Douglas E. Richards really knows how to write thrilling science fiction books. I think this is about the 6th book of his that I have read and every one has been outstanding. There was only one that I didn’t care for and that was “The Cure”. Otherwise, you really need to read this authors works.
In this particular book, we’ve got some really, really smart people running around killing people that aren’t quite so smart. It starts off with a Physicist/Mathematician, Nathan, and his Geneticist girl friend, Jenna, getting kidnapped from their home for no apparent reason. That wasn’t necessarily the bad part. A short time later, Jenna, witnesses her boyfriend getting his head blown off! Interested now?
There is a lot of action in this book to say the least. You’ll eventually meet a Private Investigator named Aaron Blake who is more than he appears, much more. He teams up with Jenna to find out just who killed her boyfriend and why. Their investigation isn’t just something to do because she wants it done, but because the same people are now trying to kill Jenna. The investigation itself turns out to be the simplest part of this book. Eventually you’ll be digging deeper into what Nathan just discovered and was about to tell Jenna.
Nathan never did tell Jena what he had discovered, but that probably saved her life, initially. She might not have understood a thing he said, but since she has such a good scientific mind herself, she would have been valuable to both parties trying to find out Nathan’s secret. And, yes, there are two different factions attempting to find out what Nathan had just discovered. Oh, and I told you Nathan got killed early in the book, well Jenna gets killed later in the story and so does Aaron Blake. Well, they did but didn’t!
Actually, everyone was trying to make sure no one else would ever know what Nathan had stumbled upon. His mathematical theory proved something that many others had been trying to validate and allowed just a little more time to what had been a very, very short possibility. I know that last sentence sounds real confusing, but after reading this book you’ll understand. It’s an exciting book. I read about a fourth of the book each night and was having trouble putting it down. I think one of the reasons I like Mr. Richard’s writing is that he can make some really difficult scientific stuff sound understandable for the lay person. Oh, and this book talks about Star Trek and other science fiction books like these people really were alive watching TV at some point in their lives. If you’re a Star Trek fan, you’ll find out something that I didn’t even know and I’m sure most of you didn’t either.
So, definitely read the book. The title, “Split Second” actually involves 45-microseconds. Now try to imagine what you could do in 45-microseconds. You sure can’t read this book in that short of time. But just what else could you do with 45-microseconds? You’ll be surprised.