2.5 starsThis is my first experience with Brad Melzter. The First Counsel is about a White House staff lawyer Michael Garrick being framed for murder of another White House staff and his tryst with the First Daughter Nora Hartson. Most of the book centers around Michael and Nora's relationship which I can only describe as very melodramatic. This part of the book seemed to catch my attention the most. One moment they are flirting coyly, the next moment they yelling and fighting and then another moment they are expressing these deep emotions. Much of this melodrama took place in a page or two and carried on throughout the whole book. It seemed to overshadow the rest of the plot which made the book not as enjoyable as I wished it would've been. The actual plot involved blackmail, dirty money, two murders, the FBI, brief appearances by the POTUS, FLOTUS and Nora's brother. As I said the plot seemed secondary to Michael and Nora's relationship. This was a shame because the author could've done so much more with the plot and the First Family if he spent less time writing the theatrics between Michael and Nora. There were at least two other White House staff who were a more prominent part of the plot than any of the first family. I thought this was a bit odd since one was a female who acted as A) a really bad red herring and B) a not very convincing potential suitor for Michael and the other a male who was really only there to malign Nora who was depicted as a bit of a wild child - but of course for good reason by the end of the book when the murderer is revealed. Mostly it was odd because the President and his ilk were such a minor part of the book despite the fact that Nora is such a huge part of it. By the time I got to the end I admit I didn't care so much about the reveal about the who and the why. I just didn't like the depiction of any of the characters, the pace of the action was just too uneven and there just wasn't enough tension or OMG moments to call this book riveting. Mostly I was really annoyed that what I seemed to be reading was a bad romance novel with a what could've been a really decent plot.
my dear god! when will this guy ever get out of his fold..?! all of the protagonists in brad meltzer's books are the screwable irritable loser types.. and they do repeatedly get run over and it is always this ufo spotting kind of life altering incident that they get stuck up in.. running from FBIs, CIAs and secret services.. always running ,never trusting.. and always seem to have faith in the wrong guys... you can't tell me that's reality.. atleast my life's not that predictable in pattern.i suppose.. after four books- the book of fate, the tenth justice, the inner circle and the first council(necessaryly in that order), which i did being impressed by the comparison with john grisham and other biggies- i'd officially be considered a fan.. actually i do love his novels for the little little facts(or his theories about the working of the united states government system etc., but comparatively dan brown has a better way of weaving them into the story and leave you asking for more!), those are what make me turn the pages along with the thing that it leaves me guessing the whole time, my heart paces with the rhythm of the books thanks to the twist and turns in the plot.. but that has started to wear me down maybe because he tries to feed too much! so as i did not read the books as in a chronological order its hard to tell the books with the original ideas from the ones with repetitions of those ideas.. i want more from brad meltzer, more refined writing without leaving out the good parts.. but maybe his writing is getting better so here's praying for that and waiting for his better stories!
I’ll start by saying right now, I absolutely disliked this book. & the only reason why I finished the book was because I sincerely wanted to know who the bad guy was. For a good 75% of the book, there is nothing but Michael shouting at Nora not to lie to him, Michael shouting to Trey not to lie to him, or Michael shouting to Pam not to lie to him. Honestly… I’ve never, NEVER, read so much shouting back & forth in a novel, to no end.Further, Nora’s erratic & bizarre behavior is just exhausting. It was intriguing at first, but after several incidents of what I would consider Bi-Polar reckless behavior. But, after a while, it simply got old & tired & annoying.The only good thing I could find with the novel is that I couldn’t figure out the ending. It only gets 2 stars, I just thought it was going to be better and I thought that it could have been better.
—Juli
I want to give this book three stars, but I found myself skipping pages towards the end just to finish this and see what happens. Our main character falls for the reckless daughter of the president, she gets him into a bit of trouble and is generally bad for him, but he doesn't seem to care about that. They come across a secret and spend the entire novel trying to figure out how to fix the predicament it put them in. That's basically it, and my disinterest in the characters coupled with the shallow plot made this tough for me to finish. I hoped the main character would get caught, since it would serve him right, and I hoped the president's daughter would overdose or get outed for the crazy person she is. I don't think the author intended for us to feel that way, so that disconnect probably contributed heavily to my dislike for this book. I may give Meltzer's earlier books another chance, since I have liked all the others I've read, and I will chalk this one up to characters that didn't connect with me.
—Ithlilian
This is the first book I have read by Brad Melzter. For most of the book I was enthralled and could not put it down. The story moves fast with many plot twists and turns. The back cover indicates that the book is "fast-paced and suspenseful throughout", which is a good description of the story. I would have given the book at least four stars if not for the last 10 pages. The end of the story is dreadful. Meltzer really goofed with the ending. How can such a suspenseful novel have such a lame ending?
—Scott
