This is the second book in a five-book series, and it involves the same four main characters as the first book, “The Camel Club,” which I already reviewed. But, some very interesting new people are introduced, and Baldacci does a great job with the development of those characters. This book presents two seemingly independent story lines which finally connect at about the half-way point. Annabelle Conroy is a confidence expert who had pulled together a team of people to steal a significant amount of money from Jerry Bagger, a casino owner in Atlantic City. Bagger is a bad man who does not tolerate anyone cheating him out of $1,000, but it is Annabelle’s intent to take him for much more, as revenge for Bagger’s murder of her father. Meanwhile, there is some espionage happening in D.C. with the sale of State secrets, but no one can figure out how it is happening. The members of the ever watchful camel club (Oliver Stone, the ex-CIA guy, now nearing 60 years old; Milton Farb, a man with a photographic memory; Caleb Shaw who works in the private reading room at the Library of Congress; Reuben Rhodes, another former spy type who brings some needed muscle to the team) are trying to figure that out. I thought the first half of the book was a bit pedestrian, but once the story lines came together, it was a good and worthwhile read. The interplay between Oliver and Annabelle was particularly fun, and it is Annabelle’s unfinished business with Bagger that sets up book three in the series. This may not be great literature, but it is worth reading on any airplane flight of more than a couple hours. I look forward to the third book.
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