Product Description

'He was the only one in the room who could see it. His attention stayed there for one beat, two beats, three beats, far too long. Yet who could blame him for not being able to pull his gaze away from that?'

When something distracts Secret Agent Sean King for a split second, it costs him his career and presidential candidate Clyde Ritter, his life. But what stole his attention? And why was Ritter shot?

Eight years later Michelle Maxwell is on the fast track through the ranks of the Secret Service when her career is stopped short: Presidential candidate John Bruno is abducted from a funeral home while under her protection.

The similarity between the two cases drives Michelle to re-open investigations into the Ritter fiasco and join forces with attractive ex-agent King. The pair are determined to get to the bottom of what happened in those critical moments.

Meanwhile, high-ranking members of the legal system and key witnesses from both cases are going missing. King is losing friends, colleagues and clients fast and his ex-lover, Joan Dillinger, is playing curious games - she wants Sean back, but she also owes him for something . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11863 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Split Second is David Baldacci at the top of his well-informed game, with a real sense of what the Secret Servicemen who protect the President and presidential candidates think about the job and how it feels to fail. Sean King looked away at the wrong moment and a man died; his career ended and he has spent eight years rebuilding a life. When Michelle Maxwell makes a similar mistake, she becomes convinced that there is a link between the man she lost to kidnappers and the man Sean failed to protect--and the more she learns, the more she can prove.

This is an odd couple thriller--Sean and Michelle have radically different attitudes to the job they both did well--and ingeniously put together in terms of what it tells us about the shadowy villain manipulating events and what it delays telling us about the past. It is a well-informed thriller that wears its research lightly--it has a sense of how it feels to see every large room as a potential killing ground in which you have to protect very vulnerable public men, and some charming scenes of budding romantic comedy. --Roz Kaveney

About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Split Second - Hardcover by David Baldacci
I always look forward to the next David Baldacci book beacuse they are suspenseful, edge of your seat stuff that you cannot put down. Split Second thankfully did not let me down. It is a very gripping thriller that has you guessing right to the end.

There are two main characters who suffer the same fate albeit at different times (8 years apart to be precise). The characters Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are Secret Service Agents who have more in common than they think. They unite forces to solve a kidnapping. They soon realise that they are trying to solve an assasination which happened years previously.
Both of their careers are ruined because while on duty they allegedly screwed up.

Without giving too much away the characters are believable and the plot is thick. They work closely to solve these and other crimes that tend to happen whenever they are together or are getting close to the truth.

As soon as I started to read the story I could not put the book down. The plot twists and turns and Sean and Michelle are never too sure who to trust.

If you like suspenseful thrillers then this is a must. You will not be able to help yourself from trying to figure out the plot before the book finishes. I was pleased that the ending was realistic and hopeful and not the usual Hollywood ending!!!

The only downside is that there are a lot of characters in the book and sometimes it is hard to keep track especially when some of them are from the past. As ever though, Baldacci ties up all the loose ends paying excellent attention to detail.

All I can say is pick it up I know you won't be able to put it down. I am always sad at the end of a David Baldacci book because true thrillers like this are hard to find. I now have to wait until his next book to get my next adrenaline filled rush. If you haven't read it then get yours now!!

Split Second
This book is a terrible disappointment. I'm a great Baldacci fan and all all his previous books have been outstanding entertainment. But Split Second doesn't work, through a combination of lazy plotting and cardboard characters. The plot revolves around three supposedly intelligent and well-trained ex-Secret Service agents, who bumble and stumble thriough the book like Keystone Cops. The bad guys have no difficulty in bamboozling them, running rings aroound them, beating them up, even kidnapping them.Half way through, I lost all interest in the plot's tired convolutions; three-quarters way through, I gave up on it. Baldacci is capable of much, much better. What's going wrong? All my favourite writers (Clancy, Crichton, Baldacci, Grisham) have produced duds with their latest books.

A Real Thriller from Start to Finish

David Baldacci was born in 1960. He attended law school at the University of Virginia, and went on to work as a trial lawyer, and later as a corporate lawyer, in Washington, D.C. He is now a full-time writer whose best selling novels include Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth and Saving Faith. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

The author has come up with a new thriller that is reminiscent of his best selling debut book, Absolute Power. It has all of the thrills and excitement of a first rate novel.

Sean King is going place in the closed world of the Secret Service, that is until he makes a fatal mistake. It only took a split second, but that is all it took for a man to die, a man who was under the protection of agent King. Third party presidential candidate Clyde Ritter was dead and Sean King's attention had wandered at the vital moment. He retired from the Service in disgrace and now eight long years later he balances careers as a lawyer and part-time deputy sheriff in a small Virginia town.

Then he hears some news. Another third part candidate has been taken out of the presidential race, abducted right under the nose of Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell. King thinks its time to take another look at the truth of the matter and forms an uneasy alliance with Michelle Maxwell. But the truth is never quite what it seems and even one unguarded moment can be fatal. The book is full of twists and turns and is well worth reading.