Last Man Standing

by David Baldacci

2002

Status

Available

Publication

Warner Vision (2002), Edition: Edition Unstated, 640 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:The sole survivor of a devastating ambush, FBI Hostage Rescue Team agent Web London would do anything to find out what really happened that nightâ??and a ten year old boy may be the unexpected key in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.Web London was trained to penetrate hostile ground and come out alive. Then ten seconds in a dark alley cost him everything: his friends, his fellow agents, his reputation. Among his super-elite FBI Hostage Rescue Team, Web was the sole survivor of a high-tech, devastating ambush.Now Web is trying to put his life back together and understand what really happened. To get answers, he'll need the help of psychiatrist Claire Daniels and the one other human being who lived through the attackâ??a ten-year-old boy. But when his search leads him back to that bloodstained alley, Web suddenly realizes he is about to face his assassin again. And this time, one of them will become the Last Man Standing.… (more)

Media reviews

People
The cast is engagingly fierce and Baldacci's brain-teasing plot leaves you wanting more. Bottom line : high-scoring shoot-'em-up.
5 more
Richmond Times
Riveting...fascinating...a novel that will knock readers' socks off...The intricate plot moves at breakneck speed...the reader will be breathless.
Denver Post
Hits the mark...a solid story with realistic characterizations.
USA Today
A killer thriller...a heartracer...Last Man stands tall. The story races...The characters in Last Man are some of Baldacci's best.
Baldacci's most accomplished thriller...The action...is nearly nonstop and expertly drawn.
Entertainment Weekly
[This book] finds the author in his familiar bestselling territory, the seamy underbelly of the nation's bureaucracy.

User reviews

LibraryThing member kellynasdeo
Loved this book, love this author.
LibraryThing member BCCJillster
Webb London, Hostage Rescue Team, only one to survive, has to prove himself in a similar situation
LibraryThing member GirlFromIpanema
Thriller with a psychological component for the girls, and things that go "boom" for the boys!

I happened on this book during an international Bookcrosser meeting in Switzerland. Picked it up from the book smorgasbord, took it to the hostel with me and started reading. And was hooked. Some parts may
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show a little lenght, but that is easily overshined by the brilliant introduction of the characters, namely the main character, Web London. But also his sidekick Romano and the psychologist that helps Web London to discover some secrets of his own past. Here you have a hardened special ops FBI agent, member of a hostage rescue team, that gets ambushed. All officers except London are killed. How London comes to terms with this terrible shock, and finds out why it has happened, provides for a few evenings of page-turning readers' joy. At the last page I shed some tears, something which rarely happens to me with books.
[Bookcrossing book: Will travel on. I have obtained my own copy.]
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LibraryThing member kayceel
This was alright - it gallops along, and I liked the main character, Web. He's likable, and it's easy to root for him. The villains are a bit silly, and God, do I hate villains who are over-dramatic! Ugh.
LibraryThing member mikedraper
Web London's FBI Hostage Rescue Team is lured into a trap, caught in a crossfire and slaughtered. He's the only survivor.

One witness to the team's massacre is a ten year old named Kevin Westbrook. He's the brother of a drug dealer named Big F. After the shooting, Kevin disappears.

Web knows that
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he'll need help dealing with the emotional loss of his friends and goes to see psychiatrist, Claire Daniels. As he tells her of his past, we see the anguish and guilt that he feels that he's alive and couldn't have done more to save his friends.

FBI supervisor, Percy Bates meets with undercover agent Randall Cove. Cove gave the FBI the information about what was important in the building there were raiding. He believes that the Oxycontin flow from rural areas into the cities in the East Coast is coming from one group. He thinks that they might be located in Appalicia.

I enjoyed the book and feel that Web London is one of the author's better protagonists. His interaction with Claire Daniels left me wanting more.

The author also provided a number of well timed plot twists that caught me totally unaware.
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LibraryThing member RudyJohnson
A Birthday Present that turned into a Sour Read!

I received this book as a birthday present and the gift brought a grateful smile to my face since I have enjoyed many of David Baldacci's novels, i.e., Absolute Power, A Simple Truth and others and within a few days I was reading Last Man Standing.
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Overall, I thought the Web London character was boring and shallow. As an FBI hostage team assaulter he seemed more like a loose cannon rather than a team player which I suspect is the SOP for the FBI. The story is plastered with police that have nothing to fill their time with except to shoot bazookas like guns and love every minute of their destruction. Sometimes I had to laugh because some of the author's scenarios were so bizarre and far-fetched. I won't go into the constant splattering of foul, almost detestable language, which I didn't feel added much to the plot. There were few surprises and I felt I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen next.

Anyway, in my opinion Last Man Standing doesn't seem to fit Mr. Baldacci's style of a thrilling mystery novel that is at least realistic to a degree and his intensive research into the subject matter that he noted for. One last thought I think the book could have been shorten by at least 50 or 60 pages. It's not a terrible novel, it's a good read and I wouldn't recommend purchasing it.
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LibraryThing member RudyJohnson
A Birthday Present that turned into a Sour Read!

I received this book as a birthday present and the gift brought a grateful smile to my face since I have enjoyed many of David Baldacci's novels, i.e., Absolute Power, A Simple Truth and others and within a few days I was reading Last Man Standing.
Show More
Overall, I thought the Web London character was boring and shallow. As an FBI hostage team assaulter he seemed more like a loose cannon rather than a team player which I suspect is the SOP for the FBI. The story is plastered with police that have nothing to fill their time with except to shoot bazookas like guns and love every minute of their destruction. Sometimes I had to laugh because some of the author's scenarios were so bizarre and far-fetched. I won't go into the constant splattering of foul, almost detestable language, which I didn't feel added much to the plot. There were few surprises and I felt I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen next.

Anyway, in my opinion Last Man Standing doesn't seem to fit Mr. Baldacci's style of a thrilling mystery novel that is at least realistic to a degree and his intensive research into the subject matter that he noted for. One last thought I think the book could have been shorten by at least 50 or 60 pages. It's not a terrible novel, it's a good read and I wouldn't recommend purchasing it.
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LibraryThing member william18
Good story line Well constructed
LibraryThing member dekan
When Web London's FBI Hostage Negotiation Team is ambushed in a dark alley, Web is the only survivor. As the FBI investigates, suspicion surrounding Web deepens. Now, he needs help from an unlikely ally in his desperate search for the killer of his friends, and finds himself up against a force
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intent on finishing the job that began in the alley.
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LibraryThing member dbhutch
An outstanding read! Baldacci once again shows his mastery of conspiracy around the DC beltway, inside and out. An FBI HRT thinks he's losing it when he freezes in the middle of a mission, and watches his team get eliminated. Searching for answers, he becomes embroiled in a drug turf war, and a
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revenge plot of the highest order. And his key to it all - a young boy who saw it all, the son of a drug kingpin, who has vanished without a trace. Not only is the HRT agent searching for him, but so is his kingpin father, who will stop at nothing to see his son safe from the life he himself is embroiled in. As on par with Baldacci's works, there are dozens of twists and turns in this story to keep the reader on edge, and eager for what happens next.
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LibraryThing member rondoctor
Very good read. Excellent character development (at least for the main characters), but a little heavy on killings.
LibraryThing member brainella
Web London is a member of a hostage rescue team that is ambushed by an unknown entity. As the sole survivor of the debacle, Web works to figure out who set them up and why. This is a pretty interesting and fast-paced mystery. I like the main character and some of the supporting characters are
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really well developed. Good plot.
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LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Web London is the last man left after an ambush, will he find out what's going on before the people who murdered his squad get to him or will he join them?
Interesting and quite readable
LibraryThing member ajlewis2
This story of an elite FBI agent of the hostage rescue team, his training, job, inner demons, relations with criminals and comrades as well as those who care about him. The story has a lot of depth while still being fast-paced and exciting.

The edition was unabridged audio by Recorded Books 2005 (I
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didn't find it listed on GoodReads).

The book is long at 19 CDs, and the story seems to be more detailed than I wanted at the beginning, but a few chapters in and I was loving the detail. At that point I never lost interest.
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LibraryThing member christinejoseph
Excellent — FBI rescue team, set up good thriller! — Well written characters — subplot

When Web London's FBI Hostage Negotiation Team is ambushed in a dark alley, Web is the only survivor. As the FBI investigates, suspicion surrounding Web deepens. Now, he needs help from an unlikely ally in
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his desperate search for the killer of his friends, and finds himself up against a force intent on finishing the job that began in the alley.
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LibraryThing member Carol420
Web London heads up the FBI's super-elite Hostage Rescue Team, he is a master at what he does, but on their latest assignment he is not able to predict, or save them from the bloodshed that is about to erupt. Having his men assemble in an alley, Web feels confident that they will bring down the
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drug dealer they have set out to destroy, but within seconds they are ambushed...everyone killed, leaving Web "The Last Man Standing".

Trying to cope with the blame that has been placed on him by grieving widows, Web must try to put the pieces of that fateful night together. What went wrong? How were they ambushed? And who was the young boy Web saved in that alley, and why was he there? As these questions plague Web he seeks the help of psychiatrist Claire Daniels, and with her help he will be able to confront his own tainted past, as well as answer the question, why was he chosen to be the sole survivor?

David Baldacci packs the book with a brilliant plot and more than a few surprises that will knock your socks off, and includes a wealth of detail that highlights his meticulous research skills. I can only hope that we'll see Web and company again in a future Baldacci thriller.
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LibraryThing member kimmy0ne
a great page turner
LibraryThing member gaillamontagne
Another thriller from David Baldacci. This time the main character is Webb London, a member of the FBI strike force. He is a fearless warrior with the scars to prove it both seen, on his face and body and unseen, in his soul. Webb is assigned to raid a warehouse where intel says there is enough
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evidence to incarcerate a drug ring lead by Big F. As the team approaches, down an alley toward the warehouse, a young boy is off to the side looking at Webb and says, "Damn to hell". At hearing this, Webb looses his ability to move and freezes just as his team rushes in for the sting. A barrage of automatic weapons sprays out the windows and slaughters all the men. Webb realizes it was all a set up but is mortified that he "froze". Wondering if he is a coward, the other teams suspicious that he was the only survivor, Webb pursues answers to why this happened to his team, who betrayed them, why he froze, and who is behind this and why. Many questions and many answers. I enjoyed this story.
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
This book was too long for me. The plot convoluted. Web London is the sole survivor of an FBI hostage rescue squad’s disastrous drug raid in Washington, DC. His survival is the result of “freezing” up--sorta. And, that's only one part of the plot. Strange that the FBI let a guy under
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investigation back to work???? Novel has a few interesting ideas, which if developed, could result in a decent story.
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LibraryThing member JenniferRobb
Interesting fictional view of a person who is highly suggestible while under hypnosis and that being used against him by someone who was supposed to be helping him heal from psychological wounds.
LibraryThing member susandennis
Web London is an FBI agent in one of the 'special forces' called out in crisis situations. An inside informant led his team to such a situation and every member of his team was killed. He was the last man standing. Baldacci carves a great story into this nice, satisfying and delightfully fat book.
LibraryThing member PaulaGalvan
I thought this book would be a war story, but it wasn't. It's an intricately crafted story about the FBI's finest—the HRT, Hostage Rescue Team—and the extraordinary men that rise above the fittest of the fit to hold back the forces of evil that threaten society around the world. Web London is
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one of these men. Web survived a horrific childhood to become an elite fighter for the good guys. Then, when his entire team is ambushed during a mission, Web mysteriously survives only to find himself now fighting for his reputation. Expertly crafted, this story of drug dealers, murderers, and worse, weaves a picture of devastating treachery, profound bravery, and fulfilling commitment. Fast action, great characters, and plot twists made this book entertaining and worthwhile.
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LibraryThing member JudithDCollins
A very interesting read – enjoyed the audio as this is a fast paced thriller! Action packed with suspense, plot twists and the main character Wed, a member of FBI HRT—leaving him the last man standing after a wipeout of the team. Taking you from the past to the present as you learn more – as
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he unravels the mystery with colorful characters along the way --- great job from Baldacci!
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LibraryThing member lbswiener
Last Man Standing takes a long time of plowing through many chapters before the characters and situations make any sense. It is a very long book. The book is in a thriller. Eventually everything comes together but it just takes too long. The end of the book is good even though we, the readers, are
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left hanging as to the characters lives; probably because the author is contemplating making a sequel. Four stars were awarded here but it takes a very long time to reach the good stuff in this story.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2001

Physical description

640 p.; 4.25 inches

ISBN

0446611778 / 9780446611770

Barcode

1601957

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