The Collectors

David Baldacci
Hatchette Book Group USA (2006)
ISBN 044653109X
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (09/06)

The Camel Club is back in this new book by David Baldacci.  We first met the Camel Club in the book of the same name.  The Camel Club is a group of four men; the unlikeliest group of people you would ever think would be friends.  Their occupations range from cemetery caretaker to a conservator of rare books in the Library of Congress. While some people might call them conspiracy theorists, they prefer to think of themselves as observers of the government. 

When the Speaker of the House is gunned down, the blame is laid at the door of terrorists.  But the Camel Club is not convinced of that, especially when the wealthy director of Rare Books and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress dies in a strange manner.  The coroner rules death by natural causes, but the Camel Club is not convinced and sets out to discover the truth, which was indeed stranger than fiction. Then the Camel Club leader, Oliver Stone,  is kidnapped and subjected to torture in order to find out what information he has found out.  A former government agent himself, he recognizes the torture tactics as ones used by the US agencies.  Now they need to find out if they’re dealing with a rogue agent or a United States security agency. 

And then to throw some more grease on the fire, the author brings in Annabelle Conroy, a scheming con artist who plans on walking off with $30 million dollars swindled from an Atlantic City casino owner with whom she has a checkered past.  As she prepares to make her escape with the money, she reads about the death of the director, her former husband.  When she attempts to find out more about his death, she meets the Camel Club and is immediately drawn in to their plot to expose a killer.

A thoroughly fun read, I enjoyed it immensely.  Although a long book (432 pages) it only dragged in one place, a fact easily overlooked.

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