The Camel Club (Camel Club Series)

This is the 3rd Baldacci offering I've tried, and I'm just not a fan of his fiction. I experienced The Camel Club as an audio book (and of course listening to a work over the course of many days alters the experience -- not usually for the better). I found the plot entirely unbelievable, and the number of characters made it hard to follow. I stopped caring about 2/3 of the way through, and just finished it to give it a sufficient chance.

The Camel Club consists of a small group of misfits -- all senior citizens -- led by an older man who calls himself "Oliver Stone" (after the film-maker). They are conspiracy theorists who try to figure out the truth behind US government actions. They stumble onto a real conspiracy when they happen to show more witness the murder of a government Secret Service agent in a Washington DC park, a murder designed to look like a suicide. When Alex Ford (another SS agent) seeks to investigate, he is demoted, signaling that a government cover-up is involved. Ford and Stone work together to figure out what's going on. They uncover a plot by Islamic terrorists to kidnap the US president but they are a strange sort of terrorist since they plan to do so without harming anyone and with plans to release him unharmed. And then there's an elaborate counterplot from within the US government to sell the president to the North Koreans (why North Koreans? I never did figure that out, and I can find no sign that any of the reviewers at GoodReads or Amazon were able to either). Meanwhile the VP (as acting president) plans to use nuclear weapons to obliterate Damascus as payback to the evil Arabs for the kidnapping -- as if slaughtering 6 million Syrian civilians to punish a handful of Arabs makes any sense at all -- politically or morally. At the very last minute, through heroic action by a character named Hemingway (who has the superhuman capacity to dodge machine gun bullets and kill Koreans with his bare hands), catastrophe is averted. As one (GoodReads) reviewer notes: "It all ends well, of course, everyone is saved and safe at the very last split second before impending world catastrophe, no Americans die, the bad guys are defeated, the world is saved, heroes abound, some of them find love, the US President looks forward to a new term with phenomenal approval ratings after the kidnapping, and so on."

The plot is just ridiculous, the dialogue is stilted, the characters are unlikeable, the action is not credible, and the writing is clumsy. There're lots of politically correct assurances that Islam is a religion of peace, to make up for the peaceable Arab terrorists who kidnap the president. As for the writing, Baldacci gropes in his memory for clichés to make up for his lack of inventiveness, and sometimes goes wrong. Someone should tell him that the phrase "dogs don't change their spots" is a malapropism; the actual phrase invokes leopards, animals that actually have spots. Baldacci also misused this same phrase in "The Hour Game". Clearly you can't teach old leopards new tricks. :-) show less

In my effort to read outside of my comfort zone, I picked up this book since I very rarely read political thrillers, and I had never read anything by David Baldacci. Thankfully, this book was a pleasant surprise for me – I finished the last half of the book in less than 12 hours on one of my days off!

The story begins with three Middle Eastern men driving on a dark road in the middle of the night, when they are all of a sudden attacked. The implication is that these three men are terrorists, thereby setting the overall tone and subject matter for the rest of the book. The rest of the story follows the four members of the Camel Club, an unofficial organization dedicated to investigating governmental conspiracies. The leader of the show more group, Oliver Stone (not his real name), lives part of the time in a tent across the street from the White House, where he is able to observe the comings and goings of politicians and overhear interesting tidbits from the Secret Service agents posted outside. The four members of the club, during one of their secret nightly meetings, encounter a murder in progress that is staged to look like a suicide, and suddenly, the four men are engaged in a political conspiracy beyond anything they’ve ever encountered. Added into the mix is Alex Ford, a Secret Service agent and an acquaintance of the Camel Club who gets involved in this deadly conspiracy as well.

As far as thrillers go, the set-up is pretty standard – a conspiracy is uncovered and the good guys have a limited time frame in which to thwart the bad guys, whose plan is gradually revealed in a series of short chapters throughout the main narrative. However, Baldacci takes a decidedly political perspective on the issue at hand (Islam and Middle Eastern terrorism) and much of the book is spent discussing the finer points of Islam, as well as the difference between American and Middle Eastern cultures. This didactic approach occasionally comes off as heavy-handed, although I enjoyed these sections overall. Note to anyone suggesting this to another reader: other people might be offended and/or bored by Baldacci’s research & political views, so it’s something important to keep in mind.

Another important aspect is that the “bad guys” of the story are not as cut-and-dry as you might expect. I won’t give too much away here, but there’s a lot more ambiguity in terms of determining who’s “good” and who’s “bad” – something I didn’t really expect from a political thriller. It gives the story an extra layer of complexity, and it’s something else to keep in mind when suggesting this to another reader. If you like the morality in a novel to be black and white, you might want to pick up a different book. But even though I am fairly nonpartisan when it comes to books, I enjoyed this particular thriller and might even pick up another David Baldacci novel in the future.

Some language and violence, but not excessive. Recommended for: fans of political thrillers, novels that touch on Islam/Middle East, or novels with a particular political focus (more liberal, in this case)

Readalikes: State of Fear by Michael Crichton. This is an eco-thriller instead of a political thriller, but Crichton still puts a political spin on his topic of choice – in this case, global warming. The main characters are trying to prevent an act of environmental terrorism, but the real push behind the story is Crichton’s research into the scientific and political validity of global warming. This book takes a more conservative approach, as opposed to the Camel Club, but both Crichton and Baldacci use current events to create a compulsively readable thriller that teaches as well as entertains.. Regardless of whether or not you agree with Crichton’s point of view, State of Fear is sure to generate some interesting debates.

The Inner Circle by Brad Meltzer. Both books cover political conspiracies and secret historical groups, although the secret group in The Inner Circle is under investigation, as opposed to the one doing the investigating! Both stories are fast-paced and cinematic, and are set in the world of modern day politics. show less

I read some of this series 10 or so years ago and really didn’t care much for it. It has always been my least favorite of everything David Baldacci…one of my favorite authors of all time… ever wrote. The essence of the series is politics and more politics. The characters though, are another matter. Oliver Stone and Agent Ford are what would keep most people reading and coming back for more. Ten years later…I’m back for more…and it was all because it was a group read for the Mystery & Suspense group on LibraryThing…people that make everything worth reading. I still didn’t care for all the politics but the action was superb…especially the last few chapters. If any American, or any other world citizen can read or listen show more to these last 6 or 7 chapters and not find themselves holding their breath and their heart rate accelerated…then they are already ready for that granite stone. Well done…reading group. I think I’ll join you for the next one. show less

It exists at the fringes of Washington, D.C., has no power, and consists solely of four eccentric and downtrodden members whom society has forgotten. Their simple goal is to find the "truth" behind their country's actions. One man leads this aging, ragtag crew. He has no known past and has taken the name "Oliver Stone." Day and night, Stone and his friends study wild conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government, hoping to discover some truth that will hold America's leaders accountable to its citizens. Yet never in Stone's wildest nightmares could he imagine the conspiracy the Camel Club is about to uncover... After witnessing a shocking murder, the Club is slammed headfirst into a plot that threatens the very show more security of the nation, full of stunning twists, high-stakes intrigue, and global gamesmanship rocketing to the Oval Office and beyond. Soon the Club must join forces with veteran Secret Service agent Alex Ford, who becomes an unwilling participant in one of the most chilling spectacles to ever take place on American soil. It's an event that may well be the catalyst for the long-threatened Armageddon between two different worlds, and all that stands in the way of this apocalypse are five unexpected heroes.

I am a big fan of thrillers and I have been hooked on David Baldacci’s writing ever since I first picked up Absolute Power. In his novel The Camel Club, Baldacci introduces a host of interesting characters from various walks of life who come together in a powerful investigative group. Baldacci did a great job of bringing the characters to life, especially Secret Service agent Alex Ford and conspiracy hunter “Oliver Stone.” The pacing was perfect through the first half of the book and I was truly engaged in the story.

Unfortunately, it was at that point that The Camel Club snowballed out of control. Global political thrillers will often times take you right to the edge of believability, forcing you to consider that, yes, this really could happen under just the right circumstances. Baldacci, however, took about two steps over that line and I just couldn’t follow him in. Without spoiling the ending, the plot becomes unbelievable Baldacci really doesn’t provide enough to support what happens leaving the reader to buy-in on their own, which is a gamble that didn’t pay off. The story becomes comic-bookish in the end and looses the tension that built up well early in the book.

The Camel Club is the beginning of a series by Baldacci with these characters. Given that I really loved the characters, I am hoping that subsequent books have a more believable storyline for them to romp around in. show less

The Camel Club are a group of four friends, all social misfits, who meet regularly to discuss conspiracy theories. In this book they inadvertently witness a murder and in following up on the investigation uncover and foil a terrorist plot to use a kidnapped US President to start World War III.

This is a very long book and definitely a page-turner, but I am not sure where all the words have come from, or, at least, where they have all been used. The action and plot line are fairly limited and tend to take a straight line from supposition ('I bet he is a spy...') to confirmation ('Look, he is a spy...'). Characterisation is pretty good, but there are some characters are so thinly drawn that when they impinge on the central story their show more impact is limited; we either do not care enough, or we do not remember who they are.

The book is dedicated to the US Secret Service and a key character is a member of the Service. In a book this size I expected to read a lot more about the Service, who they are, what they do and, most importantly, how they do it.

Overall, a bit of a disappointment, but a reasonable beach read and I will look out for other books in the series, just not that hard. show less

I found this thriller very entertaining. I had got rather out of the habit of reading books like this, and had forgotten how enjoyable a well-written thriller can be.

Set a few years after the 9/11 attacks, it recounts a plot against the American President hatched by a group featuring radicalised Islamists, and the various countermeasures undertaken by the various (indeed, numerous) intelligence and security agencies. The Camel Club of the title is a group of disaffected citizens living in and around Washington DC who have been reviewing the proliferation of power accumulated by the security agencies in the wake of 9/11, along with all sorts of conspiracy theories abounding within the fringes of life in the capital.

The principal member show more of the Camel Club now goes by the name of Oliver Stone, in a nod to the film director’s works challenging aspects of the establishment version of history. We gradually learn that he has a dark history in which under his real name he had been an accomplished servant of the agencies on which he now attempts to keep tabs.

The narrative continually moves perspective, at different times following Stone, initiates of the terrorist group, or member sof the various security organisations. This was managed deftly, and enhanced, rather than hampered, the flow of the story. show less

Before we lay this novel to rest in sure and certain hope of a sequel, a reading from the Prologue, paragraph two:

"He suddenly glanced out the window as he heard the sound overhead."

Suddenly. A completely unnecessary word. When you hear a sound you do glance suddenly. It's not as if, without "suddenly" we're going to think his eyes moved glacier slow. Is Baldacci trying to inject a sense of immediate urgency? This is not how you do it. Unnecessary and annoying.

The. This is the first time the sound as been mentioned, so why is it "the sound" and not "a sound"? He doesn't then tell us about the sound. We're given instead five paragraphs on other subjects before he gets back to the point. Is Baldacci trying to inject a sense of ominous show more doom? This is not how you do it. Annoying.

1/6 of the paragraph is annoying and 1/12 is unnecessary. Now I've not done a full statistical analysis of the novel because I can't be bothered but those figures feel about right.

I should say that I enjoyed large portions of the book and the climax is well done. Somewhere in here there is a good four hundred page novel, though whether it would be a farce or a thriller is impossible to determine because of the uneven tone. I also liked his politics.

There are elements that raise this above a one star, but I'm too old to have my time wasted. show less