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True Blue  By  cover art

True Blue

By: David Baldacci
Narrated by: Ron McLarty
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Publisher's summary

As former D.C cop Mace Perry investigates a mysterious high-profile homicide in a last-ditch attempt to get her badge back, she finds herself on a collision course with the dark side of national security in this New York Times best seller.

Mason "Mace" Perry was a firebrand cop on the D.C. police force until she was kidnapped and framed for a crime - and then spent two years in prison. Now she's back on the outside and focused on one mission: to be a cop once more. Her only shot to be a true blue again is to solve a major case on her own. But even with her police chief sister on her side, she'll have to work in the shadows: A vindictive U.S. attorney will stop at nothing to send Mace back to jail. Enter Roy Kingman....

A young D.C. lawyer, Roy meets Mace after the murder of one of the firm's female partners. Soon Roy and Mace are investigating together - and uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public sectors of the nation's capital.

©2009 David Baldacci (P)2009 Hachette

What listeners say about True Blue

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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A disappointing purchase - less than one star.

Baldacchi tries too hard to paint his main character as a hard-bitten maverick. For example he spends an entire chapter trying to show how little his heroine, Mace, cares about her rich mother and step-father. A character who really was a bad-ass maverick and cared so little for these people would never give them a second thought, let alone take the time to visit them.

Maces sister is the Chief of Police in a large metro city who investigates murders personally? Not likely. Even more unbelievable is that the Chief would allow an ex-con to accompany her to the scene of a murder where news media and political opponents would observe this??

The more I listened, the more I felt like I had wasted my money. Im surprised that Baldacchi would submit this kind of dribble for publication.

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66 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

No connection to new heroine

True Blue introduces a new central character Mace Perry. You have to suspend belief further than normal with this storyline. Mace is a (supposedly) framed ex-con cop who has a sister that is chief of the DC police. On her release from prison Mace and her sister committ felony after felony to solve a murder that Mace has no connection with other than her sister is the chief. Mace also teams up with a lawyer and solve the case faster than the entire police squad. There are also ridiculous scenes where the lawyer saves their lives from a killing gang in the bad side of town by challenging the gang leader to game of a basketball. The FBI and CIA also make their way into the story in a way that only the most ardent conspiracy theory buff would appreciate or believe. The largest drawback to me was that I did not like the Mace Perry character. She was porrayed as a action first, think last character with bad judgement. Her actions and reckless behavior were not worthy of a real policeman and she continually placed those close to her in danger for poor reasons. Read the other Baldacci books for much better story lines and characters you can like.

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44 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Truly Awful

Baldacci has always been one of my favorite crime/mystery writers. His past efforts have always been based on plausible circumstances as a base starting point.
It is hard to believe that this book is written by that same author.
Absolutely none of it is even remotely based on any reality.
The entire story including the characters actions are foolish,unbelievable and not grounded upon even a grain of plausibility.
A definite miss by a normally good writer.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Expected more from David Baldacci

I usually enjoy Baldacci's books, and this one started out as interesting -- a framed cop survives two years in prison and comes out, determined to regain her badge. But the character of Mace is essentially a macho pig -- yes, even though she's a woman -- with such ridiculously bad judgment that it's amazing she ever got out of the police academy. Every encounter is about her showing how tough she is instead of about using whatever brain she must once have had. It's as if this character is some male fantasy of an admirably tough broad, but she's just plain offensive.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Really bad

especially from an author I have enjoyed in the past. What happened? It is so poorly plotted and the characters not as described. I would think that Mace really would have been a gritty, hardened police officer turned con. THAT character would have been interesting. Wish I had read Roberts review before purchase.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Another Disappointed Fan

Count me in the club of disappointed Baldacci fans. I bought the book on the strength of his previous books. This one was weak.

The plot resorts to Baldacci's usual formula of corrupt politicians up to their usual skulduggery. It takes a long time for the plot to unfold, and there are parts of it that don't hang together. They're caught in their corruption by characters that are flat and two-dimensional.

Mace: I could care less, send her back to jail. The escape from the refrigerator? Puhleeze! Not even a crumb of believability on the shelves. Roy: what's his motivation? The Captain: a familiar Baldacci stereotype. Beth Perry: why in the world would a police chief not just protect her felon-sister in full public view, but allow her at murder scenes and give her access to investigative data, and why is it that she never gets pulled up short for it? Mona: how would such an unlikable and marginally competent attorney achieve such high office? How is it that she gets her heel caugth in the grate, but Beth doesn't?

While I'm busy savaging the characters, Mace's underlying story is a perfect example of how thin the plot is and how it lacks basic plausibility. Her felony conviction based on her kidnapping and subsequent forced drug use and consequent acts doesn't have the ring of truth. Even a character as despicable as Mona would be able to get to the truth of that one. Plus, the law doesn't support the conviction.

The narrator: one of the worst I've heard and I've been listening to audiobooks since they were only available on cassette. Hard to tell which male character he's voicing since they all sound the same.

This audiobook was a total disappointment. I may have to wait for reviews of his next book before buying, and if they're as bad as they are for this book, wait for it to go on sale.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

No reason to care about the characters

This audio book was a struggle for me to listen to. I knew so little about each character that I didn't find reason to really care about any of them. I certainly didn't believe the bone-headed things they were doing. Disappointing.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Baldacci has pulled it off again!

How does he keep doing it? Once again, David Baldacci has given us another wonderful thriller set in Washington, D.C. He clearly knows the place and the political shenanigans taking place therein. This time he has created a believable female protagonist. Although sometimes I don't buy the female protagonists that male authors create -- they often try to attribute male sex drive to them -- in this case I liked Mace Perry and her sister Beth, even though they manifest as tough women operating in a man's world. Mace can kick butt better than any of the male characters! "True Blue" has everything a good story should have: complexity, good side plots, human interest, and character development. The golden voice of Ron McLarty alone almost justifies listening to "True Blue," although this time I noticed that he doesn't do quite as good a job of vocally distinguishing some of the characters as he usually does. All the same, if you like thrillers, you will enjoy this audiobook.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fun story very well performed

Great Narrator. A Classic David Baldacci story line. I have nothing more to say I could listen to Ron McLardy all day

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Pretty bad

Either Baldacci did not write this book, or he is seriously losing his grip. Formulaic, predictable, and hackneyed. Save your money.

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9 people found this helpful