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  • Split Second

  • Written by: David Baldacci
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (78 ratings)

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Split Second cover art

Split Second

Written by: David Baldacci
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's Summary

Michelle Maxwell has just blown her future with the Secret Service. Against her instincts, she let a presidential candidate out of her sight to comfort a grieving widow. Then, behind closed doors, the politician whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air.

Living a new life on a quiet lake in central Virginia, Sean King knows how the younger agent feels. He's been there before. In an out-of-the-way hotel eight years earlier, the hard-charging Secret Service man allowed his attention to be diverted for a split second. And the presidential candidate Sean was protecting was gunned down before his eyes.

Now Michelle and Sean are about to see their destinies converge. She has become obsessed with Sean's case. And he needs a friend - especially since a series of macabre killings has brought him under suspicion and prompted the reappearance of a seductive woman he's tried hard to forget.

As the two discredited agents enter a maze of lies, secrets, and deadly coincidences, they uncover a shocking truth: that the separate acts of violence that shattered their lives were really a long time in the making - and are a long way from over....

©2003 Columbus Rose, Ltd. (P)2003 Time Warner AudioBooks

What the critics say

"Baldacci's new thriller is sustained by the pulse-pounding suspense his fans have come to expect." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Split Second

Average Customer Ratings
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Split Second

Great read...I did wonder how he was going to link everything together!
Kept my interest throughout. Always enjoy a Balducci book!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good story, very unusual announcements for chapter

Everything was really good about this book, except unusual, annoying voice announcement for chapters. I enjoyed listening to the stories from this writer. This book was an exception so far.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

great yarn

Back story for King and Maxwell. Read first-- or after you've been hooked by the series.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narration deserves an oscar

Best narration reading. Emotion and excitement throughout. It was such an excellent read, Ive heard it twice

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Narration

Worst narrator I have ever heard. Could not continue. I love Baldacci but the narration ruined the book.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not Baldacci's Best

I had hoped this story would be of the calibre and quality of Mr. Baldacci's Memory Man series. Sadly, I am disappointed. I think one reason might be because there were too many situations in which more than two or three voices were present in dialogue and Mr. Brick, who I think is a great narrator, failed to distinguish clearly between the voices. It confused me. Secondly, the story falls flat and becomes less and less believable as it progresses. And last but not least was the climax. A crazed serial killer who has escaped capture, rigged a massive explosion, set fire to the same building he intends to blow up, then returns to that same building to kill the hero only to be killed himself, defies belief. Add that to a cliff-jumping, high-jumping, track and field heroin, and well… stories have to have some level of believability. And this one isn't. And that's a shame because I like David Baldacci's books. Sadly, not this one.

One last thing unrelated to the story - this audiobook version had a tendency to skip ahead and back. I found that I was on chapter 11 of 18 chapters and suddenly it is over, Somehow the book was finished when I believed there was more to come. When I investigated the additional chapters I seemed I had listened to parts of them but not all. It must be a technical glitch in the file.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Problem with audio track

The story line for the book was excellent; however, there is a major problem with the audio track. The book advertises as an 18 Chapter, 18 hrs and 35 min book; but, it actually ended at Chapter 12 1/2 and only had 11 hrs and 35 mins of play time. Needless to say I was a little disappointed when the book ended.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Faulty -

The story is ridiculous . The sound is faulty at times. I bough t because it was 14 hours long but turned out to be only 7 hours long with much of the book then repeated again after the ending .

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

audio crackling badly in a few places

I like this story so far except for plot holes but the audio is a problem. it's breaking up and garbled in a few places. I've restarted my device but still an issue. tough to spend this amount of money on poor audio.

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