BOOK REVIEW: Split Second - David Baldacci

Essential Details
Genre: Crime/thriller
Setting: Present day USA, East Coast.
No. of pages: 600
Standalone (subsequent books with same main characters)

Synopsis
Secret Service agent Sean King is momentarily distracted, and a Presidential candidate dies. Years later, a different Secret Service agent, Michelle Maxwell, makes a mistake and another Presidential Candidate is kidnapped. On the edge of losing her job and career, Michelle seeks out Sean King, drawn by the similarities in their downfall. Together they investigate both cases and are drawn into a complex and dangerous situation…

What I Liked
Baldacci’s writing is good quality, and I like his style. He pays a lot of attention to detail, draws a good plot and has likeable characters. The opening third of the book is particularly good.

What I Didn’t Like
The final third of the book really went downhill in my opinion. There were four separate characters all working together like a committee, and when is a committee ever a good thing? After a masterfully plotted storyline the final third, and in particular the ending, was poor.

Plot
The build up of the plot was good. You really didn’t have much of a clue what was going on for a long time, there were two main plot strands and various sub-plots that I knew must all tie together, but couldn’t fathom out how.

Characters
The main character, Sean King, was quite well drawn. I was interested in what happened to him, and by the end of the book felt I knew quite a lot about him. I’d be happy to read another book with him as the main character. I didn’t feel any especially strong emotion or attachment towards the character however. The secondary character Michelle was also moderately well drawn, however the other characters were fairly two dimensional.


Language/Structure
The language was good, well written but easy and quick to read, with no swearing or bad language. Lots of short chapters quickened the pace of the book and made it easy to read.

Overall Impression
A fairly standard, run of the mill crime thriller. It started well, and had the potential to be really good, but the author let it slip in the latter stages. Of the three books of his I’ve read, this is certainly the worst.

Rating – 6/10