Rating: 
Summary: Disgraced Secret Service agents seek vindication.
Review: In David Baldacci's new thriller, "Split Second," Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are Secret Service agents who failed in their jobs to protect the presidential candidates entrusted to their care. After he was drummed out of the Service, King started a new life in rural Virginia as a country lawyer and volunteer deputy. Maxwell is placed on administrative leave, and she decides to do some sleuthing of her own. Soon, she begins to believe that her case and King's may be connected somehow. Maxwell and King join forces to get to the bottom of the events that wrecked their careers.Baldacci has stumbled badly with this novel. The setup is intriguing enough. Maxwell and King are two attractive and capable individuals who gain the reader's sympathy immediately. However, before long, the plot slowly but surely unravels. The novel ends up preposterously, and even the most gullible reader is forced to groan at the convoluted and irrational events that explain Maxwell's and King's downfall. No one expects thrillers to be models of logic. However, one would expect that a writer of Baldacci's stature would have enough respect for his loyal readership to come up with a story line that has some basis in reality. In addition, at four hundred pages, "Split Second" is too long and lumbering. As appealing as the main characters are, they cannot make up for the unbelievable and far-fetched narrative that left me shaking my head in disbelief.
Rating: 
Summary: Exhilerating read!
Review: Mix one Secret Service agent whose protectee was assassinated eight years earlier; another who just had her protectee abducted; with a retired agent running a thriving investigative firm; and a rogue deputy U.S. Marshall who has just had a member of the Witness Protection Program murdered on his watch and you have the ingredients for another intense political thriller from David Baldacci. It took only a split second for Secret Service agent Sean King's attention to wander and third party presidential candidate Clyde Ritter to be gunned down. Michelle Maxwell's independent candidate was seized by a very well trained team with a diabolically clever leader whose preparation is impeccable. She and King are drawn together by the seemingly unrelated events. They form a peculiar alliance as they face peril and intrigue searching for clues that will lead them to the person(s) responsible and redemption. A gripping story filled with tense action that holds your attention. Alive with fully developed complex characters and menacing villains. "Split Second" is another strong outing from David Baldacci.
Rating:
Summary: Split Second gave me a splitting headache
Review: David Baldacci is a excellent writer and storyteller, and is one of my most favorite authors. I have missed many meals and hours of sleep because of his books. Split Second was no exception. It was entertaining, intriguing, suspensful and thrilling. But it is not is Baldacci's greatest and could have done with out a few characters and a few gruesome details (i.e. hanging bodies). The end was exciting, and I don't care that it was a little unrealistic. My biggest beef is that is was so darn complicated. My head is still spinning from all that went on at the end, and I still don't really know exactly what happened. Die hard Baldacci fans will certainly find this book a good read, but will feel a little disappointed that it is not up to the caliber of his previous works.
Rating: 
Summary: Baldacci At His Worst
Review: I don't understand the rave reviews that have been posted for this book. I can only assume that they were written by the publisher's employees or friends of Baldacci. I have read and enjoyed every book he's written, but this one was awful. It was loaded with characters and possible suspects. It had a convoluted, confusing, shallow plot, and it alternated telling the story between the main characters. One of the main characters got kidnapped and the others acted like it was no big deal. Very little mention of her fate, no drama, no concern. Very strange. After reading this book, I would have to recommend that Baldacci stick to "lawyer" books.
Rating: 
Summary: EXPLOSIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
Review: One of the reviewers called this tale "less gripping" than Baldacci's previous works and I most strongly disagree with that statement. Split Second is as riveting a psychological thriller as any of Baldacci's previous yarns. The paths of two discredited secret agents collide as they come together to uncover the kidnapping of a presidential candidate, only to unravel a shocking truth: that the separate acts of violence that shattered their lives were really a long time in the making -- and are a long way from over. Baldicci engagingly pits each player against the others, their chemistry adds depth and suspense to the page-turning ride through annals of high crime and politics. My only minor gripe: the stretch towards the denouement is a bit drawn out, but the intrigue pretty much makes up for it. A thoroughly engaging novel!
Rating:
Summary: HIGH OCTANE READINGS
Review: Scott Brick, an accomplished actor with credits on film, television and radio, also has taken home the Audie and Earphone awards. The experience and assurance he has gained in the recording of more than 150 books is crystal clear in his stellar reading of the Unabridged version of popular author David Baldacci's latest. An equally talented voice performer, Ron McLarty offers a different twist but no less compelling reading of the Abridged versions. Baldacci fans who remember with pleasure the high octane suspense and rapid fire action in "Last Man Standing" and "Absolute Power" will be equally pleased with this absorbing tale of two Secret Service agents who combine sleuthing skills to solve a mystery that darkens and deepens with time. Sean King's career as a Secret Service agent was over almost a decade ago when the political aspirant he was guarding was assassinated. Law is now his metier, and he's a success at it. His scarred past surfaces again when another political candidate is grabbed despite the watchful eye of Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell. Sean and Michelle combine forces believing that the two, the decade old murder and the recent abduction, are somehow connected. Before long body counts rise, and the pair have no idea who is behind the mysterious plot or, worse yet, who the next victim will be. As always, Baldacci mixes suspense with romance - an intriguing combination. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: Baldacci needs a break
Review: Too many novels in too short a time span , this Balducci novel is not worth it at all. Too far fetched , too unreal. It seems as though the author was painstakingly trying to end the story , when in fact it ended before the 100th page. Take a pass on Baldacci for awhile.
Rating:
Summary: Great Baldacci book!
Review: I really enjoyed this book! Compared to other Baldacci novels, this is the most like "Last Man Standing", which I alse thoroughly enjoyed. I wish this book were a little bit longer page-wise, because I didn't want it to end.
Rating:
Summary: Vivid characters and enthralling plot
Review: Baldacci's great gift is his involving characters and plots that keep you guessing until the end. But they are never cheap or contrived -- every revelation has been planted in the plot. I love his work and this book does his reputation justice.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must-read for fans of intellectual thrillers
Review: September 1996: "It took a split second, although to Secret Service Agent Sean King it seemed like the longest split second ever." King was protecting presidential candidate Clyde Ritter at a rally that was supposed to be low key. When the crowd moved closer to the guest of honor, King moved closer too and then he heard something --- a bang that sounded like a dropped book. The crowd panicked, the room exploded into chaos and Ritter was lying by King's feet, shot right through the heart. Following this tragic incident, King retired from the Secret Service in disgrace. Over time he made a new life for himself. He became a small town attorney who built a dream house on the banks of a lake in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia far away from politics, government and guns. Eight years later, another election is on the calendar and candidate John Bruno decides to take a side trip to pay his respects to a dead friend. His protector, Secret Service Agent Michelle Maxwell, is furious and frustrated, but she capitulates to his demands in order to keep as close to their schedule as possible. While Maxwell is counting the days until the election when her fast track career could put her in the White House guarding the president, she knows that sometimes one has to break protocol. Or do they? Once there, Bruno angrily refuses to listen to Maxwell, who insists she will not leave his side. But his tantrum is easier to assuage if Maxwell again defers to him, so she allows him to enter the funeral parlor room alone. Then the unthinkable happens --- Bruno vanishes --- and as had happened to King, Maxwell is turned into a scapegoat and her career is over. While King watches the news about the candidate's disappearance, he understands exactly what will happen to Maxwell --- she is going to be hung out to dry the same way he had. He then makes his way to his "day job" and finds a corpse in his office. A few days later, Maxwell begins to research the events that led to King's downfall. She reads the material, studies the photographs and listens to the videotape. She listens so closely that she hears a sound --- a familiar noise that is eerily out of place. She knows that something is very wrong with what she has seen and heard. She feels an instinctive and overwhelming connection to King and decides to seek him out. King listens as she tells him what she has discovered: confirmation of his legitimate distraction eight years before when a bullet killed a candidate and his bodyguard. Neither of them can ignore what they both now know --- especially since he is under investigation for the murder of the man in his office. The two ex-agents decide to work together and begin an odyssey that will take them down the dark halls of Washington politics, bring them into contact with the Federal Marshall Service, and push them forward into a vast conspiracy that was set in motion long before they came on the scene. If you have a passion for intellectual thrillers whose architecture is erected like a puzzle that is superbly limned with suspense and the action is reminiscent of yesterday's news, SPLIT SECOND is an absolute must-read. All of David Baldacci's previous eight books have soared to the top of everyone's bestseller list and his oeuvre speaks to his talent, imagination, prose and ability to tell a story that is convincing, entertaining, fascinating and makes readers feel that they are on a magical mystery tour. SPLIT SECOND tells a very complex tale that will provoke readers to think about current issues in government and offers interesting glimpses into how the Secret Service works. --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum
| 
