First Family by David Baldacci

From the author's website: 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 kidnapped child.

With Michelle still battling her own demons, and forces aligned on all sides against them, 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.

This was my first David Baldacci and it was great. The story was compelling, the characters were likable, and the narration was excellent. I was just amazed at how the narrator was able to define each character with his voice - there were so many and they were all different. The characters ranged from sophisticated political players to backwoods hillbillies and the narrator brought them each to life with a feeling of truth. I am brainwashed by the media because I could not picture the first lady character, Jane Cox, as anybody but Michelle Obama! But unfortunately for her, the president didn't come up in my imagination as Barack but instead as Dan Quayle - probably because his name was Dan Cox. I did have an idea of how it was all going to play out a little earlier than I would have liked but there were so many layers of the plot that it didn't spoil it for me. When I first started listening and it switched back and forth between the East Coast setting and the rural Alabama setting, I didn't see how they would ever become entwined and really, I wanted the book to just stay in Washington with all the interesting behind the scenes stuff about the Secret Service and the presidential office. But eventually the story came together and I was hooked.

I've finished up the audio book challenge but I think I'll keep adding the extras as I finish them.