Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Inner Circle - a novel by Brad Meltzer (Quick Review)



Meet Beecher White. He's a good fellow, and he's an archivist at The National Archives. He hasn't lead a real exciting life, unless you count keeping your head buried in old history exciting. He's a man of his priorities. When his girl decided to leave him, because of his boring personality; he seemingly just became.... more boring.

Enter Clementine: Beecher's first flame. The girl whose memory would stick with him over all of these years as the 'take no crap' type of chick, and beauty of Beecher's dreams. After years of being apart, out of the blue she contacts him.

With his heart fluttering, he can barely keep himself focused with the task at hand; helping Clementine search through the Archives for records that may help in her search for her long lost father.

While waiting for a call about some records that may help them, Beecher decides it might be nice to show off a little. He decides to show Clementine the door of a private room, the SCIF, where the President of the United States sits in locked seclusion while he reads documents from the Archives.

Reluctantly, and upon a bit of friendly coaxing from a heckling security guard, Beecher decides to show Clementine what the inside of the President's secure reading vault looks like.

That sounds like the perfect way for a history buff to woo that special girl that's been in the back of his mind all of these years... Right? Wrong. One false move and a cup of spilled coffee later, the President's chair is up-ended. With the discovery of a hidden book that might have come from George Washington himself, their lives have taken a twist that will surely change them both forever.

This novel is full of twists, turns, murder and intrigue. It will have you constantly looking over your shoulder to see if the secret Inner Circle is watching, as you uncover clues and more mysteries that will take you deeper and deeper into the conspiracies and excitement that is Washington D.C.

When the book comes to a close, it's hard to believe you've already read over 700 pages. Author Brad Meltzer covers an enormous amount of ground in a very short period of time. In my opinion, he did it quite well.

I really enjoy fictional stories set in real environments, if they are done properly. So if you're in the mood for a good fast-paced book, give Inner Circle a go.

-MagicBookWerm