Hour Game

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Whoops – it's been two and a half years since I read the first volume in the series – I really meant to get back to it sooner. Oh well, better late than etc., etc. I don't have much to say about this, but I have a few thoughts.

This picks up a few months after Split Second, the partnership between King and Maxwell has solidified, they've had some success and have settled into their lives. They're doing some work for a local attorney assisting him defend an accused burglar, when they're asked to help the local police investigate a murder that resembles a famous serial killer. Soon afterwards, other bodies show up – each following a different serial killer's M. O. to keep the authorities guessing.

Soon, King and Maxwell are officially involved – as are the national media and the FBI. Naturally, the two cases intertwine – as does another mystery.

The mysteries were pretty easy to guess, but how Baldacci resolved them wasn't – which was nice. The character moments were okay, actually – the characters were the best part of this book, not just our leads, but pretty much everyone who wasn't killed within a page or two of being introduced.

Will you hold it against me if I admit it wasn't until as I was writing this that I figured out what the title referred to? I really hadn't thought about it, but I really shouldn't have had to.

I liked this more than the last Scott Brick audiobook I listened to – which wasn't bad. His accent work was good (have heard him do better), and he made the characters come to life – even giving a couple of characters I could live without enough of a hook that I probably liked them more in audio than I would've if I read it.

Hour Game was well constructed, well paced, and kept me engaged and entertained – an improvement over the first one, too. Can't ask for much more than that.