First Family by David Baldacci is the fourth book in the “King and Michele” thriller series. Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, April 2009
It began with what seemed like an ordinary children’s birthday party. Friends and family gathered to celebrate. There were balloons and cake, games and gifts.
This party, however, was far from ordinary. It was held at Camp David, the presidential retreat. And it ended with a daring kidnapping . . . which immediately turned into a national security nightmare.
Sean King and Michelle Maxwell were not looking to become involved. As former Secret Service agents turned private investigators, they had no reason to be. The FBI doesn’t want them interfering. But years ago, Sean King saved the First Lady’s husband, then a senator, from political disaster. Now, Sean is the one person the First Lady trusts, and she presses Sean and Michelle into the desperate search to rescue the abducted child.
With Michelle still battling her own demons, and forces aligned on all sides against her and Sean, the two are pushed to the absolute limit. In the race to save an innocent victim, the line between friend and foe will become impossible to define . . . or defend.
Sean and Michele are former secret service agents who are now partnered as private investigators. Sean is called out to a birthday party by Pam Dutton, sister-in-law of the First Lady. When they arrive on the scene, there is chaos, Pam has been murdered, the husband and two of the kids have been drugged and the oldest daughter has been kidnapped. The First Lady asks the two private eyes to bring back her niece and from that moment, nothing will ever be the same. Meanwhile, Michele is pulled away from this case when she learns that her mother has died and when Michele arrives and sees the scene, she concludes that her mother has been murdered and the chief suspect is her father. This was a thrilling ride in which I could not put this book down. The action was fast paced and the realization that there was more to each action kept me glued to the pages. [5 stars – it was amazing]