Hour Game
 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | David Baldacci |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | The second book in the King and Maxwell (book series) |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | Warner Books |
Publication date | October 26, 2004 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 736 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0446577106 |
| Preceded by | Split Second |
| Followed by | Simple Genius |
Hour Game is a crime fiction novel written by American writer David Baldacci. This is the second installment in the King and Maxwell book series. The book was published on October 26, 2004, by Warner Books.[1][2]
Plot
A serial killer with a sense of history is the baddie in this latest from Baldacci, one of the reigning kings of potboilers (Split Second, 2003, etc.).He kills, he leaves clues, he flatters through imitation: Son of Sam, the San Francisco Zodiac killer, Richard Ramirez, John Wayne Gracy, and so on down a sanguinary list of accredited members of the Monsters’ Hall of Fame. Suddenly, the landscape of poor little Wrightsburg, Virginia, is littered with corpses, and ex-Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell have their hands full. That’s because bewildered, beleaguered Chief of Police Todd Williams has turned to the newly minted private investigating firm of King and Maxwell for desperately needed (unofficial) help. Even these ratiocinative wizards, however, admit to puzzlement. “But I'm not getting this,” says Michelle. “Why commit murders in similar styles to past killers as a copycat would and then write letters making it clear you’re not them?” Excellent question, and it goes pretty much unanswered. Never mind—enter the battling Battles, a family with the requisite number of sins and secrets to qualify fully as hot southern Gothic and to prop up a plot in need. Bobby Battles, the patriarch, is bedridden, but Remmy, his wife, is one lively mischief-making steel magnolia. She’s brought breaking-and-entering charges against decent local handyman Junior Deaver, who as a result languishes in the county jail. Convinced of his innocence, Junior’s lawyer hires King & Maxwell to sniff around for exculpatory evidence. Well, will the two plot streams flow together? You betcha. Will the copycat-serial-killer at one point decide that King and Maxwell are just too clever to live? Inevitably. And when at last that CCSK’s identity is revealed and his crimes explained (talkily and tediously), will readers be satisfied? Only the charitable among them.
Reception
Baldacci's last book, Split Second , was a relatively weak offering from this bestselling author, sunk by a cartoonish villain and absurd plot. But it did introduce two of Baldacci's (Absolute Power , etc.) most memorable characters, former Secret Service agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, in business together as private investigators in smalltown Wrightsburg, Va. Baldacci is back in form, and King and Maxwell reappear in this utterly absorbing, complex mystery-thriller that spins in unexpected directions.
—Review by Publishers Weekly[4]
References
- ↑ "Hour Game by David Baldacci". amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "Hour Game (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell #2) by David Baldacci". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "Hour Game by David Baldacci". kirkusreviews.com. May 20, 2010. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "Hour Game by David Baldacci". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.