First Family (King and Maxwell, #4)

by David Baldacci

When she turned the page and her gaze flickered over the date on top it was as though the lightning outside had somehow grounded right into her. A billion volts of pain, a shriek of anguish you could actually see, and feel, as it pierced her.

Camp David, USA. A birthday party turns into a nightmare when a child is snatched after the celebrations.

The First Lady enlists the services of Sean King and Michelle Maxwell to bring the child home safely. But she and King share a past. Years ago he saved her then senator husband from political disaster. And this may not be all that passed between them.

With Michelle still battling her own demons, the two are pushed to the limit, with forces aligned on all sides against them - and the line between friend and foe impossible to define . . . or defend.

• ISBN10: 044654695X
• ISBN13: 9780446546959
• Publish Date: 21 April 2009 (first published 1 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Grand Central Publishing
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 736
• Language: English

Reviews

[Berls]

4.5 stars
I continue to really enjoy this series - it may be replacing Will Robie as my favorite David Bladacci series with this book! First Family was unexpected in a lot of ways and left me eager for more.

The primary mystery of this book revolved around the kidnapping of the first lady's eldest niece. We actually get the point of view of the kidnapper, so the question isn't who did it (although Sean and Michelle are working to solve that mystery) but for us the question is why. And I was stumped until pretty much the reveal. It also really had me confused on who exactly I was rooting for and left me with conflicted feelings about one character (although not on the bad guys... which who that is was a bit more complex than initially appeared).

Secondarily, Michelle's past is catching up to her along with a mystery to solve with a family tragedy that occurs in the middle of the investigation. I was hoping she would face this past sooner than later and I was really happy with how it was handled. I was even happier with how moving forward finally seems to have opened space for the relationship between Michelle and Sean to grow from friendship and partners to a romantic one. We'll have to see how that develops in future books, but I'm excited!

I listened to First Family, narrated by Ron McLarty. His narration and delivery of voices works really well for me. He does solid female voices, which isn't always the case with male narrators. And I've found that all David Baldacci's audio books have a really great sound production in general (at least all I've read so far), so I always enjoy listening to them at my normal 2x speed.

[wyvernfriend]

Occasionally twists a bit too much.

[ibeforem]

Even though this is part of a series, it works pretty well as a stand-alone novel. In fact, I didn’t even realize until I started preparing for this review that I haven’t yet read the book before it, Simple Genius. I like Sean and Michelle, friends and partners who are still trying to figure out their boundaries and what exactly they are to each other. The storyline here is one that isn’t easy to figure out on your own. I had a couple of things figured out, but the whole picture was elusive until the end. I think Baldacci does a good job of playing with the reader’s emotions… At first, I felt for the First Lady, who appears to be the long suffering wife of a Clinton-esque husband, forever cleaning up his messes. At the end, my feelings about her did a 180. In many ways, she was worse than the kidnapper. Also, Michelle comes to terms with some of her own demons, and now maybe it’s time for her to really heal. All in all, another winner from Baldacci!