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A review by jacki_f
First Family by David Baldacci
2.0
It's Baldacci, so you don't pick it up expecting great literature, but you're hoping at least for a fast-paced page turner. And it starts well. The niece of the President of the US is kidnapped after celebrating her 12th birthday at Camp David. It quickly becomes apparent that the kidnappers are motivated by something other than money and that the First Lady is somehow central to what's happening. She enlists Sean King and Michelle Maxwell to assist the FBI in their investigations. I admit it, I was intrigued.
But the book goes quickly downhill from there. There are two main plotlines. The kidnap (a fairly simple plot so extreeemely stretched out) and the suspicious death of Michelle's mother (which adds nothing to the story). I kept feeling that there was a decent 300 page thriller hiding inside the 600+ pages of bloat, but it was well concealed. Far too much talking and not enough action. The same conversations, over and over. By the (totally absurd) ending, I was well and truly over it.
I have not read Simple Genius, which is the first Baldacci book that features Sean and Michelle. According to my husband, I would have liked First Family more if I had.
But the book goes quickly downhill from there. There are two main plotlines. The kidnap (a fairly simple plot so extreeemely stretched out) and the suspicious death of Michelle's mother (which adds nothing to the story). I kept feeling that there was a decent 300 page thriller hiding inside the 600+ pages of bloat, but it was well concealed. Far too much talking and not enough action. The same conversations, over and over. By the (totally absurd) ending, I was well and truly over it.
I have not read Simple Genius, which is the first Baldacci book that features Sean and Michelle. According to my husband, I would have liked First Family more if I had.