Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10498 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-19
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Synopsis
Oliver Stone and the Camel Club are back in their most dangerous adventure yet a war on two fronts. Casino king Jerry Bagger from The Collectors is hunting Annabelle Conroy, the beautiful woman who conned him out of millions. Stone and his colleagues Reuben, Milton, and Caleb marshal all their resources to protect Annabelle. Yet all their skills may not be enough when a deadly new opponent rips off the veneer of Stone's own mysterious past: Bagger's menace pales next to newcomer Harry Finn's lethality. Passing as a normal family man, Finn has already killed three men, with more targets to come. When Finn sets his bull's-eye on Stone, his reason will be the greatest shock of all, causing readers to reconsider their views of good and evil. As bodies and institutions topple, the story rockets toward a shattering finale that will leave the survivors of this explosive tale changed forever.

Customer Reviews

No longer at his earlier heights?
I have read of lot of Baldacci, including one prior Camel Club effort. I have rated most of them highly, but I can't help feel that there's been a slide in quality. (I did not read the prequel to this one, however, so it may have lost some of its intended impact on me). Judging by other positive reviews, however, I am not going to bring the average rating down too much here with this somewhat negative review.

There are two sub-plots, one a conspiracy involving the past of one of the Camel Club members, and another involving the aftermath of a con-job executed by a Camel Club friend. They are unrelated, so I suspect both were there to make sure Baldacci could produce 400 pages - neither would have satisfied that test on its own.

It is an easy read without a great deal of real depth - but it has short, punchy chapters, some twists, and a lot of action to produce a good ride. But there are holes in the sub-plots, inaccuracies (which Baldacci admits to, to be fair) and a lot of coincidences to keep the plots moving. And there are bad guys at the highest levels of government, as usual, in an attempt to sustain interest. The writing is nothing special and there is little characterisation, although readers will have established favourites from the prequels.

In view of a couple of things that happen, the Camel Club will be different if Baldacci keeps it live. To me, however, the theme is wearing thin and Baldacci is struggling to come up with new ideas to keep the members actively engaged.

Here, I would say, he has just used too much licence to create his story and I suspect he will do more of the same next time. I would feel a lot better if Baldacci started with a new sheet to allow him to get back where he once was (then again, just prior to reading this book, I had finished a far-fetched Andrew Gross novel, and perhaps two of similar ilk, in a row, is one too many!). 7/10

STONE COLD is a continuation from DAVID BALDACCI'S earlier works
STONE COLD is a continuation from DAVID BALDACCI'S earlier works The Collectors and The Camel Club which are both worth reading. As for STONE COLD, the speed of this thriller is incredible as both subplots move out at an extraordinary pace yet the key players seem fully developed and plausible especially Harry and the CAMEL CLUB members. Both Oliver and Annabelle recognize the problems they respectively face as each knows they are in trouble, but in some ways welcome the confrontation. Underlying this strong thriller is a caution that government secrets are rarely security issues, but more likely the hiding of embarrassments usually caused by a lack of adequate checks and balances on arrogant imperial power!!! I would also recommend, if you missed reading TINO GEORGIOU'S masterpiece--THE FATES, go and read it. With fascinating and brilliantly created characters in `THE FATES' coupled with two intertwining plots makes for a completely enjoyable and page-turning read.

Pulsates with Fast-Paced, Plot-Driven Power
If you liked either The Camel Club or The Collectors, don't miss this book!

If you haven't read The Camel Club or The Collectors, read those books before this one.

Stone Cold is an exciting and major step forward in the plot development of the Camel Club series as Oliver Stone and Annabelle Conroy deal with deadly challenges and old demons. In Stone Cold, the Camel Club moves from focusing on quirky to being operationally driven by the tools and tradecraft of assassins. The title appears to be an attempt to capture the psychology of the professional assassin, someone who is effective because he brings no emotion to terminating life. In keeping with Mr. Baldacci's ability to define and beautifully develop new characters, you'll be fascinated by the new character, Harry Finn, who tests for terrorist vulnerabilities as a profession, is a loving husband and father, and moonlights in assassinating assassins to settle an old score.

The novel has three main story lines: Finn's quest to eliminate old enemies, Annabelle Conroy's efforts to avoid being crushed by Jerry Bagger (the man she conned out of forty million dollars in The Collectors), and Oliver Stone's attempt to stay out of the public eye as someone chooses to expose his old connections to the CIA. I found this worked well for making the story fast-paced and continually surprising because the stories interweave.

But ultimately the appeal of this book is that it brings a lot of resolution to past and current conflicts in the series.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it lacked most of the usual quirkiness of the characters and past plots. Instead, this book is more of a standard spy versus spy, crook versus crook, and government against the bad guys type of story. But it's quite good for what it is. I hope the quirkiness doesn't disappear after this story.

After you read this story, think about where you have followed orders . . . orders that you should have questioned. What orders should you be questioning now?