Split Second
 David Baldacci
 (Reviewer - Narayan Radhakrishnan)
 2003 Time Warner
 ISBN: 0446530891

Two disgraced Secret Service agents come together to solve two campaign-trail crimes decades apart.

Sr. Reviewer Narayan Radhakrishnan writes:

What do you get when you mix the plotlines from the movies In the Line of Fire & Eraser? -- you get Split Second.

Baldacci's latest is a good & solid read, but not as great as Absolute Power or Last Man Standing, which, in my opinion is the best from this lawyer-author.

The year is 1996, & Secret Service Agent Sean King is assigned to protect Presidential Candidate Clyde Ritter. King is good at his job, but on that fateful day, a slight distraction on his part, & Ritter is gunned down -- in a scene eerily reminiscent of the Robert Kennedy assassination. What the “slight distraction” was is not revealed until the end, & I am not going to be a spoilsport -- suffice to say the ‘slight distraction’ takes the novel forward -- keeping the suspense tight throughout.

King's brilliant career came to an end, & ever since he's been working as a lawyer in North Carolina. Then 8 years later (2004), another Presidential Candidate is kidnapped, right under the nose of his security chief, Agent Michelle Maxwell. The reason? A “slight mistake”. Birds of a feather flock together, & soon Maxwell approaches King to solve the mystery behind the kidnapping/death of would-be Presidents. Together they investigate, & what follows is the hallmark suspense & action that keep Baldacci fans happy.

As a thriller Split Second is excellent, as a suspense mystery it is nail-biting -- but compared to other Baldacci works, it falls just short of its mark.

For ardent Baldacci fans, buy it, add it to your collection -- & for the others, borrow the book from a library.

More from David Baldacci:
The Christmas Train
The Winner
The Simple Truth
Wish You Well
Saving Faith
Total Control

(10/19/03)

Narayan
2003©Narayan Radhakrishnan
A RebeccasReads.Com Sr. Associate Reviewer

Reviewer's Bio:
I am a 26 years old lawyer practicing in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Along with my legal practice, I have finished post-graduate studies for both Business Law & Human Rights. I am a self proclaimed numero-uno legal thriller lover & am the proud owner of all of Grisham's & Turow's novels. I enjoy John Mortimer's Rumpole & relish an occasional Martini & a rare Scot(ch)t-oline with a Patterson on the side.

My work A FICTION OF LAW is now about 500 pages in length & features 500 lawyer authors & 2000 legal thrillers covering a 300 year period - inclusive of entries from the USA, UK, Asia, Europe, China, Middle East etc. Still in search of a publisher.
www.keralatourism.org