Pre Group Read Discussion

Where did we leave the series off at the end of Book 1, Split Second?

I better read that last chapter because I don't remember too much. I think there was a fire at Sean's house?

I'm glad that I'm not the only one that is struggling to remember Jen!

Where's Carol when we need her?

>4 EadieB: Here I am.

Split Second – Book # 1 in the King and Maxwell series

Michelle Maxwell has just wrecked her promising career at the Secret Service.

She let a presidential candidate out of her sight for the briefest moment and the man whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air.

Sean King knows how Michelle feels. Eight years earlier King was also a Secret Service agent.

He also lost a candidate he was guarding by allowing his attention to be diverted for a split second. As a result the candidate he was protecting was gunned down.

Now a lawyer, King has organized his life to forget his past, but when he finds a colleague murdered in his office building…it all comes rush

We soon meet Joan Dillinger…a former coworker and lover who seems to have an agenda all her own and wants it to involve Sean.

Meanwhile Sean and Michelle start to suspect that their candidates' fates are connected and begin to investigate any ties the two may have to each other.

It doesn't help that the police are on King's case, especially when yet another body turns up, this time in King's house.

King and Maxwell turn their focus to Arnold Ramsey, the man who assassinated King's candidate, but it remains unclear if he was working alone. It just seems that the shooter will strike again…they just don’t know where.

Sean King suffers a personal attack when his house is set on fire…but that is not going to stop our Sean.

In a nutshell David Baldacci managed to take three seemingly unrelated events and weave them into a spell binding mystery.

The characters of Michelle Maxwell and Sean King are extremely likable and convincing. They reluctantly make a great pair of detectives with just a hint of romantic interest.

Split Second was the 79th book discussed on the Mystery & Suspense group on Shelfari. I don’t have any other stats concerning participants or ratings.

Thanks Carol, never needed more than on this one. 👏😀

Although to be fair if we did it on Shelfari it is a long while since we read the first one. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

As usual a brilliant summary that brought things back.

>6 Andrew-theQM: When you consider that it was the 79th one we had done...it has been awhile. I wish I had started keeping the stats sooner but who would have thought those sites would go away? I'm keeping the dates that we discussed them now and I think I'll start putting the number of participants and the ratings also on the Books We've Discussed topic thread.

Thanks Carol. That's the problem with this one, we aren't able to go back and review the previous Group Read. The author is doing a reasonably good summary in introducing the characters again. Currently on chapter 6.

>8 Andrew-theQM: I have found that most of Baldacci's books can be ROO because he always goes back and mentions the events in the previous one.

>9 Carol420: As any good author should, each book should be able to stand on it's own.

I leave for Charlotesville Virginia tomorrow to pick up my daughter and granddaughter. Then on Friday we are going to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia. Saturday we are going to tour colonial Williamsburg and have dinner at the Kings Arm Restaurant for my husband's birthday. Time for more peanut soup. We will be home again on Sunday night. Last time we read Maxwell and King in October 2015 we went to Charlottesville Virginia too.

>11 EadieB: That sounds absolutely wonderful, Eadie. Watch out for the ghost in Williamsburg. There have been reports of the battlefields and some of the historic buildings being haunted by soldiers from both sides. Some they say are still fighting. If you run into Sean King...give him a kiss for me:)

>11 EadieB: That's a strange coincidence! Was it really as long ago as October that we read the first one!

Have a a great time!

>13 Andrew-theQM: I don't have the exact date because I never thought that our sites would close down and kick us out but it was probably as late as August since it was read on Shelfari and we were on Leafmarks for about 6 months or so. How do you think it would work if I started a new topic when we're done with the book and included all the stats?

If you're are willing to put the time into this Carol, I'm sure it would be a great help to people. Thanks. How time passes! It's now about 20 months since we started to do group reads in this way! That must be about 60 books we've used this format on - on three different sites!

It will be simpler to have it in one place. I have to go back and hunt it up to post it when I do the past book synopsis. I wish I had thought to do it from the very start. Oh well...you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

The Hour Game is book #92 that has been discussed since the discussions began on the Mystery Suspense group. A lot of that was done in an entirely different format when Jonetta was doing the discussions. I believe we started doing this format with Black House which would make this on the 22nd one that we have done in this format and over 3 different sites. Take into account also that on the Mystery & Suspense Plus/Extra we had done 39 all in this format ending with The Templar Legacy the last one on Leafmarks.

What info would be useful for the status topic? I usually list #of participants, how many different ratings and the date we started reading it. I can include the date we ended also and maybe a coupe of ending comments about how we liked the book?? I have to get it right the first time since LT won't let me delete it. I'll start in a word document and copy and paste.

Yes, it was the beginning of October 2015 when we read Split Second. I checked my list of books read and my review was from October 3, 2015.

>16 Carol420: I think your summary on the Mystery and Suspense covers everything and is excellent. 😊
That's a lot of reading!

>17 EadieB: Eadie, it was a Mystery and Suspense Group Read which was voted on for a Group Read (possibly think Carol nominated it). We usually do these at the end of the month, so I assume we read it at the end of September which would fit with your review of 3rd October. Can't believe it is almost a year since we read this. Tempus Fugit!

Yes, your right it probably was the end of September 2015 read.