It’s Thursday, which normally means a Throwback Thursday post here at Hidden Staircase. However, I’ve read (listened to) a bunch of audio books the past few months and am behind on posting reviews about them. So, today I give you a review of a recent audio book I listened to.

King and Maxwell (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell)

By David Baldacci

Rating: 4/5 Stairs

I’ve not read any other books in this series, but I watched King and Maxwell on TNT for it’s first (and only) season. I liked it. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are ex-secret service agents now turned private eyes. I needed an audio book to listen to in the car, and saw this sitting in the library so I picked it up.

This was an interesting story. King and Maxwell take the case of 16-year-old Tyler Wingo. He has just received word that his father Sam was killed in Afghanistan, but Tyler is convinced the Army is lying and hires King and Maxwell to look into it. Things are not as they seem, and pretty soon Sean and Michelle have gotten in too deep and are on the run.

Mr. Baldacci switches between King/Maxwell and Sam Wingo’s perspectives to tell the story. He was good at building suspense throughout. There were a lot of great twists and turns. Sean and Michelle have a great relationship. Good banter between them, and you can also tell that they really care for one another. They make great partners for the different situations that arise.

The audio book was different from others I have listened to. When I first put the disc in, I thought my car was making weird noises. I realized it was in fact sound effects on the audio CD, in this case the rumbling of a diesel engine. The sound effects continued throughout the book, particularly in the fight scenes. I got used to them, but could have done without. The other difference was that there were two voice actors. The primary narrator provided all the male voices, but they had a secondary actor to provide Michelle Maxwell’s voice and any other female voices throughout the book. That took a bit to get used to, but was okay in the end.