Split Second

Split Second (King & Maxwell #1) by David Baldacci

This book was so bad, so poorly written, so, so, so massively wrong that I wonder if I had a bad copy, that an unedited version somehow made its way to my Kindle. I just can’t believe that a novel that sold so well, that began a very popular series which led to a television show, was so bad. Split Second was barely readable. In fact, I only finished it because my wife and I had decided to read it together.

The first novel of the King & Maxwell series, Split Second follows two disgraced Secret Service agents. One, Sean King, was caught looking away when the presidential candidate he was guarding was assassinated. The other, Michelle Maxwell, allowed the presidential candidate she was guarding to be alone in a room for a few minutes; he was kidnapped. It is obvious that the two cases would wind up connected to each other. That’s fine. The book has good premise, something that could serve as the base for an engrossing tale. Unfortunately, Split Second deteriorated into absurdity.

My overall impression of the novel is that it reads like a young adult or early teen detective story. Everything is fully explained as if the reader is not expected to figure out things for him or herself. This style leads to the dragging out of many storylines that a reader should figure out fairly quickly. One of the major ones is what exactly distracted Agent King while his candidate was killed. About 20% into the novel, I told my wife what I thought that distraction was. She said, “No. That’s what he wants you to think, but it wouldn’t be something that stupid.” Around the 40% mark, it became clear that no other explanation was possible, and it was confirmed later in the novel. And, yes, it really was that stupid.

I’ve said this about other books I’ve reviewed, but Split Second is a logistical nightmare. The author does a poor job of establishing and maintaining point of view, so much of the narration is a mess. For example, federal investigators in Virginia make preparations to storm a bunker in Tennessee. Instead of flying there, they drive five hours. Why?

Baldacci’s text also demonstrates poor critical thinking skills in his characters. King and Maxwell, we are told, are brilliant investigators. Much of the time, though, they come across as stupid. In one scene, Michelle Maxwell is searching through an old hotel that was abandoned 7 years prior. She found a phone book in the abandoned office, but was disappointed to find it was out of date. What, did she expect Ma Bell to continue its delivery to the abandoned building? Within the novel, we read through the investigators’ thoughts, we experience the processes that take them from clue to conclusion. Often, the conclusions are correct—Baldacci thinks they are brilliant, remember—while the leaps that got the investigators there are utterly stupid. In short, he tells us they are good while showing the opposite to be true.

There was no reason for Split Second to be as long as it was. The most common narrative trick the author used was: I’ve discovered something, but I’m not going to tell you now; I’m going to tell you later, but before I can tell you, I’ll be drugged, kidnapped, or knocked unconscious. That got old…quickly.

The dumbest thing about the book was that forensics and actual law enforcement tactics have no place within it. A few seconds after the assassination, Sean King shot the man who killed his candidate. The investigations within Split Second reveal that there was a second person at the scene with a gun. That person made a point to hide the gun, pay blackmail fees to a woman who saw him hide it, and then spend years contriving all of the foolishness that makes up the plot. The question that’s never asked in the book—let’s face it; had it been asked, the author would have had to think up another plot—is why the gun was an issue at all. It was neither pulled nor fired at the scene. Nothing criminal occurred with it, and there is no proof of anything involving it. In real life, that gun is a nothing; in the pseudo-plot of Split Second, it was everything. That doesn’t work for me.

In some cases, Baldacci writes King and Maxwell coming to conclusions that are scientifically impossible. For example: “She rewound the tape again and listened intently. There it was, like a beep or a clang, or a ding. That was it. A ding! It was coming from the direction where King was staring.” So Michelle Maxwell has the ability to tell sound direction from watching a VHS tape? That was almost as bad as the cold fusion bomb in JJ Abrams’ latest Star Trek film.

This book was awful. It was so awful that I almost want to read the second King & Maxwell book to see if this was an anomaly. If you’re looking for a good, exciting, smart thriller, stay away from Split Second.

F