The Whole Truth

The Whole Truth is a novel by the American writer David Baldacci, published in 2008 and set in several countries.

The premise is that a sufficiently well-funded campaign can manufacture a fact, and the book follows the machinery of one: the think-tank reports, the planted stories, the invented atrocity and the television coverage that turns a lie into a policy. Creel's instrument is Dick Pender, who sells persuasion to governments and corporations and has never had a client with this much money to spend. Shaw, who works for a private intelligence organisation, is trying to find out where the story came from, and Katie James is the journalist offered the interview that will make the campaign work. Baldacci writes it as a global thriller with a simple idea at the centre, and the tension comes from how quickly a public can be moved.

It began a short series about the same covert organisation, and it followed the author's long run of political thrillers about Washington and the people who buy influence in it.