David Baldacci's much-loved protagonists Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are having trouble adjusting to life in the wake of the terrible events that drove them to the brink in HOUR GAME. Dogged by hidden demons from her past, then almost killed in a barroom brawl, Michelle agrees to try therapy at a mental-health facility, where she simultaneously busts a criminal drug-dealing ring! Meanwhile, to right their shared career in the private security sector, Sean accepts an offer to investigate a mysterious death at a scientific think tank called Babbage Town, located suspiciously close to the CIA's infamous yet covert training camp--"The Farm". In Babbage Town, the security is tight as the world's scientific geniuses race to invent technologies powerful enough to conquer the most sophisticated microprocessor. Michelle soon joins Sean, and before long both find themselves pawns in a terrifying game whose elusive players cite threats to national security as justification for their most heinous crimes.
Former FBI agents turned private investigators Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are back for another round of intrigue and near death misses in David Baldacci's "Simple Genius". After moving back to Washington DC work is hard to come by and money is tight. When Michelle goes out of her way to cause a bar fight that lands her in a psych ward, Sean is forced to go to former lover and vice president of a big PI firm, Joan Dillinger, to try and get some work so there is money to pay for Michelle's stay at the facility.
Joan begrudgingly gives Sean an assignment investigating the apparent suicide of scientist and mathematical genius Monk Turning at CIA run Camp Peary, more commonly known as "The Farm". Turning worked across the river from Camp Peary at a facility called Babbage Town, where highly skilled teams are working on secret projects that could make or break the United States. No one at Babbage Town has any idea why Monk would have gone across the river and trespassed on CIA property to end his life (if it was suicide), or at least no one is saying admitting anything.
When another death involving a Babbage Town employee occurs under mysterious circumstances, Sean has all the more reason to wonder what really happened to Monk Turning and what is really going on both at Camp Peary and with the scientists at Babbage Town. Sean could really use the help of his partner, but Michelle is still being treated for her psychological problems by Sean's frient, psychiatrist Horatio Barnes.
Can Sean learn the truth behind the iron curtain of secrecy in Virginia? Can Michelle deal with her own personal demons and get better, or will she shove them under the rug and make her way to Sean's side to help him investigate Babbage Town and Camp Peary? When Turning's daughter gets caught in the fray, the case keeps taking one more unforseen turn after another at an alarming pace.
This wasn't my favorite Sean King/Michelle Maxwell story, but "Simple Genius" does give the reader the opportunity to learn more about what makes Michelle tick and just how far she and Sean will go to save the lives of strangers, and each other.
David Baldacci's Simple Genius is my kind of book. It has action, it holds your interest, and the author keeps you on your toes with several major plot twists. You really don't know until the end, who the good guys and the bad guys are. His third book with King and Maxwell continues to develop these two characters and leaves you wanting to see them again. (Please don't pick up the third book in a series and complain about character development without reading the earlier books, which by the way, are also top notch.) Excellent use of secret codes and introducing Quantum computers and their potential abuse. I haven't found a Baldacci book yet that I didn't enjoy.
This is the first book of David Baldacci's I have read. It has been mostly on planes and in airports, but it is a great travel book! It is fun, easy to pick up and put down, but I wasn't very interested in putting it down. It was really fun. I will certainly read more of his work! Good book to add to your "beach reading" for the summer.
