The Winner (novel)
 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | David Baldacci |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
Publication date | January 1, 1998 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 524 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | 978-0-446-52259-5 |
| OCLC | 37513081 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3552.A446 W56 1997 |
The Winner is fiction novel by American author David Baldacci. The book was initially published on January 1, 1998 by Grand Central Publishing.[1][2]
Plot
The novel tells the story of LuAnn Tyler, a destitute mother living in a trailer park, who meets with Jackson, a man running a massive lottery scam from inside the National Lottery. He offers her a chance to win the lottery, which she initially refuses until she finds herself falsely accused of murder and needing to run for her life with her young daughter in tow. He rigs the lottery so that she wins $100,000,000, on the condition that she leaves the United States and never returns. When she secretly returns ten years later, Jackson comes to punish her for disobeying him, the FBI is searching for her in connection with the lottery scam, and her only help comes from the mysterious Matthew Riggs.
Reception
The title doesn't refer to Baldacci but it could, as the author of last year's not-so-hot Total Control sets a wildfire of a thriller that rivals his Absolute Power for suspense, excitement and bankability. The premise is another Baldacci blockbuster: the national lottery has been fixed 12 times by a man who demands access to his handpicked winners' windfalls and who now, to protect his secret, aims to kill the last--and lovable--illicit winner, LuAnn Tyler. To save her baby girl from a hardscrabble life, Bright, beautiful and dirt poor LuAnn accepts the offer of the mystery man known as Jackson to reap nearly $100 million in a forthcoming drawing. Jackson is a marvelous mad hatter of a villain who's not only a modern Moriarity but a master of disguise; his ability to shift from old to young, male to female springs many of the novel's twists and enhances its made-for-the-movies air. Because LuAnn is accidentally implicated in a murder just before the rigged drawing, Jackson orders her to flee the country forever. After 10 years of wealthy, lonesome exile she returns, however. When Jackson finds out, he goes for the jugular. The ensuing mayhem draws in press, the FBI and the White House, sees LuAnn herself shift from hunted to huntress (with help from a romantic interest), and will have readers gasping. Baldacci recycles himself a bit here--he played the mom-and-daughter in-peril gambit in Total Control, and the sympathetic outlaw ploy in Absolute Power--and, again, his prose is workaday and his plotting mercilessly melodramatic. His strong characters and sheer Grisham-like exuberance--unlike many thrillers, this is flat-out fun to read--will, however, thrust the novel toward the top of the charts.
—Review by Publishers Weekly[3]
References
- ↑ "The Winner by David Baldacci". amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "The Winner by David Baldacci". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "The Winner by David Baldacci". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
External links
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