Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining read...
Review: To finish up my troika of weekend reading, I completed the book Last Man Standing by David Baldacci. This was recommended to me by Chris Miller, and he was right... I liked it. Web London is a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. During an operation to take out a drug house, something happens to cause London to freeze at the point where they were supposed to rush the location. The operation turns out to be a setup, and the entire team is killed except for him. He has to deal with the guilt over being the "last man standing", along with trying to figure out what happened that caused him to freeze. The deeper he digs, the more he finds that points towards a cover-up or a leak within the bureau. Pretty good pacing for a book that's over 500 pages. Good character development, and a number of plot twists that you don't see coming. Definitely a time commitment due to the size, but a good psychological crime thriller.
Rating: 
Summary: Appallingly bad book
Review: What a waste of time and money; we bought the CD version and this served to highlight the moronic dialogue and the ludicrous plot. Thy ONLY quasi-appealing character in the entire book was a large, AA drug pusher.
Rating: 
Summary: Action, Mystery and Psychology: Overall, a good read.
Review: This is a story about an Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) assaulter named Web London who survived the massacre of his Team in a failed mission. Ridden with guilt and determination, he sets up his own investigation, breaking a lot of FBI rules along the way. The action is wrought with weapons and equipment detailing, usually relevant to the scene, written in straight-to-the point language with fast-paced sequences when the detailing is done and the door kicking begins. Humor is injected because of Web and Paul Romano's (his trusty sidekick) tendency to take things as they come because they've already seen so much and little surprises them. The melodrama is saved from its own goo because the author's approach is to avoid the touchy-feely aspects of emotion, an easy thing for an alpha male book like this one (It's got big guns, beer and NASCAR.). Lots of psychological twists that may be possible, a tad unbelievable, but not entirely over the top. The scope of the web (as in "spider's web"; not to be confused with the character) is a bit too broad; too many intersecting lines. In the end, I suppose whodunit makes sense after all, but what a tangle! However, it's all explained in the end... by the murderers of course. You have to keep in mind that they're just talking about the important details of what they've done, why they done it, as a matter of fact, as if it was the first time they were talking about it. As is they forgot to talk about it *before* they decided to do anything bad. Like, "Well, they're almost all dead. By the way, did I tell you why I wanted to do this? Lets talk about it then, in detail." It's really the only time it becomes a bit trite, but at least the killer/s didn't go into the whys and hows of it just before shooting the hero in the head. (In this last sentence, do I mean the hero dies? Well, I don't know! Read the book and find out!) The very, very end of it; the closing; I'm not too sure I like it, but maybe it was the only way to end it. Could've been better, but it'll do. Perhaps there was too much going on, but I suppose things couldn't be as simple as Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a candlestick, especially when the FBI's involved. Very good character development, but Mr. Baldacci could've done better for the mastermind behind the murders. The motivation for the murders was there, but the overall capability of the mastermind to do such things takes a bit of a stretch to believe. This particular published issue has quite a few typos too, just so you know but I'd go ahead and recommend this book to Federal Agency Plot Enthusiasts. Mr. Baldacci makes an excellent job of letting the reader in on the workings of the FBI through his characters, Bucar and all.
Rating:
Summary: What a waste of time
Review: Not only was this book a waste of time-it was a lot of time. I kept plowing through it hoping it would get better, but it just never did. I was disappointed as I usually like his books. And then the ending...Well, again, talk about a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: The non-stop action
Review: This book was really good, once you have opened it you aren't going to want to close it. There is so much action you won't want to close it. I liked how much will power Web London had to stay alive. I also liked how the author liked to deep the bad and good guys a secret.It is a great book and I think you should read it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst books ever written
Review: OK, so I exaggerate. But only a little. I can't believe (1) Baldacci actually submitted this for publication knowing his name would be associated with it, (2) a publishing house actually paid for the manuscript, and (3) I was dumb enough to read it. I think I'll take a pass on the author's other efforts.
Rating:
Summary: A Discombobulated Yawner
Review: Web London, HRT operator, freezes up in a raid of a drug dealer's hide-out and all of Web's friends and co-workers are killed. Web had been a hero from previous ops but is ostracized by surviving wives and FBI officials. The few who believe in Web try to help him discover what really happenned in the blind alley. What they discover is a plot of revenge and a scheme to make millions of dollars in drug money from the sales of Oxycontin and other synthetic opiates. There are several sub-plots in this long, cumbersome novel including a relationship with a 10 y.o. boy, a relationship with a psychiatrist who has replaced Web's previous psychiatrist who is an expert in hypnosis ( Uh, I wonder if that has anything to do with Web's behavior?), a horse farmer's son who was killed by white supremacists in a school shooting, a porno operation, and Web's two new friendships, coincidentally developed as he needs to solve the case. Sorry to say, Baldacci missed the boat on this one. Not only was it confusing, it was far-fetched and difficult to believe. It is very frustrating to know how well Baldacci's stories can be, and then wade through this clunker. Hopefully, his most recent release will be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Thriller it is not: Last Man Standing by David Baldacci
Review: This effort from Baldacci is a crushing disappointment. Unfortunately, almost from the opening page, it becomes very clear that this book is not going to be up to his usual quality. In this case, he has committed the ultimate sin for a thriller writer---boring the reader. This novel reads as if the author was being paid by the word and that is rough on any reader, especially when the novel runs 550 pages. That makes this read a long slog through a verbal marsh with occasional pieces of action to advance the story along. As the novel opens, Web London is with Charlie Team, a unit of the super secret elite Hostage Rescue Team of the FBI. Their mission is to attack and neutralize a building in a crime infested neighborhood in Washington where it is believed that drugs and money laundering is going on. The team is supposed to seize the building and contents as well as taking the men inside, accountants and the like, alive so that they can testify later. The mission begins to go horribly wrong when Web London freezes as they approach the building. His body locks up and he falls to the pavement, powerless to move in the trash-strewn courtyard as his team jogs into an ambush. Hidden machine guns open up and the team is literally blown apart in front of his horrified eyes. But, he isn't alone there in the courtyard with the dying and the dead. A ten year old boy and relative of a notorious drug kingpin is also in the area. Web manages to save himself and the boy, only to be later scorned by his superiors, friends, and a hostile media as the sole survivor. Details of his past begin to leak out and he is presented in public and private as, at best a coward and at worst, a traitor who knew what would happen to his team. He is neither but he is unable to explain what happened to him and why. As he tries to solve what happened to him and his team as well as dealing with survivor guilt, Web enlists the aid of the beautiful, Claire Daniels, a psychiatrist. It soon becomes clear that he will have to deal with painful events from his traumatic childhood as well as a threat filled present and future to survive, physically or emotionally. Unfortunately for Web, the threat comes literally from his own mind as well as various outside forces that are using him as a toy for their own purposes. As one works through this verbose book, which would have been better if at least 100 or so pages had been removed, one has to wonder if this character could even function in real life. Not as a member of HRT, but as a person selling you your morning cup of coffee or working the register at the grocery store. Beyond all the psychobabble jargon used as he is being treated, this character as written, is a seriously messed up persona. The explanations given for his past and his ability to be a part of HRT are weak at best and the reader must sustain a heavy sense of disbelief for the story to work. On that level, for this reader at least, it fails. Additionally, with so much time spent pondering various mental issues, there is little action that moves the story forward. When the action does happen, it is weighted down by excessive verbiage, which slows the action to the point of a ponderous crawl. What is left is nothing more than an average to mediocre thriller at best and a great disappointment for this Baldacci fan. Considering that this has been a repeated situation in the last several books, one has to wonder if the author is past his prime and sinking?
Rating:
Summary: Another six stars book by Baldacci
Review: Excellent book! You won't be able to stop reading, and while you are reading you will never guess who are the bad guys and who are the good ones until the very end, the book never goes out of the story and it doesn't have any love story just to fill pages, but it has to many coincidences, but that doesn't take any star, enjoy this book, but you have to have in mind that if you start reading it you won't be able to stop it till the end.
Rating:
Summary: Great Thriller
Review: Don't listen to the other folks who gave this powerful book a thumbs down. It is a great book. Webb London is on the elite sniper team of the FBI. He has done many dangerous missions; a few he barely walked away from with his life. A school hostage situation with white supremicists left his face blown away. Mysteriously, on a routine sniper mission, he freezes and his entire team dies. His current mission is to find out why he froze, what happened to the child who witnessed the scene in the alley and who did in the Charley team. Webb and his pal Romano are assigned to guard the parents of the little boy injured in the school hostage situation. Things get very strange from here. No spoilers. This book is a page turner. Lots of macho gun play and he-man antics. Baldacci takes his writing and research very seriously. You will learn lots about guns, FBI, cars, horses and taxidermy, to name only a few items. Plot? This book is riddled with several plots that only come together on the last pages of the book. Very exciting and well paced book.
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