Simple Genius

Baldacci, David

ISBN 10: 0230018076 ISBN 13: 9780230018075

Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio, 2007

Synopsis

The new Baldacci reintroduces the main characters from Split Second and Hour Game

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell both bear the scars of their previous case. Michelle s in a psychiatric hospital after making a suicide attempt while Sean, down on his luck and desperately worried about his friend, accepts a PI job at Babbage Town – a hugely secret establishment where, it seems, corpses turn up more quickly than new codes can be encrypted by the genius mathematicians who are employed in the place . . .

With both the FBI and CIA making their presence felt in Babbage Town, Sean begins to wonder what really goes on there, while Michelle’s psychiatrist determines the key to her deep depression lies in events suppressed during her childhood. Michelle uncovers something truly disturbing happening in the hospital pharmacy . . . But there is a place even more sinister close by, Camp Peary, where it is said CIA death squads train . . .

About this title

Review

With a series of ever more accomplished novels, David Baldacci has been building something of a reputation for himself as one of the most reliable practitioners of the modern crime/thriller novel. The emphasis is, of course, usually on Baldacci's métier, the legal arena, and it's clearly the field he is most comfortable in -- as in Simple Genius. His long-term protagonists, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, have found that the aftermath of their last case has stayed with them in an unpleasant way, and Michelle is obliged to undergo therapy. Sean, his financial circumstances straightened, takes on a job. A scientist is dead in a nearby town -- the scene of the (possible) crime is a clandestine research institute peopled by a large cast of neurotic scientists. There are secrets galore to be unearthed here, and just across the river from the institute there is another clandestine institution, the CIA training ground, Camp Peary, where the dead man's body was originally discovered. Sean finds himself at bay, with several government security services on his tail, even as Michelle struggles to regain her mental equilibrium.

As in such page-turning thrillers as Hour Game and Split Second, David Baldacci knows how to keep the reader thoroughly engrossed, and never loses the capacity to surprise us with the revelations that his beleaguered hero and heroine become party to. This is one of the longest Baldacci books, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, and there are lengthy appendices after the novel proper has finished. These may not retrospectively add to the appeal of the book of the reader has just finished, but they show that Baldacci has -- as always -- done his homework. --Barry Forshaw

Review

There's nothing simple about SIMPLE GENIUS, a complicated novel involving murder, geniuses, and the CIA. The story marks the return of former Secret Service Agents Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, now in business for themselves. Scott Brick captures the excitement of this thriller with his unique pacing and style, which are perfect here. Brick even manages to sound somewhat feminine when he needs to be, and his voice for the Southern black gentleman is classic. The beginning of the novel is a story within a story, as Maxwell ends up institutionalized after inexplicably attacking a man in a sleazy bar. Everything comes together in a mysterious settlement for geniuses, where people are being murdered. There's a lot of heart in this work. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/ NOV 07]

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0230018076
• ISBN 13: 9780230018075
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English