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| The Whole Truth | 
 enlarge | List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $4.98
You Save: $10.01 (67%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 10 reviews)
Sales Rank: 346100
Category: Book
Author: James Scott Bell
Publisher: Zondervan
Studio: Zondervan
Manufacturer: Zondervan
Label: Zondervan
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 0310269032
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780310269038
ASIN: 0310269032
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
At the age of five, Steve Conroy saw his seven-year-old brother kidnapped from the very bedroom they shared. His brother was never found. And the guilt of his silence that night has all but destroyed Steve's life. Now thirty years old with a failing law practice, Steve agrees to represent convicted criminal Johnny LaSalle, an arrangement sweetened by a lucrative retainer. It's not long until he discovers that this con man might just be his missing brother. Desperate for his final shot at redemption, Steve will do anything to find the truth. But Johnny knows far more than he's telling, and the secrets he keeps have deadly consequences. Now Steve must depend on an inexperienced law student whose faith seems to be his last chance at redemption from a corrupt world where one wrong move could be his last.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 A page turner of a book January 4, 2009
I enjoy reading about family relationships. This book shows the strong pull of family and- yikes I can't really write what I was about to type here because I don't want to give anything away. But I was deeply moved by this story. With high suspense and high drama this is a real page turner of a book.
 Not His Best September 26, 2008
An addicted lawyer struggles to keep clean while life seems to dump on him. He discovers his kidnapped brother is still alive but is on the other side of the law. The characters are not believable; one is a religious fanatic who has a following of young, strong men. He twists things upside down and inside out. It is difficult for me to believe that so many could believe an idiot like this. This novel is filled with metaphors and similes such that it drags. Then as if time is slipping away, it skips quickly to an unrealistic ending, leaving this reader scratching her head. I've read other novels that this author has penned and enjoyed them. This is not his best work.
James Scott Bell's "The Whole Truth"... A Unique Legal Suspense Thriller! April 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"The Whole Truth" is yet another fine work of fiction from former trial lawyer James Scott Bell. This one, with the backdrop of a sinister cult hidden away in a barricaded compound, is interesting, suspenseful, and thrilling... woven with several unique twists. The author's legal background adds a compelling authenticity dimension which holds the reader's interest throughout. The novel also underscores Mr. Bell's Christian faith... which perhaps, sadly, is the reason that his and other Zondervan authors' works are bypassed by many, including movie producers who would otherwise find his suspenseful plot structures to be ideal for intriguing screenplays. In any event, "The Whole Truth"--and other James Scott Bell works--are highly recommended by this reader!
--R.C. Howe (a.k.a., Toby Martin II) / Erskine, Minnesota
A great read! April 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Whole Truth is one of those novels that forces you to stay up later than you intended because you have to see what happens next. It's a delightful mixture of humor and suspense. You'll cheer for Steve Conroy as he attempts to outrun shadows of the past and make decisions that will affect his current and future life. Jim Bell did a great job creating characters we care about, and a story that keeps the pages turning.
A great beginning, a solid ending, a slow middle. A good book, not great. March 12, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Steve Conroy, 30 years old, is the miserable lead character in James Scott Bell's new legal thriller, THE WHOLE TRUTH. Miserable, meaning his marriage is falling apart, he's a former drug addict, he's been evicted from his law office, and he has no money or clients. Steve's tragic adult life can be traced back to when he was five years old. One night, two strangers broke into his house and kidnapped his brother. Steve was too afraid to say anything until the morning. That event has haunted him every single day since then.
One day, a prisoner named Johnny LaSalle contacts Johnny and claims he is Robert, the brother that disappeared so many years ago. Steve knows it can't be possible because his brother was later found dead. However, Johnny knows things that only his brother would know. Then Johnny offers Steve a large amount of money to be his lawyer, and the lawyer to his religious group living at a mountain compound. The middle of the novel consists of Steve fighting to stay off drugs and trying to cope with the idea that Johnny could be his long lost brother. If Johnny is his brother, then Steve has to reconcile his sense of morality with Johnny and his friends' white-supremicist beliefs. Can Steve be the lawyer that the White Supremicist group wants him to be? Can he stay off drugs? Can he convice young law clerk Sienna Ciccone to take a chance and go out with him? Will ex-wife Ashley give him another chance?
In my opinion, this novel had a great beginning, a strong ending, and struggled in the middle, thus only 3 stars. Bell describes vividly the closeness Steve feels to Robert and how he idolizes his older brother. Then Robert is taken and Steve must live with the devestation that the kidnapping was somehow his own fault. Then the middle comes and Steve comes off as an obnoxious character. He tries to be funny, peppering many of his jokes with pop culture references that will soon be out of date. I feel like Steve needed more of a seriousness about him since his life was in such dire straights. Perhaps Bell wrote Steve as a comedian as a way of coping with his pain, but for me there was too much of it. Once the final act arrives, and the novel picks back up again. Steve has been attacked, betrayed, saved, shot at, rescued and lied to. He's been through the ringer. He meets a girl named Bethany that had been held captive at the LaSalle compound. He finds out the truth about his brother, and he even begins to believe in God. I liked the end. It had plenty of twists and turns and packed an emotional punch.
This book isn't as good as some of Bell's recent novels. The opening kidnapping is such an emotional tragedy and what follows just doesn't have the same feeling. However, the ending is good and makes the novel worth reading.
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