The Collectors by David Baldacci

The camel club strikes again!

This book took me a while to get into, just like the camel club did. And though I liked the book, I never felt like I couldn't put it down.

You follow a group of con artists who pull a "long con" for $40 million on a casino king in Atlantic City. In the meantime, you read of an assassin who targets different people in Washington DC. And finally, you also read of the camel club and their quest to research a conspiracy theory regarding different deaths in DC. You know that the 3 storylines will converge at some point, you just don't know when, or how they will. It turns out that the mastermind con artist (Annabelle) is an ex-wife of a murdered co-worker of a camel club member. Confused? I was for a while!

Annabelle works with the camel club to uncover the plot behind the seemingly unrelated murders. The camel club discovers that the reason for all the murders is that people are selling secrets to various enemies of the US. They discover the complicated plot to get the secrets from government agents through to the people who are buying the secrets. During all of this, the casino king is hunting down Annabelle to make her pay for her mistake of conning him.

The book ends with the spy plot revealed, but the casino king is hot on Annabelle's trail. Can't wait for the next camel club installment to find out if Annabelle will be discovered...

The Camel Club by David Baldacci

It took me quite a while to get into the book - I was halfway through before I really got into it. But once I did, I couldn't put the book down. Literally. I started at the halfway point reading before bed, and didn't stop until I had finished the book in the wee hours of the morning.

Oliver Stone and his rag-tag group of friends are on a quest for the "truth" about the government. They keep track of the comings and goings of the president and other higher-ups and they have their own conspiracy theories about things that happen. They accidentally witness a murder and then spend the rest of the book trying to find out who is responsible for the murder, and how to expose that person or group of people.

In the meantime, a very complex plot to kidnap the president is underway. The camel club again happens to be in the exact location when the plot is put into action. Kidnapping the president causes a chain reaction that ultimately leads to the brink of nuclear war.

As you can guess, the camel club uncovers the kidnappers, find the president, and does this all before war breaks out. After the slow beginning, the book does keep you at the edge of your seat, and it does make me want to read more camel club books by Baldacci.