Product Description

The man known as Oliver Stone has no official past. He spends most days camped opposite the White House, hoping to expose corruption wherever he finds it. But the stakes are raised when he and his friends, a group of conspiracy theorist misfits known as The Camel Club, accidentally witness the murder of an intelligence analyst. Especially when the authorities are seemingly happy to write it off as a suicide.

For Secret Service agent Alex Ford, monitoring the ‘investigation’, the suicide verdict doesn’t ring true. As punishment for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong, he is reassigned to bodyguard duties. His abilities are tested to the limit when he is sent to protect the President during a visit to his hometown, where a terrorist cell has spent months plotting an event that will shake the world.

Meanwhile, America's powerful intelligence chief Carter Gray is unnerved when he glimpses the face of an old acquaintance in Arlington Cemetery - but it is the face of a man supposedly long dead . . .

And as The Camel Club is poised to expose a conspiracy that reaches into the heart of Washington's highly secretive corridors of power, Alex Ford finds out that his worst nightmare is about to happen . . .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14410 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-13
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Few crime novelists have been as successful as David Baldacci, and The Camel Club joins an illustrious collection. In such books as Absolute Power and Saving Faith, he forged a reputation as an adroit and imaginative writer, while with Wish You Well, he enriched his already accomplished characterisation. Baldacci is particularly good at the dynamics of conflict within a family as much as external threat, and without ever trying to manipulate the reader’s emotions, he had us involved in a dramatic and affecting narrative that dealt with issues of personal choice quite as cogently as with the large-scale emotions of the plot.

Subsequently, Hour Game was an innovative spin on a familiar theme, featuring Baldacci's series characters: the tall, athletic Michelle Maxwell and the brilliant aesthete Sean King, both ex-Secret Service personnel who were obliged to leave their jobs under a cloud. The duo encountered some pretty nasty things in Hour Game, which added new levels of gruesomeness, with the decomposed body of a young woman found arranged in a bizarre position, while two teenagers are bloodily slaughtered having sex in a car.

The Camel Club, however, is both similar to and different from Baldacci’s other books. We meet an enigmatic figure, Oliver Stone (one wonders why Baldacci chose the name of a well-known film director for this character), a man with no past. His occupation appears to be permanent protestor outside the White House, member of a cabal of believers in all available conspiracy theories, who are, collectively, The Camel Club. But (as in the author's signature book, Absolute Power) the group stumbles across a murder that they're not supposed to see--a murder rigged to appear as suicide. And, as in the earlier book, Stone and his friends find themselves involved in a very dangerous plot, reaching to the upper echelons of Washington society.

While Baldacci may be ploughing a field he’s worked before, he remains a master of the complex, character-driven thriller.

--Barry Forshaw

Dorset Echo
'another gripping thriller'

Peterborough Evening Telegraph
'One of my favourite thrillers of the year'

Customer Reviews

Solid, Entertaining without ever really excelling
Washington gets the Da Vinci code treatment as the author of the fabulous Absolute Power, Last Man Standing and Split Second tackles Islamic terrorism and government conspiracies.

Following the exploits of a band of social misfits, an ageing Secret Service agent and arguably the most powerful man in the US after the President, the Camel Club charts a plot against the President of the United States from inception through to execution and it's aftermath (can't really tell you too much, obviously...) in a fluid and well written manner, keeping you interested and, honestly managing to shock you as the plot begins to unfold.

The characters are well realised and believable though, as with all Baldacci's books, there's a feeling you've met them before in previous novels.

My only real criticism is the fact that Baldacci feels the need to demonstrate the extent of his background reading on his subject - most notably the long winded explanations of Islamic beliefs and practices. This probably stems from writing about Islamic terrorism in a time when writers and journalists are often targeted for failing to understand the Islamic point of view when addressing this issue, and Baldacci feels that he must show that he has done everything he can to present a fair and balanced representation of all parties to the plot.

That said, a lot of the information presented is interesting in it's own right, and - much like after reading a Dan Brown novel - you feel you have taken a crash course in the basics of a number of subjects all at once.

A good, solid, enjoyable read, but nothing there to really distinguish it from the rest of the political thriller genre.

Readable once you suspend disbelief
While this is not the world's most plausible thriller, I think the reviewer below is a little harsh. Baldacci has an easy style, and if the idea of a bunch of misfits working out the big conspiracy ahead of the combined intelligence services of the US and saving the world in the process makes you smile, you may well enjoy this book.

Yes you do have to suspend your disbelief from the outset, and believe that Washington is peopled with ex-intelligence agents whose families were murdered by the state, and acting intelligent agents who can punch so hard that the door of the car their victim is leaning against buckles. Hey - it's popular fiction.

That aside, as always with Baldacci, the story has plenty of action, the dialogue is unforced and the plot is sufficiently complex to require some concentration. An entertaining if not intellectually taxing read.

Bit of a mish-mash!
This is quite an odd book really. A number of interesting characters and a slow (but interesting build up) and then suddenly the story goes into hyper-drive and the action is non stop and out of synch with the story up to that point. In addition the plot veers from the interesting to the over the top very quickly and this change of both style and pace does not work.

The members of the ‘Camel Club’ are well fleshed out and a good mix, I would certainly enjoy reading more of their stories but I think the author needs to decide if he is writing thrillers or comedy thrillers because this sat a little uneasily on the edge between the two. The somewhat stock character of the Secret Service agent could have been lifted from any thriller, as could his relationship with his new female partner, but the club members do have potential.

So this is okay, it was good until a ludicrous last quarter when the over the top plotting, double crossing and comic book action kicked in and then it let itself down.