Amazon.com Review Conspiracy theories--everybody has one. The difference with this conspiracy is that it's all too real. David Baldacci's The Camel Club takes readers inside the Beltway as four unlikely misfits struggle not only to survive, but to save their president and their country from a plot that will lead to nuclear disaster.
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Product Description Conspiracy theories--everybody has one. The difference with this conspiracy is that it's all too real. David Baldacci's The Camel Club takes readers inside the Beltway as four unlikely misfits struggle not only to survive, but to save their president and their country from a plot that will lead to nuclear disaster.Bestselling BaldacciLast Man StandingThe WinnerTotal Control The Simple TruthAbsolute PowerSaving Faith
Couldn't wait!October 27, 2005 Carolyn Rowe Hill(Ann Arbor, Michigan) 141 out of 173 found this review helpful
It's late. I should be in bed by now, but I couldn't wait to get a review started for this book. It's my first Baldacci, but it won't be my last. I was hooked on page one.
The Camel Club is a political thriller that opens in Washington, D.C. (well, not quite. The opening chapter is not in D.C.), where we meet four eccentric, once-upon-a-time effective fellows who make up a group they call The Camel Club. Each has some kind of experience and/or brilliance that makes him essential to the small assembly; and each has been successful at one time or another in his life. Now, they are only reflections of what they once were. There's Oliver Stone (his assumed name), Caleb Shaw, Reuben Rhodes, and Milton Farb, conspiracy theorists all. They meet once a month in the middle of the night to discuss recent conspiracy theories and reflect/update those they've held for years. There are other interesting characters introduced in the early pages, including Secret Service agent Alex Ford who's on the downside of his career, and Kate Adams, a Department of Justice lawyer who works as a bartender at night. Go figure that one out! We are also briefly introduced to U.S. President, James H. Brennan, and to National Intelligence Center Director, Carter Gray, among others.
Stone has a tent near the White House where he watches what goes on there. His goal is to find out the "truth" of things. He believes the American people have been denied that most desirous of tenets. On the evening of the beginning of this story, the Camel Club meets as arranged, but in the course of their meeting they unwittingly see a terrible crime committed on Theodore Roosevelt Island. Now, they must decide what to do about it...and I'm only on page 70! More later.
October 29, 2005: It's later. Life sometimes gets in the way of finishing a good book, but it's been worth three nights up too late to do it in this case.
The Camel Club members find themselves in the middle of a mess, having witnessed the murder of a Secret Service agent. Another Secret Service agent, Alex Ford, angers his superiors by deciding to investigate the death further than they had planned for this intended puppet. Stone and Ford end up working together to find out what's going on as a myriad of characters come and go, some with nefarious plans up their sleeves (there may even be a traitor in the club). It seems there are traitors everywhere and it's one of those times when one doesn't know who to trust. If you are into political intrigue, conspiracy theories, espionage, terrorism and/or assassination plots and all-around political paranoia, you will love this book. It is also very clearly and very well written. I can only say I hope there are many more Stones and Fords around than Captain Jacks and, well, others.
Give yourself plenty of time to read The Camel Club. There are several subplots and lots of interesting facts about many things included in the story. The primary plot is very intense and you won't want to find yourself forgetting pertinent details leading up to the "game." It's enough to make the reader want to bolt the door and never leave home. I'm just glad it's fiction!
Carolyn Rowe Hill
This is What Thrillers are all AboutOctober 27, 2006 Vesta Irene(the Pacific Northwest) 5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The Camel Club is sort of a ragtag underground group of four individuals who try to investigate various conspiracy theories. Oliver Stone (not his real name) is an ex-super spy type who is a cemetery caretaker, but who also mans a tent outside the White House where, several other permanent protesters also have their tent's pitched. The Secret Service thinks he is a little off.
The other three members of the Camel Club are:
Caleb Shaw, who has two doctorates, one in Political Science and one in literature. He was a Vietnam War protester who lost a brother during the war who currently works in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.
Reuben Rhodes, West Point grad who served three tours of duty in Vietnam, earning almost every medal for bravery you can get. After that he worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He eventually turned war protester and burnt himself out on drugs. He currently works for a warehouse company unloading trucks.
Milton Farb was a child prodigy and posses more intelligence that any human out to have. Once he sees or reads something, he never forgets it. He is an extremely paranoid individual.
The small and very exclusive Camel Club holds its meetings in the dead of night out on Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac. The get there by row boat, being careful to avoid the police boat the patrols the river.
One night, while out on the island, they hear others approaching. They hide and witness a murder. After the killers leave, they check the body and find that he was a Secret Service agent. The killers, come back, the four Camel Clubbers flee. The killers give chase, but the police boat comes by and the conspiracy theorists get away and now they have a problem. They have to find out who the killers are before the killers find them.
And there you have the seeds of a thriller that will keep you well up past the dawn. David Baldacci has delivered up characters that are unforgeable, characters that just have to come back, and they do in THE COLLECTORS. THE CAMEL CLUB is what thrillers are all about. I couldn't it down, you won't be able to either.
Reviewed by Vesta Irene
Don't Start this the Evening before a Work DayOctober 25, 2005 John Matlock(Winnemucca, NV) 14 out of 19 found this review helpful
This is an evil and sinful book that will make your workday miserable if you happen to pick it up the evening before. Believe me, I know from experience, I started it about 9 o'clock last night and had an awfully hard time getting to work this morning.
Another thing to remember is that Baldacci doesn't write formula based mysteries. You have no real assurance that the hero, Secret Service agent Alex Ford, has to live to be in his next book. He could go out in a blaze of glory but fail at his goal.
The members of the Camel Club are as interesting a bunch of characters as you'll meet anywhere. And just what is the mysterious background of 'Oliver Stone,' a leading member of the 'Club?"
The background is Washington and a bunch of career climbing bureaucrats more interested in their own future than that of the country. And just who are the bad guys working for anyway? What is it they are trying to do?
Is this great fiction for all time that will be read and re-read in a hundred years -- no. But it's a damn fine read -- just don't start it at 9 o'clock in the evening.
Great Mental FlossNovember 28, 2005 Bradley Feld(Eldorado Springs, CO USA) 7 out of 9 found this review helpful
David Baldacci is in my regular "mental floss" book rotation - whenever one of his books comes out it immediately ends up in the "read when you need a break from serious stuff" pile. His latest - The Camel Club - didn't disappoint me. It started off slower than most Baldacci books and it took me 100 pages to get completely sucked in. When I finished, I realized that he needed more time to set up all the characters in this one, as he had a large number of interconnected plots. My evening was sacrificed to the reading gods as I downed 300 pages of riveting storytelling. Spies, conspiracies, government corruption, secret societies, old CIA training facilities, presidential kidnapping, secret service heroics, many bad guys (some Americans), a bunch of scary dudes running the country including a few that thought nuclear war was a solution, computer hacks, meglomanics, near miss surveillance incidents, characters with major pasts coming back to haunt them, OCD, a little romance, and excellent gunplay made for a good evening.
It keeps you thinking .July 16, 2007 Ella Stanley(Oregon) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
His knowledge of our government agencies is real .
He makes you use your thinking cap.
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