First Family

June 29, 2009
Veteran character actor Ron McLarty brings a strong performance to a rather weak entry in Baldacci's political thriller series featuring ex-Secret Service agents turned private investigators, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell. When the president's niece, 12-year-old Willa, is kidnapped, the first lady brings in King and Maxwell to help find her. Unknown to the PIs, the motive behind the abduction has the potential to shake the presidency to the core. Although the action moves swiftly enough, the plot strains credibility, and it is to McLarty's credit that he manages to impart some reality with excellent character voices and sense of urgency. His reading is exceptional during the scenes between Willa and her kidnapper as he plumbs a depth of character beyond the written words. Strategically placed sound effects enhance the listening experience. A Grand Central hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 30).

First lady Jane Cox summons her old friend, Sean King, and his partner to investigate the murder of her sister-in-law and the kidnapping of her niece. King and partner uncover a bizarre tangle of events that could have disastrous consequences. Ron McLarty is the perfect choice to present Baldacci's latest thriller. His clear, strong voice shifts effortlessly among the story's varying passages of sadness, anger, and irony. His facility with multiple characters of both genders and many ages, races, and regional accents enables the listener easily to keep track of everyone. Music and sound effects, used liberally in the opening sequences, trail off as the story progresses, becoming less frequent and lower in volume with each chapter. Too bad--their use enhances the story. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Starred review from March 30, 2009
Plenty of intense action drives bestseller Baldacci's stellar fourth novel to feature former Secret Service agents Michelle Maxwell and Sean King (after Simple Genius
). Maxwell and King, D.C. PIs, step on the toes of everyone, including the FBI and the Secret Service. They even manage to bruise the ego of First Lady Jane Cox, who hires them after her 12-year-old niece is kidnapped following a birthday party at Camp David. Baldacci excels at making the improbable believable as one obsessed man, 62-year-old Sam Quarry, takes on the best security the U.S. can muster from his Alabama redoubt. Even more impressive than Quarry's determined campaign is the ingeniousness with which Baldacci manages to disguise both Quarry's precise motivation and aims. Meanwhile, Maxwell has to deal with her mother's death and a host of other personal issues. Baldacci's careful plotting and confidant depictions of national security procedures make this a thinking man's thriller.

April 15, 2009
The latest Sean KingMichelle Maxwell thriller is pretty much a guaranteed best-seller. The story begins soon after a young girls birthday party. The girl, who happens to be the First Ladys niece, is abducted from her home, and her mother is murdered. Much to the consternation of the Secret Service and the FBI, the First Lady hires Sean and Michelle (who are former Secret Service agents themselves) to find out whos behind the abduction and discover why the kidnappers apparently siphoned off some of the girls mothers blood and took that with them, too. Sean and Michelle, surely one of the more interesting teams of private investigators (especially since Michelle is now dealing with some very nasty personal demons), are baffled to learn that the girls abduction has connections to an old Alabama plantation and its wealthy but distinctly off-putting and possibly deranged owner. Baldacci has come quite a long way from his early thrillers, such as Absolute Power (1996) andTotal Control (1997). Hes a more subtle writer now, able to tell stories of deep moral ambiguity and to create characters who balance on the line between hero and villain. His whimsy and satire, highly evident in the Camel Club novels, are appropriately scaled back here: this is a more serious novelmore frightening and certainly more shocking. It will be fascinating to watch where he takes these two heroes from here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)