Split Second
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Pan Books
ISBN: 9780330411721
Year Published: 2003
For
Split Second, David Baldacci set out two plot strands for the novel. Two Secret Service Agents whose service are either terminated or suspended when their charges, both presidential candidates - one assassinated and another kidnapped - decided to team up to investigate both cases.
In 1996, while on protective detail of presidential candidate Clyde Ritter, Secret Service agent Sean King failed to stop an attempt on Ritter’s life during a planned campaign stop. Apparently, something distracted King and during that split second when Ritter was shot dead. Wounded himself, King killed the assassin, but that was not enough to save his reputation or his job with the Secret Service. He retired and went on to do often tedious but nonetheless always lucrative work as a lawyer.
Plot two begins eight years later when another Secret Service Agent, Michelle Maxwell, allows presidential candidate John Bruno out of her sight for a few minutes at a wake for one of his close associates. Then he goes missing, apparently kidnapped by unknown persons. Maxwell, too, gets in trouble with the Secret Service. Though separated by time, the cases are similar and leave several questions unanswered. What distracted King at the rally? Bruno had claimed his friend’s widow called him to the funeral home. But the widow says she never called Bruno. So who set him up? Who did a chambermaid at Ritter’s hotel blackmail? And who is the man in the Buick shadowing King’s and Maxwell’s every move?
Agent Maxwell is determined to find Bruno before he is killed. She is also interested in the similarities between her case and that of King’s.
King is a handsome, rich divorcee, while Maxwell an attractive marathon runner. Will they join forces and strike up a relationship? But of course, professionally at first. This is the start of the King and Maxwell series and also their relationship as partners and lovers.
The two former agents decide to join forces to traverse the countryside, spinning endless hypotheses before hitting on a conclusion that begs credibility and offers few surprises.
With their combined efforts and comparing notes, both King and Maxwell realise that there is a mastermind behind both the assassination and the disappearance of the two presidential candidates. Although King can no longer use his Secret Service credentials or contacts for information, he gets in touch with ex-agent Joan Dillinger, who has found success in the private sector. King and Dillinger share a romantic past, one that ended with Ritter’s assassination, but Dillinger is still willing to help with King and Maxwell’s investigation - for a price.
Slowly but gradually, the plot is revealed and soon, the agents find themselves coming face-to-face with an unexpected and dangerous adversary. After several exciting twists and turns, King and Maxwell succeed in solving both the cases with the help of Dillinger and the local authorities. But Baldacci keeps the readers guessing the identity of the culprit behind both the cases till the end.
