The Camel Club by David Baldacci

Think of a carney yelling out on the midway of your local fair, “Ding, ding, ding – we have a winner!”

It is remarkable that we have not previously reviewed any Baldacci books, he the prolific writer in our own genre. So, I just chose a book, and jumped in. This is the first of five books in the Camel Club series. It’s the camel club because camels have great endurance and never give up. In the beginning, it consists of four men, Oliver Stone, Milton Farb, Reuben Rhodes, and Caleb Shaw. These are all older men who closely monitor the functioning of the government, especially the White House, from their apparently disenfranchised and impotent civilian positions. Each of the men has a special quality that he brings to the club, even though each seems so eccentric and useless. Alex Ford is a Secret Service Agent who is nearing retirement. (Think of Clint Eastwood in Absolute Power, another Baldacci story.) As a part of his security duties for the President, Alex has learned that Oliver Stone, who obviously is a bright and capable man with a mysterious past, is monitoring the White House from across the street in Lafayette Park. In the course of getting to know Stone, Ford has become impressed and realizes that Stone (a name that he has purposely adopted as a spoof that no one understands) is a valuable resource. This book involved a plot that brings the U.S. to the brink of nuclear war with the Middle East, and the North Koreans are involved, as well. I won’t give more away, but I’ll tell you that I’m immediately getting my hands on the next couple of books in the series, and I’ll be looking into the rest of Baldacci’s works. My only frustration with this book was that I was too busy to read it all in one sitting.