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The Inner Circle
Summary
There are stories no one knows. Hidden stories. I love those stories. And since I work in the National Archives, I find those stories for a living.
Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself...
Until now.
When Clementine Kaye, Beecher's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help tracking down her long-lost father, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents. After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact – a 200 hundred-year-old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington, hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder.
Soon a man is dead, and Beecher is on the run as he races to learn the truth behind this mysterious national treasure. His search will lead him to discover a coded and ingenious puzzle that conceals a disturbing secret from the founding of our nation. It is a secret, Beecher soon discovers, that some believe is worth killing for.
Gripping, fast-paced, and filled with the fascinating historical detail for which he is famous, The Inner Circle is a thrilling novel that once again proves Brad Meltzer as a brilliant author writing at the height of his craft.
A Hachette Audio production.
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Reviews
Excellent book. Suspenseful, captivating, and hard to put down. Absolutely loved it. (And what an awesome reader!)
It was a good thriller and adventure but the story lasted longer than necessary in my opinion. The main character was a bit annoying especially near the end. Overall I would recommend this book.
This was a great story, the plot was exciting. Very well written. Definitely a page turner.
Good, quick page turner. Characters are stock and ending is disappointing.
When Brad Meltzer is at his best, there are few better. His novel, The Zero Game, blew me away. Blew. Me. Away. Unfortunately, subsequent novels have been increasingly weak. I’m happy to report that that trend stops here. It’s not a perfect novel, but with The Inner Circle, Brad is moving back in the right direction. It has flaws, but the one undeniable fact is that I had an absolute blast reading it.In the past, Meltzer has placed his political thrillers in every corner of government. This time the focus is, surprisingly enough, on the National Archives. After a brief, tense scene between the President of the United States and an unnamed archivist, Chapter 1 introduces us to our protagonist. Beecher White is a 30-year-old archivist who loves his work. He’s likeable, but a bit dull. A colleague jokes, “You’re like Indiana Jones, but just the professor part.” His personal life hasn’t been great of late, but perhaps things are about to turn around because this is the day he reunites with his high school crush, Clementine Kaye. She’s visiting the archives in hopes of learning something important about her own history.Before addressing her question, however, Beecher is trying to impress with a behind-the-scenes tour. In an attempt to help, a friend in security lets them into the President’s secure reading room less than an hour before he’s due to arrive. While there, a minor mishap causes the discovery of a secret hiding place and a very old book that appears to have belonged to George Washington. There’s no time to consider the ramifications before they have to hustle out prior to the President’s arrival, concealed book in hand. And they’re off to the races from there, because moments later the President is sent back to the White House early and the helpful security guard is wheeled out on a stretcher with a sheet over his face. How did he die? And is it because someone knew he’d been in that reading room?In true Meltzer fashion, the plot is convoluted. I was loving the story, but as I read, certain details began to sound familiar. A quick check confirmed my suspicion. This book links tangentially to another in the Meltzerverse. He has brought back Nico Hadrian, first introduced in The Book of Fate. Don’t worry if you haven’t read it. This is not a sequel, and everything you need to know is exposited gracefully. I don’t really want to get much more into the plot, because the pleasure of a book like this is in the twists, turns, and surprises along the way. All of the above were plentiful, and I found this to be a fun, fast-paced read.That doesn’t mean I turned off my inner critic entirely, however, and as much as I enjoyed this novel, I think there was a little sloppiness to the storytelling. There were a couple of instances where someone knew something they really shouldn’t have. Nothing too important, but it was sloppy. Additionally, three-quarters of the way through the novel, Meltzer suddenly starts giving readers answers to question by introducing flashback chapters with headings like “Twenty-six years ago Journey, Ohio” or “Four months ago St. Elizabeths Hospital.” It simply isn’t elegant storytelling. I still feel there must have been a more graceful way to tell the tale without those late-in-the-game flashbacks, but regardless, they got the job done. The story comes to a satisfying conclusion, but it’s clearly also the opening for a sequel, or even a series. Despite my minor complaints, I will be looking forward happily to the continued exploits of Beecher White. In fact, I think I’ll drop by the National Archives the next time I fly home. I never before realized what a hotbed of excitement it is!
A little hard to get into for me, but it finished strong. I couldn't put it down once I got about half way through the book. Reminded me of David Baldacci's works, which I love, with a little of Dan Brown thrown in. And many of the characters were librarians, which always appeals!
The book is a fairly good read. I learned a great deal about the inner workings of our national archives in Washington DC--and it turns out elsewhere around the Eastern United States. Brad Meltzer certainly did his homework on this major institution that visitors see just a small piece of. The book is centered around a nerd researcher, Beecher, in the archives, his long-lost girlfriend, a secret group charged with protecting the presidency (not the president), the current president and his inner circle, and information stored in the archives that the president wants destroyed. Beecher is caught in the middle and marked for death. He spends most of the book trying to figure out who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. He rarely guesses right and ends up in a heap of trouble on every other page. Even on the last page we are still wondering who the good guys are. I guess that will be the basis for Meltzer's next book. It's back to the stacks!
I was disappointed in this book. I didn't like it as much as the other books by this author. I thought it ended incomplete. Maybe the next book will continue the story. Will have to wait and see.
Beecher White (Beech) is employed at the National Archives and is visited by an old high school girlfriend. To impress her he takes her to a secret vault where the president comes to do his reading and research. Something falls on the floor and they find a document taped to the bottom of a chair. The document apparently belonged to George Washington.The old girlfriend, Clemmi Kaye, wanted to get info about the father she never met. She finds he is Nico Hadriam who is currently in a psychiatric hospital after an attempt on the president's life ten years ago.Clemmi and Beech meet with Nico and they learn that Nico knows of the book they found. He tells them that this is how Washington and later presidents communicated with an inner group of information givers, the Culper Ring.The story is convoluted and I was confused. Not only is there one Culper Ring, but two. The story would make fans of "The Da Vinci Code," happy with its complexity and intricacy.The characters were well developed but I found them uninteresting and the story was only mildly of interest. I gave it the 2 1/2 star rating due to the lack of interest I had in the story or the characters.
Lazy, lazy conspiracy novel. It would have been tolerable if there was an ending to the story, but instead we're left with no resolution and a hook for the inevitable next book in the series. A complete and total waste of time and paper.
I have to admit that I'm not quite certain how to review this book. To begin with, I liked the plot. Brad Meltzer spins a terrific story about a secret band of individuals sworn to protect the presidency at all costs. When another group emerges, The Plumbers, whose sole purpose is to protect their friend, the current President of the United States, conflicts about best interests ensue catching an archivist, Beecher White, from the National Archives squarely in the middle.Who are the good guys? Who can Beecher trust? Definitely an interesting storyline with strong characters. My problem with the book? I finished it feeling totally unsatisfied. I felt cheated and left hanging with too many unresolved issues.To recommend or not to recommend, that is the question...Read it for the plot, read it for the characters, but don't expect all the loose ends to be tied up at the end of the book.
Beecher White loves his job as a researcher at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. “As they told me when I first started as an archivist three years ago,” says Beecher, “the Archives is our nation’s attic. A ten-billion-document scrapbook with nearly every vital file, record, and report that the government produces. No question, that means this is a building full of secrets. Some big, some small. But every day, I get to unearth another one.” In Brad Meltzer’s new political thriller, “The Inner Circle,” a 26 year-old secret threatens to derail a presidency wrought with lies and deceptions and pits the survival of the president against the preservation of his office. When Beecher’s old flame, Clementine Kaye, asks him to help her search for the identity of her deceased father, Beecher tries to impress her by sneaking into a SCIF—Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility—used by the President of the United States, Orson Wallace, for viewing top secret documents. Clementine inadvertently knocks over the President’s chair and discovers a tattered and mostly gutted old “Entick’s New Spelling Dictionary” hidden in its bottom. On close inspection Beecher finds an inscription on the book’s inside front cover: Existus Acta Probat. The outcome justifies the deed. Beecher instantly recognizes the motto as an aphorism used by George Washington on his bookplates and concludes that the original owner of the book was, in all probability, our first president. Because the book was concealed, Beecher also presumes that it is serving a clandestine purpose. Beecher’s security guard friend, Orlando, instantly grasps the implication of the discovery and yanks the security system’s videotape so that no one will discover that they were there. Beecher stashes the dictionary under his blue lab coat and pulls Clementine from the room. Soon after, Orlando is found dead under suspicious circumstances.Beecher shares the old dictionary with his mentor and fellow archivist Aristotle “Tot” Westman and they discover that the relic was used by Washington in 1775 to communicate with his Culper Ring, a small band of loyalists who spied on the British during the Revolutionary War.“The Culper Ring weren’t soldiers. They were normal people—a group no one could possibly know—even Washington didn’t know their names. That way they could never be infiltrated—no one, not even the commander-in-chief, knew who was in it.”When Tot checks the archive’s records he finds that that the old dictionary has been checked out by someone named Dustin Gyrich 14 times in 14 weeks, each time coinciding with a Presidential visit to the SCIF. Further research shows that Gyrich has been checking out books in the National Archives for over a hundred and fifty years.In “The Inner Circle” the Culper Ring didn’t disband after the Colonies beat the British. This secret organization is still going strong and Beecher’s discovery of the 200 year-old dictionary triggers a chain of events that brings to light the permanency of the spy ring and tests the very cannons upon which our country was founded. Beecher could not foresee that he and Clementine had stumbled upon a presidential secret so important it could place their lives in jeopardy.From the first page “The Inner Circle” is a high energy adventure that draws upon interesting and little-known historical facts, taking the possibilities of the future and the certainties of the present and intertwining them with the secrets of the past. As with all of this author’s thrillers, the plot and sub-plots twist and turn as the story unfolds, making it impossible for the reader to guess the outcome. Meltzer resurrects his evil character Nico from “The Book of Fate” as Clementine’s father and cleverly uses him as an omniscient narrator to decipher and reveal the old dictionary’s hidden missives. As a thriller, “The Inner Circle” is an absorbing read. The author’s view of history adds a fascinating dimension to the story. One of Beecher’s co-workers illustrates Meltzer’s take on the history-making process. “. . . history isn’t just something that’s written. It’s a selection process. It chooses moments, and events, and yes, people—and it hands them a situation they should never be able to overcome. It happens to millions of us every single day. But the only ones we read about are the ones who face that situation, and fight that situation, and find out who they really are.”“The Inner Circle” is a very well crafted story with authentic characters and a clever plot. This is a thriller that probes the dark side of political omnipotence and leaves the reader with an uneasy feeling that perhaps it is all too real.
Meltzer's newest book is centred around the National Archives. I have to admit that this is an institution I've never given a lot of thought to. However, the archivists with which he's populated this book and the way he's made the institution come alive have now made me want to do research on the topic (although I hope there won't be as much cloak and dagger involved in the actual story).The main story revolves around an archivist named Beecher. A high school friend of his, Clementine, (who he hasn't heard from in years) contacts him and wants information on who her father is. Since he's former military and Beecher works in the Archives, she knows he can access the information. She happens to visit Beecher on the same day that the President makes one of his routine visits to the Archives.You know, Clinton liked to job, Obama played basketball, and President Orson Wallace likes to read old documents in the Archives. Clementine and Beecher run into a guard, Orlando, outside of the President's reading room just moments before he's schedule to arrive. They let her in, one thing leads to another, and they discover something they weren't meant to. Soon, Orlando is dead, and Beecher is learning about the Culper Ring.The Culper Ring was organised by George Washington to send and deliver messages during the American Revolution. But some say the Ring still exists to protect the Presidency - not the President, but the Presidency. And they may have Beecher in their sights.This book is intelligent, fast-paced, and should not be read by people who are tired or doped up on cold medicine. I zipped through the first 300 pages in two days and stopped only because the plot twists were becoming too much for my foggy brain. Beecher was immensely likeable, as was his mentor Tot (Aristotle).
In Brad Meltzer’s The Inner Circle, conspiracies and mysteries span the centuries. The protagonist of the novel, Beecher White, is an archivist who works at the National Archives in Washington D.C. Beecher is struggling to recover from a recent split with his fiancé when an old childhood crush appears back into his life. Clementine Kaye contacts Beecher and asks him to help her find her long lost father.The two haven’t had any contact since junior high school, and Beecher, in an attempt to impress the lovely Clementine takes her on a tour of the Archives. They stumble across a hidden dictionary once belonging to George Washington and within minutes the security guard escorting them is found dying. They have blundered upon a conspiracy that reaches as high as the Oval Office and as far back the Revolutionary War.I was looking forward to reading The Inner Circle. I enjoyed Meltzer’s Book of Lies, Book of Fate and The Zero Game. But I was initially disappointed in this novel. I felt like it lost focus in the last third of the novel. The Culper Ring was fascinating and I headed straight to Google to read more about this little known (to me at least) organization. The convoluted plot line, with two separate Culper Rings, good guys who are bad guys, bad guys whose intent is to be good guys, and bad guys who are just plain bad and conspiracies aplenty made for a mishmash of plotlines that was sometimes difficult to figure out. And don’t get me started on the ending….I hate unresolved endings. I would have liked to see a better resolution to this particular storyline, even though this is the beginning of a series.My initial response to The Inner Circle was one of “What the *%#! I spent the last few days reading this book and the author didn’t bother to freaking finish it??? AAARGH!!” I swear I wished it had wings so I could teach it to fly when I threw it across the room. Then I stopped, and got a grip on myself. Oh yeah, I’m reading it on my Sony Reader, I’d better not be throwing nothin’ across the room.I was surprised when I found myself thinking about the book for a couple of days. I was so annoyed when I finished it, that I swore to myself that I was done with the Culper Ring/National Archive books and the series could go on without me. But now, in retrospect, I’ll probably read the next one. I suppose this is a testament to the fact that Meltzer has written some compelling and likeable characters, and in spite of my irritation, I would sort of like to know what’s next for them.Now the big question, would I recommend it? Hmm, it’s sort of a “well, yeah…but…” answer. I kind of think it might be worth waiting for the next book to be published, so you don’t have to wait for the resolution of The Inner Circle’s plot. But that just seems like an unreasonable qualification, so instead I’ll just state an unequivocal – “eh…maybe.”
Like most Brad Meltzer books, The Inner Circle concerns a bright young man who works in Washington, DC. This time, instead of working on Capitol Hill (The Zero Game) or at the Supreme Court (The Tenth Justice), our “hero” works in the National Archives. (I can’t help but wonder if Meltzer is running out of high-powered DC settings for his characters. Yet, sadly, the setting of the National Archives was the most exciting aspect of the book for me.) Beecher White is a serious young man who is struggling to recover from a recent split with his fiancee. His path to recovery is helped when his childhood crush, Clementine Kaye, shows up and asks for his help in tracking down her long-lost father.Although Beecher and Clementine haven’t seen each other since high school, Beecher has never really gotten over his crush. During a tour of the archives, Beecher tries to impress Clementine by showing her the secret vault where the president reviews classified documents. However, while inside the vault, they stumble across a hidden document—a dictionary that belonged to George Washington. Although their find seems innocuous at first, within moments a man turns up dead. Beecher and Clementine seem to have stumbled into a high-level conspiracy linked to the President … but who is involved and what do they want? And what does an old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington have to do with it? As Beecher and Clementine struggle to find out what is going on, things get more convoluted and confusing (for Beecher as well as the reader). As events unfold, Beecher begins to question the motives of everyone around him, including Clementine.As with previous Meltzer books, this is meant to be a fast-paced thriller involving innocents stumbling into conspiracies at the highest echelons of power. However, I think Meltzer is off his game as I found the plot confusing (by the end, I still wasn’t 100% sure what was going on) and the characters dull and uninspiring. I really enjoyed Meltzer’s first few books; they were fun, exciting and drew me in. However, I thought his recent books got progressively weaker. The last one I read, The Book of Fate, seemed like a bad Dan Brown book—and that is saying something as I’m not a huge Dan Brown fan. (Note: For fans of The Book of Fate, I should mention that a character who appeared in that book shows up in this book as well.) I’d written off Meltzer as having “jumped the shark,” but when I saw The Inner Circle offered for review on NetGalley, I decided to give him another shot. Sadly, I regret that decision.Although The Inner Circle isn’t outright bad, I found the plot confusing and overly convoluted. By the end, I wasn’t even sure who was on whose side and what the purpose of the book was. Then I read Swapna’s review at S. Krishna’s Books and discovered that The Inner Circle is the first book of a planned series, which probably explained why I was left with such a sense of confusion and “unfinishedness.” Yet, at the same time, I wasn’t compelled enough by this book to continue reading the series. Honestly, I didn’t feel all that invested in Beecher and don’t feel the need to find out what befalls him next. Not a good sign for the series, I think. However, there is always the possibility that I’m just being a crank.As far as my recommendation, I can’t really recommend this book unless you are a hard-core Meltzer fan or really love thrillers. I would recommend Meltzer’s earlier books though; I remember being very fond of them, and I was a devoted Meltzer reader until I thought his books started to decrease in quality. If you’re looking for a good thriller, you’d be better off reading The Zero Game or The Tenth Justice and giving this one a pass.
My review is from an advanced reading opportunity of an uncorrected galley proof, provided electronically.The newest Brad Meltzer book, The Inner Circle, is by far his best writing. If you have never read a Meltzer, the best description is of a Dan Brown conspiracy, with secret political organizations instead of secret religious organizations.Library archivists end up involved in intrigue and action, pitted against two different secret organizations and the White House, breaking a stereotype of the boring introverted librarian.As a DC resident, I particularly appreciated the setting of the book taking place in familiar territory: the National Archives, St. Elizabeth's, the White House, ... Meltzer does a great job of weaving multiple plot lines without making it difficult to follow. One of the more interesting plot lines involved a patient at St. Elizabeth's mental hospital who had tried to assasinate the president, much like a real life patient, John Hinkley. Surprise follows surprise, making it nearly impossible to put the book down.
NOTE: This review is based on a galley proof of the book provided for advanced reviews and included the following disclaimer at the beginning: "Uncorrected page proofs: Material from this copy should not be quoted or used without first checking with the publisher, as some of this material may not appear in the finished book."I recently had an opportunity to read Brad Meltzer's forthcoming thriller, "The Inner Circle." I'd seen several of his books before and had been mildly interested, but hadn't yet picked one up, so this seemed like as good a time as any to check out his work. I'm really glad that I did.Since the great Dan Brown explosion of a few years back, it seems that many thrillers - especially ones that make use of history and historical events as a background - feel like they must concern themselves with conspiracies that are so vast and so deep that it's nothing less than the foundation of western civilization itself that stands in the balance if our handsome and dashing "everyman" hero fails to solve the arcane puzzles in time to stop... well, something really bad from happening. Meltzer, however, wisely scales back the scope of the mystery, without scaling back on any of the thrills.In "The Inner Circle," we meet Beecher White, a somewhat nebbish sort who works for the National Archives. He has recently reconnected with a girl he recalls fondly from his junior high school years who has asked if he can help her gain access to some records that might give her information about her long-lost father. Beecher readily agrees, and as he guides her through the Archives, finds a document where one shouldn't be. When another member of the Archives staff suddenly dies a short time later, Beecher, his childhood friend, and a trusted co-worker are off on an adventure to figure out how the document got to where it was, who put it there, what - if anything - it's misplacement meant and whether the death of the staffer is a coincidence - or a sign of something more sinister.One thing I particularly liked is that - unlike many thriller/mystery stories where the women are all drop-dead gorgeous, the men stunningly handsome, and everyone is simply brilliant and the top in their field - Meltzer gives us real people that we can relate to and care about. One of the main reasons I'd been unable to finish Dan Brown's "The Lost Key" was that one character in particular was supposed to be this amazing super-genius yet she falls into the villain's trap because it never occurs to her to wonder why someone close to her is suddenly acting completely out of character. With "The Inner Circle," the characters come across as "normal," real people with strengths that can help them resolve the situation, flaws that need to be overcome and motivations to which readers can easily relate.Much of the story takes place over the course of just a couple days, but the book never feels rushed. Characters are introduced as needed, as opposed to some books where a character is introduced in the first chapter or two, and then not mentioned against until halfway through the book - at which point, you're struggling to recall if you're supposed to know who they are or not. Likewise, Meltzer uses a deft touch with foreshadowing, offering you enough enticement to keep reading without resorting to dangling teasers out so far in advance that by the time you finally get to the payoff, you're just relieved to finally be done with it.Alas, few books are perfect and "The Inner Circle" is not without its flaws. There were a few places where I found it a bit hard to keep up with the dialogue and had to go back and re-read the conversation to figure out who was saying what to whom. There are also a number of plot points that get dropped into the story, but then are never really explained or resolved. Some of these are minor - such as when Beecher notices a similar occurrence two days in a row, but we're never told what - if anything - it means - while others are a bit more troubling.A large part of the story focuses on a historical spy ring called the Culper Ring that had been established by George Washington to help ensure the security of communications he needed to send during the Revolutionary War. In the world of "The Inner Circle," however, there are 2 separate groups, each calling themselves the "Culper Ring" and each having it's own methods and motivations. As you might imagine, this can lead to a bit of confusion - and not just for the readers. There are times the characters seem rather confused themselves. Partway through the book, Beecher begins referring to one of the rings by a sort-of "nickname," after which that becomes the name of that ring for all intents and purposes. While this is helpful for the reader, it creates kind of an odd situation where characters who have no reason to know what Beecher means when he uses the nickname seem to recognize it and know exactly what he's talking about.Still, while there may be a few loose ends here and there, Meltzer does a good job of wrapping up all of the important threads. The main characters are multi-dimensional, and even the villains are given some sympathetic qualities, rather than everyone being either all good or all evil. There are some nice historical tidbits scattered throughout the book, and a couple of hat-tips to the historical Culper Ring that history buffs might pick up on. It's certainly good enough that I'm interested in reading more of Meltzer's work, and overall, I'd recommend it for someone looking for a good, fun read.