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From Publishers Weekly
"We just solved a huge, complicated mystery," says one protagonist to another in this latest novel from the bestselling author of Last Man Standing, Absolute Power, etc. And that is the problem: this story of two disgraced Secret Service agents who come together to solve two campaign-trail crimes doesn't play to Baldacci's strengths, which are suspense and action (as well as strong characterizations; here's one thriller author who writes people that readers care about). The novel is primarily a mystery, with lots of talk and untangling of clues, and a less than gripping one at that. It begins in 1996, when Secret Service agent Sean King is distracted-by what isn't revealed until near the book's end-just when the presidential candidate he's guarding is shot dead. Eight years later, agent Michelle Maxwell lets the candidate she's watching enter a funeral parlor room alone; he's kidnapped. Then a body appears in the office of King, who's now a successful lawyer in North Carolina. Maxwell sees King on TV and decides to look into the event that caused his disgrace, so similar to hers. Meanwhile, King's old flame, Joan Dillinger, an ex-agent whose security firm has been hired to find the kidnapped presidential candidate, hires King to help in the hunt. The narrative ties binding the characters don't loosen much over the novel's course, as curious cross-currents flow between the two cases, all leading to a cinematic but off-the-wall denouement that reveals a villain who is more cartoon than human. What saves this novel are a few strong but brief action sequences and, above all, the interplay among the principal characters, particularly the romantic tensions among King, Maxwell and Dillinger.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Baldacci's new thriller is sustained by the pulse-pounding suspense his fans have come to expect. Sean King is a former Secret Service agent whose career ended eight years ago when the political candidate he was protecting was assassinated. Now a lawyer, King has organized his life to forget his past, but it barges rudely in on him when he finds a colleague murdered in his office building. Further complicating his life are two women: Joan Dillinger, a former coworker and lover, and Michelle Maxwell, a Secret Service agent whose candidate, John Bruno, has just been kidnapped. Sean and Michelle start to suspect that their candidates' fates are connected and begin to investigate any ties the two may have to each other. It doesn't help that the police are on King's case, especially when yet another body turns up, this time in King's house. King and Maxwell turn their focus to Arnold Ramsey, the man who assassinated King's candidate, but it remains unclear if he was working alone. Meanwhile, the danger mounts, for neither King nor Maxwell can guess who the conspirators' next target is.Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Eight years apart, two Secret Service agents, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, lost their presidential candidate charges to an assassination and a kidnapping respectively. Now, as Maxwell attempts to recover her missing politician, connections seem to be appearing between the two incidents. As the body count rises, King and Maxwell join together to solve the crimes that have ruined their careers. It is not difficult to fathom David Baldacci's popularity: 'Split Second' is a pacy novel that keeps its secrets tantalisingly out of the reader's reach until the quite extraordinary climax. The dialogue occasionally descends to B-movie level but the overall quality of the storytelling keeps the enterprise on track. There are moments where the levels of paranoia are ratcheted so high that suspicion falls on every single character. This intrigue adds greatly to the reader's enjoyment of yet another thoroughbred thriller from the Baldacci stable that has already produced the best-selling 'Absolute Power' and 'Last Man Standing'. (Kirkus UK)
Review
She lends an appropriate accent and inflection to the way LuAnn speaks before and after she becomes affluent. The narrator successfully manages to translate it into suspense through her speech and keeps the listener breathless with her flawless pacing and emotional pitch.
內容簡介
From #1 bestseller David Baldacci comes a new thriller reminiscent of his phenomenal bestselling debut, Absolute Power.It was only a split second--but that's all it took for Secret Service agent Sean King's attention to wander and his "protectee," third-party presidential candidate Clyde Ritter, to die. King retired from the Service in disgrace, and now, eight years later, balances careers as a lawyer and a part-time deputy sheriff in a small Virginia town. Then he hears the news: Once again, a third-party candidate has been taken out of the presidential race--abducted right under the nose of Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell. King and Maxwell form an uneasy alliance, and their search for answers becomes a bid for redemption as they delve into the government's Witness Protection Program and the mysterious past of Clyde Ritter's dead assassin. But the truth is never quite what it seems, and these two agents have learned that even one moment looking in the wrong direction can be deadly. Full of shocking twists and turns, and introducing a villian to rival Jackson in Baldacci's The Winner, SPLIT SECOND is pure, mind-numbing adrenaline to the last page. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
作者簡介
David Baldacci is the nine-time New York Times best-selling author of ABSOLUTE POWER, TOTAL CONTROL, THE WINNER, THE SIMPLE TRUTH, SAVING FAITH, WISH YOU WELL, LAST MAN STANDING, THE CHRISTMAS TRAIN and SPLIT SECOND. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
