's gone down, but his chief of staff, a woman afloat in ambition, and the two Secret Service agents know exactly and know that a major cover-up is the only thing that can save them all. But cover-ups, like plans, often go astray and drive the perpetrators to more treachery, deceit, and desperation. Machiavelli had it right-"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts, absolutely"-and David Baldacci is right on in this "inside-the-Beltway" bestseller. Read with absolute authority by Anthony Heald.
Sukey Howard reports on spoken word audio each month. She can be reached at sukey_howard@bookpage.com.
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