Split Second (Baldacci, David) [Hardcover]

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 --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

An explosive new thriller by the author of Last Man Standing. Secret agent Sean King loses his career because for a split second his attention is diverted and presidential candidate Clyde Ritter is shot dead. Eight years later, Michelle Maxwell of the secret service is tricked into letting her presidential candidate, John Bruno, be abducted from a funeral home. Her career is also now over. King now has a successful new business of his own, but he is suspected of killing an employee - his gun fired the fatal shot. Michelle and King get together to try and find out what happened and why. Meanwhile key witnesses from the cases disappear, and King's ex-lover, Joan Dillinger, also an agent, is behaving in a very curious way. It's fast-moving, exciting and keeps one in suspense right until the end with its wonderful climax. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

The first heart-racing thriller in the bestselling author's King & Maxwell series. . . --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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 . . . --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

David Baldacci is the author of fifteen previous consecutive New York Times bestsellers. With his books published in over 40 languages in more than 80 countries, and with nearly 70 million copies in print, he is one of the world’s favourite storytellers. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.