THE INNER CIRCLE

THE INNER CIRCLE by Brad Meltzer

From the book jacket:

"There are stories no one knows.  Hidden stories.  I love those stories.  And since I work in the National Archives, I find those stories for a living."

Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government.  He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself...

Until now.

When Clementine Kaye, Beecher's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help tracking down her long-lost father, Beecher ties to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents.  After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact - a two-hundred-year-old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington - hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder.

Soon a man is dead and Beecher is on the run as he races to learn the truth behind this mysterious national treasure.  His search will lead him to discover a coded and ingenious puzzle that conceals a disturbing secret from the founding of our nation.  It is a secret, Beecher soon discovers, that some believe is worth killing for.

If a sign of a good mystery book is not being able to figure out what's going on and who the good guys are, then this book ranks as a very good mystery book.  I was so confused reading this - which person belongs to the good group, which group is the good group.  If I were this confused, imagine how confused Beecher must have been.

My problem with the book, after the good guys and the bad guys were identified, was that the reasoning behind the big mystery didn't really make any sense.  Why certain people were involved was never fully explained.  Too many unanswered questions at the end.

A good mystery book, yes...but not really a good mystery.