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The Fallen

David Baldacci gives kudos to his maternal grandmother, a former schoolteacher, for his keen interest in storytelling.  As a young boy he would often visit with her absorbing her stories of yesteryear. Rambling around the house spouting his own batch of tales his mother gave him a lined notebook in which to write down his stories.

Growing up in Richmond, Va., Baldacci was a self-proclaimed library rat where he spent a lot of time devouring Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, the Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators. In creating his own stories Baldacci was drawn to the puzzle aspect, putting all the clues, pieces and red herrings together, trying to be on step ahead of the reader. He spent 15 years writing short stories but realized he couldn't make a living, so he went to college and spent a decade practicing law to bring money in. Still writing was his passion.

Today, he is recognized as one of the greatest thriller writers of the last decade. A global bestselling author, his works have been adapted for both feature film and television. Baldacci will be appearing at the Vero Beach Book Center on Monday, April 23 at 6 p.m. when he takes the stage for a talk and Q&A session followed by a signing of "The Fallen."  

His new thriller is "The Fallen" in his #1 New York Times bestselling Memory Man series featuring detective Amos Decker--the man who can forget nothing. Decker is the Memory Man. Following a football-related head injury that altered his personality, Decker is now unable to forget even the smallest detail--as much a curse as it is a blessing.

Something sinister is going on in Baronville in western Pennsylvania. The rust belt town has seen four bizarre murders in the space of two weeks. Cryptic clues left at the scenes--obscure bible verses, odd symbols--have the police stumped. Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are in Baronville visiting Alex's sister and her family. It's a bleak place: a former mill and mining town with a crumbling economy and rampant opioid addiction. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene.

Then the next killing hits sickeningly close to home. And with the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker begins to realize that the recent string of deaths may be only one small piece of a much larger scheme--with consequences that will reach far beyond Baronville.

In the mid- 1990s Balducci came up with a unique book idea: what if a burglar witnessed the President of the United States committing murder? It became his first novel, Absolute Power. Published in 1996, it took him three years to complete while working as a trial lawyer.

One of the most endearing qualities of a Baldacci novel is the world he creates: heroes with severe flaws, powerful men of influence who are easily corruptible. His bestselling novels include Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth and Saving Faith. Balducci lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

David Baldacci appears at the Vero Beach Book Center Monday, April 23rd at 6pm.

http://www.verobeachbookcenter.com