Read every series in the right order
King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order – Complete Reading Guide
Table of Contents
Quick Answer (TL;DR)
Read King & Maxwell in publication order (it also matches the internal chronology):
- Split Second → 2) Hour Game → 3) Simple Genius → 4) First Family → 5) The Sixth Man → 6) King and Maxwell. This sequence is the official list from the author’s site and standard references, and it preserves the character arcs, agency politics, and long-running threads exactly as intended.
Introduction
If you’re hunting for King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order because you want to binge without spoilers or confusion, you’re in the right place. David Baldacci’s six-book series puts two former Secret Service agents—Sean King and Michelle Maxwell—into cases where politics, power, and personal mistakes collide. What sets the series apart isn’t just the pace. It’s the way a single bad moment reshapes two careers, then becomes the fuse for everything that follows: a partnership, a PI practice, and a steady march from “case of the week” to national stakes.
This guide keeps things practical: you’ll get a Quick Facts table, a clean “Books at a Glance” table with Amazon buy links (affiliate-ready), a spoiler-safe chronological order with detailed blurbs, a compact series timeline, and clear publication vs. in-universe lists. Whether you’re a Baldacci completionist or simply deciding what to pick up tonight, the King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order below will keep your momentum high and your reading plan simple.
Quick Facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Series | King & Maxwell by David Baldacci (6 novels) |
| Core Genres | Crime thriller, political conspiracy, private investigator |
| Typical Length | ~420–520 pages per novel (varies by edition); many printings in the 430–480pp band; Split Second large-print HC listed at 544pp on some retailer records. |
| Estimated Read Time | ~8.5–10 hours/book at 250 wpm; ~55–60 hours for the full series (format dependent) |
| Reading Difficulty | Mainstream/accessible; short chapters, propulsive pacing |
| Content Notes | Gun violence and murder investigations; abduction; political corruption; government/military themes |
| Ideal Age Range | Adults & mature teens comfortable with thriller violence |
| Media Adaptations | TNT’s King & Maxwell (2013), 1 season (10 episodes), created by Shane Brennan, starring Jon Tenney & Rebecca Romijn; canceled Sept. 20, 2013. |
Note on pages: publishers issue multiple formats (hardcover, trade, mass market, large-print), so page counts vary. Treat the ranges above as practical estimates for planning your binge.
About the King & Maxwell Book Series
The premise is devastatingly simple: two Secret Service agents fail in high-stakes moments. Sean King’s protectee is assassinated; years later, Michelle Maxwell’s candidate vanishes under her watch. Those split seconds destroy careers—and create partners. As King and Maxwell team up as private investigators, their cases revisit the same corridors of power that judged them, and the duo steadily uncover how those early “mistakes” weren’t isolated chaos but threads in larger fabrics.
Baldacci’s design yields a series that rewards order. There’s a natural escalation—from private PI work to national matters, from interpersonal healing to institutional reckonings. Reading the King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order aligns those layers so character beats, recurring allies, and antagonists hit just when they’re meant to.
King & Maxwell Books at a Glance
| # | Title (Year) | Amazon Buy Link |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Split Second (2003) | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 | Hour Game (2004) | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 | Simple Genius (2007) | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 | First Family (2009) | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 | The Sixth Man (2011) | Buy on Amazon |
| 6 | King and Maxwell (2013) | Buy on Amazon |
Order confirmed via the official series page and standard references.
King & Maxwell Chronological Reading Order
Good news: King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order are the same as publication order. The blurbs below are designed to minimize spoilers while highlighting what each entry adds to the long arc.
1) Split Second (Book 1)
Two careers crack in two different years—and then intersect. King still lives under the shadow of the assassination he failed to prevent; Maxwell is the “new” cautionary tale. Their parallel disgraces draw them together when a present-day case hints that those past tragedies were not random. This opener frames the series’ core question: can you ever move on from the worst moment of your professional life, especially if it wasn’t an accident? Official synopses emphasize how their separate disasters were “long in the making—and a long way from over,” which is exactly how the series keeps its engine humming.
What it sets up: the partnership dynamic (competence layered over scar tissue), the Washington–Virginia power corridor, and the “no such thing as coincidence” rule that returns later with teeth.
2) Hour Game (Book 2)
What begins as a burglary case for a wealthy family twists into a serial-killer puzzle with a signature gimmick: someone is mimicking the styles of infamous murderers. The procedural gears spin faster, FBI friction increases, and King-and-Maxwell team rhythms solidify under pressure. This is where you see the pair as investigators first and ex-agents second—comfortable with field work, evidence runs, and the grim math that follow-ups sometimes multiply bodies. Standard references mark this as a #1 bestseller and a fan favorite for its “closer you get, the more you risk” tempo.
What it adds: pattern analysis as a recurring skill set; a bigger federal presence; the confidence that the duo can carry a sprawling case without the Secret Service badge.
3) Simple Genius (Book 3)
A murder near a clandestine CIA training facility pulls the pair into a shadow world of cryptography, intelligence assets, and a young autistic savant whose gifts may unlock the case—or paint a target on her back. The tone tilts toward spy-adjacent mystery; Michelle’s private battles surface more plainly, and the emotional stakes widen. If the first two novels are about competence under fire, this one is about fragility within competence: what happens when the case is hard and the people are harder? The book is regularly listed as the third entry across publisher and fan catalogs.
What it adds: deeper character interiority (especially Michelle), a first real taste of “national consequence,” and a blueprint for mixing PI work with intel community secrets.
4) First Family (Book 4)
A child is kidnapped from a party at Camp David. It’s not a case the team wants—but the First Lady personally leans on Sean King, who once saved her husband’s career. The mix of private-investigator hustle and East-Wing access gives the novel a whiplash quality: one minute you’re tracking a suspect, the next you’re navigating the politics of the presidency. Thematically, First Family asks if you can ever be “off duty” once you’ve worn the pin. As with the prior titles, standard lists confirm its place as the fourth in sequence.
What it adds: the highest-level stakes so far; a hard look at loyalty, favors, and what the powerful expect when they call in chips.
5) The Sixth Man (Book 5)
Accused serial killer Edgar Roy awaits trial. King & Maxwell step in to assist the defense—only to have their mentor murdered and the case explode into a collision with the “darkest corners of power.” This is the series entry most explicitly tied to the TNT adaptation that borrowed its DNA and title. It broadens the conspiracy canvas and places the duo on a path that feels less like PI work and more like trench warfare against hidden hands. Many publisher/retailer blurbs echo the same setup: “Is Roy a killer? Who murdered Bergin? How deep does it go?”—and then answer with escalating ambushes.
What it adds: a statement about how far the series can scale; a textbook example of the “what if the system itself is the suspect?” question.
6) King and Maxwell (Book 6)
A teenager is told that his father died in Afghanistan—then receives a message from him after the supposed death. The pair take the case and hit walls put up by people who do very complicated jobs in very opaque places. The investigation turns into a running fight that climbs the ladder of secrecy and asks if truth even survives at altitude. As the capstone novel (and the most recent), it becomes the series’ namesake, and standard references list it as #6, released in 2013.
What it adds/caps: a humane core (protecting a kid) fused to the series’ biggest questions about war, intel, and honesty; a natural “season finale” that still leaves room to return.
Series Timeline & Character Development
The order matters because each book advances who these people are—not just what they solve.
- Sean King: From guilt-ridden former agent to PI who can walk into any room and read both the politics and the geometry. Early on, he’s the steadier hand; later, he’s also the one who understands how many institutions don’t tell the whole truth.
- Michelle Maxwell: A live wire whose instincts are both her gift and hazard. Simple Genius and First Family deepen her interior arc; her vulnerabilities become strengths when she learns where to place trust.
- Partners, not sidekicks: Hour by hour, their partnership shifts from convenience to necessity. By The Sixth Man and King and Maxwell, they’re less “agents who fell” and more “investigators who rose,” operating at a level that feels—intentionally—bigger than any license on a wall.
- The world around them: The canvas expands from local crimes to the federal spine: Secret Service history, FBI friction, CIA shadows, White House dilemmas, defense/intel contractors, and black-budget rumors. That escalation is why King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order is the safest, strongest way to read them.
Novels sorted in order of in-universe events
- Split Second
- Hour Game
- Simple Genius
- First Family
- The Sixth Man
- King and Maxwell
The internal chronology tracks publication order across the series, per the official list and widely used references.
Novels sorted in order of publication
- Split Second (2003)
- Hour Game (2004)
- Simple Genius (2007)
- First Family (2009)
- The Sixth Man (2011)
- King and Maxwell (2013)
Companion Works
There are no canonical King & Maxwell novellas or prequels that alter the six-book arc. The primary “extra” is the 2013 TNT television series King & Maxwell, which drew on the characters and especially on The Sixth Man for tone and setup (see Media Adaptations). If Baldacci publishes new King & Maxwell material, slot it after its release year while keeping the six core novels in place.
Editions & Formats (hardcover, collector, audio)
- Formats: Hardcover, trade paperback, mass-market paperback, Kindle, and audiobook across all six books; large-print editions exist for selected titles.
- Collector Tips:
- Match imprints (Warner/Grand Central) for a uniform shelf.
- Look for first-printing number lines and crisp dust jackets on hardcovers.
- TV-tie-in stickers sometimes appear on The Sixth Man era printings and retailer pages near 2013.
- Audiobooks: All main entries are available unabridged; narrators capture Baldacci’s short-chapter velocity well (publisher catalogs and retailer pages confirm).
Why Read King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order?
- Continuity of consequences: What happens to King and Maxwell in the early books is why they can (and must) do what they do in the later ones.
- Escalation that feels earned: From neighborhood woods (Hour Game) to Camp David (First Family) to deep-state corridors (The Sixth Man; King and Maxwell), the scope ramps cleanly.
- Adaptation synergy: If you sample the TNT show, you’ll want the novels in sequence so the strings the show tugs on make maximum sense.
Short version: stick to King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order as published, and the emotional beats and big swings will land where they should.
Author Spotlight: David Baldacci
David Baldacci has published 50+ novels for adults, translated into 45+ languages, with sales in 80+ countries and more than 150 million copies worldwide. His debut, Absolute Power (1996), became a major film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Beyond the page, he and his wife founded the Wish You Well Foundation, which supports literacy programs across the United States. Baldacci’s author site and series pages remain the best canonical reference for series order, including King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order.
Baldacci’s signature is velocity with conscience: brisk chapters, relentless stakes, and protagonists who learn that “procedure” isn’t always the same as “justice.” King and Maxwell embody that evolution—from disgraced agents to the kind of investigators power would prefer to avoid.
Media Adaptations (films, TV, radio)
- Television: King & Maxwell (TNT, 2013) — 10 episodes, created by Shane Brennan, starring Jon Tenney and Rebecca Romijn as Sean and Michelle. The series ran June 10 – August 12, 2013, then was canceled on Sept. 20, 2013. Background reporting and network announcements confirm that the series drew from Baldacci’s novels, with The Sixth Man providing thematic fuel.
There are no feature film adaptations of the King & Maxwell books as of October 2025. If that changes, we’ll add the details here, with where to watch.
FAQs
Do I need to read King & Maxwell in order?
Yes. Publication order = story order, and it preserves character growth and long-running threads.
Is there a “best” single starting point?
Start at the start—Split Second—because both protagonists’ backstories are the series’ foundation. Everything after points back to that crack in their careers.
Is The Sixth Man tied to the TV show?
The TNT series drew from the novels (especially The Sixth Man) and character setup; it ran one season in 2013.
How gritty are the books?
Mainstream thriller level: gun violence, abductions, political conspiracies, and sustained peril—but not splatter. If you’re okay with Baldacci’s other series (e.g., Will Robie, Amos Decker), you’ll be fine here.
Any novellas or crossovers I should know about?
No canonical novellas that change sequence. If Baldacci adds a short, place it after its publication year and keep the six-book spine intact.
Audiobook or print?
Whichever you’ll finish. The short-chapter structure flies in audio; print is great for weekend marathons.
Final Thoughts
If you arrived looking for King & Maxwell Books in Chronological Order, the answer is elegantly simple: read in publication order. That one choice makes the partnership beats sharper, the political stakes cleaner, and the final novels feel earned rather than inflated. Start with Split Second, then let Hour Game, Simple Genius, and First Family broaden the map before The Sixth Man and King and Maxwell push the series into its biggest questions—about power, truth, and whether two “washed-up” agents can actually become the most dangerous investigators in the room.
When you’re ready, grab the first two, add the rest to your cart, and build yourself a six-book sprint that hits like a great limited series—with better plotting and no waiting between episodes.
