He also supports and runs a family charity, the Wish You Well Foundation, supporting adult literacy by helping support programs that promote literacy and education. Today he lives in North Virginia with his wife and their two children and two dogs. He sat down and wrote his first novel Absolute Power, which was published in 1996. It was then that he decided to try his hand at novels. While living in Alexandria, Baldacci continued to write, penning short stories and screenplays, without much success. He then went to Washington, D.C., where he practiced trial and corporate law for nine years. He then graduated from the University of Virginia with a law degree.

He later attended college at Virginia Commonwealth University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He would write stories as a child but later went into law, graduating from Henrico High School. David Baldacci was born and grew up in Richmond, Virginia in 1960. He is also a contributing editor for Parade Magazine. In addition to being a bestseller, Baldacci entered into the International Crime Writing Hall of Fame in 2011. Baldacci’s novels deal with scandals and compromising situations, cover ups and pursuits, romance and the search for the truth. His books have been translated into over forty-five languages and his books are sold worldwide in eighty-eight countries. He has sold over a 100 million copies worldwide in print of his novels and over 3 million ebooks. Baldacci will be better crafted, but I'll be very reluctant to gamble with my time and money on his books again.David Baldacci is a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and popular writer of twenty-six novels as well as three children’s books. Antebellum slave plantations in the northeast Alabama hill country? A woman attends her murdered mother's funeral and immediately returns to work with her smart mouthed sidekick who routinely chews out the First Lady without repercussions? And how can an electric generator be battery powered? It appears that this book was written so fast to fill an annual quota that no consideration was given to plausibility or literacy, but relied heavily on readers' gullibility and fan loyalty. Baldacci falls flat as he describes places, people, and things that he is obviously unfamiliar with. However, this commercialized effort by Mr. I appreciate any book whose author writes about what he knows or at least has researched well enough to be convincing. Throughout this listen, I had the impression that this book was rushed to publication without distillation, reflection or consideration of purpose. Improbable, hurried writing, poorly researched.

First Family by David Baldacci