Kim's Review : First Family

The main story was rather gripping, engrossing, unravelled well and was generally well put together, but I found the digression into the story of one of the Private Investigators on the case, completely extraneous. It did not explain any behavior relevant to the case, nor did it shed any light on the main plot or add to it. It was just a distraction from start to finish.

In general, I do like Baldacci's writing style, but I wish he had edited out this substory in this particular book, it just slowed the pace down, while the rest of the story was racing. I'm not sure if this story would be of more interest to someone who had read Simple Genius or Split Second, because those are some of Baldacci's books I haven't read yet. But this book still works well as a stand-alone.


At 658 pages, the book is a little unwieldy for reading in bed, but great for travel time reading in a car or a plane.

Plot synopsis is that the 12 year old niece of the First Lady has been kidnapped and everyone the FBI, the Secret Service, Private Investigators hired by the First Lady are racing to find the child, before it is too late.