I have been a fan of Baldacci's series about former Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell from the very first book (Split Second, 2003). When I heard they were making a t.v. series about the characters my first thought was, "it's going to screw up the books." While this installment isn't awful, it is obvious that Baldacci is playing more to the show's audience than his regular readers especially when it comes to body count, major shootouts, and spectacular explosions. The author even dedicates the book to the makers of the show. The plot is not the problem. It's pretty typical thriller fodder with a soldier set up by the superiors running the top secret mission in Afghanistan that goes wrong. King and Maxwell get involved in the investigation while trying to help the soldier's teenaged son. What they uncover puts them all in danger, in multiple ways. The introduction of King's ex-wife and the reappearance of Edgar Roy (from the previous King/Maxwell novel, The Sixth Man) were nice touches. As a whole, however, this one was a bit disappointing.
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