"...PM stands for perception management. It's the way to manufacture the truth, on a large scale. The Department of Defense has it more precisely defined in some manual or other. The military really got into PM in a big way after the Vietnam War. I did a story years ago on the subject. Or at least I tried to do a story. A few people were speculating that PM firms were behind some of what happened in Persian Gulfs One and Two. WMDs, embedded reporters buying the company line, stuff like that. They have all sorts of methods and devices to do it. The best PM firms have taken it to a high art."
- Katie James, from the novel
I haven't read a Baldacci novel for a while and with its short chapters, fast-paced action and gripping plot, I found this one a real page-turner. I got into the story quickly and easily because Shaw was working in places I had recently visited---Amsterdam and Dublin.
Protagonist Shaw is an effective operative for a highly secretive international law enforcement agency (think James Bond) looking into mysterious efforts to stir up global conflict which could ultimately lead to WWIII! Yikes!
Add to the mix one Katie James, a relentless journalist in search of the truth. At her peril, she ends up working with Shaw. The quote above, where Katie is explaining PM---perception management--the efforts of certain firms to manufacture a "truth" and then sell it to the multitudes is an ongoing problem and provides much of the plot. Though The Whole Truth has a copyright date of 2008, I kept thinking it is so like today when people in high places often lie and then accuse the ones who report facts of spreading "fake news." Dick Pender, head of the PM firm hired by antagonist Nicolas Creel, says "Why waste time trying to discover the truth when you can so easily create it?" He admitted what he did best was "selling the truth to a gullible world." Pender's perception management in the novel is like fake news on steroids!
The Whole Truth was very entertaining but I found it a little scary to think a war might start over false perceptions. I am rating the novel a 4.
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