In events years apart, Secret Service Agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell had their lives forever changed in a split second. With a zero tolerance policy for errors, each found his career destroyed.

While providing protection to third party presidential candidate Clyde Ritter, Sean had his attention momentarily distracted and, at that precise second, an assassin shot and killed Ritter. Sean is now practicing law in Virginia.

Eight years later Michelle is guarding John Bruno, another third party presidential candidate. While making an unscheduled stop at a funeral home to comfort the grieving widow of his deceased friend, Bruno insists Michelle leave him alone in the room with the widow and the casket. Michelle does so - only to find when she reenters the room Bruno has disappeared.

While on suspension and casting around to keep herself occupied, Michelle becomes drawn to the story of Sean King. Sean is thrust into the headlines again when one of his employees is murdered in his office. Michelle feels a kinship with Sean and his disgrace. While grasping at straws, she decides she’ll investigate the first killing in the hope that it will somehow either link to her incident or else improve her own situation in other ways.

She revisits the scene of the first killing, a now abandoned hotel, and finds evidence that had either been overlooked or never reported. Following a lead, she talks with a maid and then pays Sean a visit hoping to persuade him to help.

Meanwhile, Sean has a visit from a seductive woman in his past – a woman very involved in many ways as a Secret Service agent in that first killing. Then the authorities find a ballistic match to one of his weapons linking him to the killing of his employee.

Soon, too many deadly coincidences, too many lies uncovered, too many bizarre killings close to Sean leave no doubt there is an underlying conspiracy.

The plot is unique, the preparation and planning for the murders is almost visionary in the way the murderer brings them all together. The tone of the book is made even more suspenseful with the inner thoughts of the murderer exposed every now and then.

The principal characters are well developed and exhibit the intelligence, humor and sensitivity that endear them to readers. There are two primary themes: revenge and the search for redemption.

The novel is structured well; however, because of the complexity of the plot a lot of time is spent in the beginning creating a sound foundation. While it does pick up and proceed very quickly, it leaves the reader with a sense of uneven pacing.

For David Baldacci fans, Split Second is definitely recommended.

--Thea Davis