Outrageously over the top but superbly entertaining anyway!
LuAnn Tyler is quintessential Georgia "white trash" - a young, beautiful, uneducated and unmarried mother with a typical Southern drawl living in a beat-up trailer with Duane Harvey, a no-account beer-guzzling low-life drug runner! But she is sharp enough to realize that her meaningless life is a dead end and she's trying to find a way out for her daughter.
When a shadowy character known only as "Jackson" offers her the opportunity to win a $100 million jackpot in a national lottery long before the drawing takes place, she's not able to figure out how it will happen but her lack of education doesn't stop her from realizing that however it will be done is well outside of the law.
Despite her poverty, LuAnn holds onto her integrity. Although she has reached the decision to turn down Jackson's "offer", a violent encounter with Duane's "colleagues" in the drug trade turns nasty and she is forced to run from the long reach of Georgia law. The $100 million becomes an offer she can no longer refuse and with her winnings, LuAnn Tyler and her daughter become lifelong fugitives from US law and from "Jackson", the sociopathic criminal mastermind who can do anything - fix a national lottery and savagely kill anyone who stands in his way or who threatens his world wide empire.
These characters are so OVER-written as to have crossed into the realm of cartoonish caricatures - LuAnn Tyler, the brash Southern belle heroine; Jackson, the evil megalomaniac who is a master of disguise; Thomas Donovan, the super sleuth investigative reporter who doesn't know enough to recognize danger when he's knee deep in it; Matthew Riggs, the former hot shot FBI agent now in deep cover in a witness protection program; and Uncle Charlie, the retired boxer who has a soft spot in his heart for LuAnn and her daughter! But, what the heck, they are phenomenally entertaining and - darn it all - every reader is going to fall in love with LuAnn and will be on their feet cheering for her in her battle against Jackson, the FBI, the Georgia state police force and even the IRS.
And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that Baldacci also wanted to make a political statement about lotteries being an irresponsible regressive form of taxation that prey upon the weak represented in their totality by LuAnn and her daughter. I think Baldacci was talking about the very story that he had his reporter Donovan attempting to chase down. You know ... he could be right!
Highly recommended!
Paul Weiss
It would have been a great first book
As a fan of Baldacci (the 'Camel Club' series in particular) and fast running out of books to read, I turned to 'The Winner' in the hopes that it would fill my 'Balducci Void'.
A well seeded plot with some intriguing characters and what I would call a 'Big' small story to tell were the only things that kept me labouring to wallow through pages of what seemed to be repetitive motive justification for (in particular) the main character, LuAnn Tyler through the first third of this novel.
Baldacci has always done a great job of detailing a character's profile to build a believable platform for a character's actions without hanging the motion of the story, but I felt that he struggled to achieve this in 'The Winner'.
It feels as though he is uncomfortable writing in the voice of LuAnn Tyler and this awkwardness shone through to make this book an uncomfortable read in places, lacking the fluidity of classic Balducci thrillers.
On the whole though, this was an enjoyable read with a well crafted and original story line and Baldacci writes a bad guy here who is unusually motivated and chillingly cold and calculating which makes the plot turns less predictable without relying on bizarre and irrational changes in character to force a climax. Had I not have had the high expectations of the usual Balducci rollercoaster ride I would have given this close to full marks.
B aldacci Continues to Amaze
I have been a fan of Baldacci since I read the first book. He keeps the plot moving. I have found a new author who I enjoy as much although their styles are very different. Andie Peterson, author of Northern Explosion, keeps the plot moving with believable characters and setting. I gave her a five star rating, too. I recommend these authors wholeheartedly.
ANOTHER WINNER!
I got hooked on David Baldacci"s CAMEL CLUB and then HOUR GAME... now I look for anything he has written and am never disappointed...... One of our best authors today.
Entertaining
Baldacci is very good at spinning an entertaining yarn with sympathetic characters and very canny villains. Lots of action here in a story that almost anyone can relate to in regard to imagining how we might deal with winning a huge lottery. The story remained tight and well paced for better than two thirds of the book, but got a little bogged down in technicalities toward the end, and the plot was wrapped up just a little bit too neatly IMHO. I got this book on my Kindle and intend to keep my favs as long as I can. When I need to clean house to make room for more books, The Winner may be the first to go. It was fun while it lasted, but certainly not something I'd plan to revisit.
