“True Blue”
Continuing on my quest to provide the male readers with good book recommendations, I read another best-man-seller this week. “True Blue” by David Baldacci is about an ex-cop who is an ex-con who hooks up with an ex-athlete lawyer to solve the murder of a lady stuffed in his fridge at work. Oh, and they both know karate and beat up gang members named Psycho and they roar around D.C. on a Ducati motorcycle- you cannot get manlier than that! This book is no “Steel Magnolias” but it’s an entertaining read for both women and men.

Mace Perry gets out of prison after serving a two year sentence for a crime she didn’t commit. She was set up and decides the only way to be a “blue” again is to solve a big murder case on her own and get her record expunged. The only problem is she isn’t a cop anymore and the killers are part of a dark and dirty government op.

The ex-athlete lawyer Roy decides he likes the type of law-lessness Mace practices and shuns his big paycheck to ride behind her on her Ducati. They play basketball a lot too. Roy and Mace are solving the crime one clue at a time and just ahead of the police. Of course if you can break and enter and lie you can usually beat those law abiding cops any time. Mace is book ended by two strong opposing characters. Her sister is the chief of police and her arch enemy has been appointed the temporary U.S. attorney and neither is happy about her involvement in the murder investigation.

It’s a formula plot which works well for Baldacci, Grisham, Scottoline, Margolin and other ex-lawyers who now make a lot money writing fiction. Some may argue they always wrote fiction. The heroes go around the cops and solve a crime that involves a big political financial conspiracy. You don’t have to worry about complicated relationships or emotional involvement because the authors don’t.

I seriously doubt “True Blue” will be on Oprah’s book club list. It is dependable Baldacci crime drama with plenty of action and as usual it’s absolutely un-be-lieve-able. I laughed in parts where I’m pretty sure the author wasn’t trying to be funny. I still recommend it for PG13 action movie style entertainment. But don’t worry - next week I am reading a Victorian Novel by Elizabeth Gaskell while eating chocolates to restore some balance to my universe.