Absolute Power

Not Baldacci's best work, but not his worst either.

I came away finding few, if any, of the characters likable. I found most of them to be either mopey or sociopathic, with few “normal” characters. I suppose this is a product of the era this novel was written in, as it was common, but it is offputting.

The plot was a tad pedestrian, and while entertaining, at about the 60% mark, I was hoping the book would wrap up. There was too much prose devoted to ultimately unimportant factors in the book.

And thats really the biggest problem with this book. Its got way too much purple prose. No one ever simply drives to a place, they “Floor their black Mercedes down the rainslick road.”* Nothing is ever just a cold day. I found myself skipping paragraphs, even whole pages, and not losing any of the plot. Couple that with way too much description of law, law practice, and the book just was full of way too much tedium. While this may have been excusable in a Melville book, it isn't here.

I ultimately finished the book, and it did keep me entertained, but it could have been pared down quite a bit and come out a better book

* not an actual quote