Although he never admits to having been the trigger man, this fourth book in the Camel Club series opens with Oliver Stone killing, Roger Simpson, a well-known senator from Alabama, and Carter Gray, the nation’s intelligence chief. Both men had forced Oliver Stone, aka John Carr, into hiding, 30 years before. And, they had murdered his family only because Stone wanted to quit being America’s best assassin. From the beginning of the story, Oliver is on the run and the Camel Club is trying to help even thought Oliver does not want them to risk their lives by doing so. By the fourth book, you know all the characters well, and Baldacci has done well to create interesting associates for Stone. There is a new character in this book, Joe Knox, an ace CIA tracker. It’s his boss, the maniacal Macklin Hayes, who also has a personal vendetta against Carr stemming to their time together in Vietnam. The murders of Simpson and Gray give Hayes the excuse to sic Knox on Stone and to plan Stone’s execution. Bladucci gives more back story on Stone/Carr than we’ve known before, so the real dirt between the protagonist and Hayes is told for the first time. As Stone flees into the hills of southern Virginia, he stumbles into an even bigger mess. Meanwhile, Joe Knox is tracking him down, as is the Camel Club. Probably because I already liked the characters and knew them so well, this book grabbed me immediately, within a couple pages. This series of stories is worth reading, and it is my recommendation to read them in order, so you can enjoy the character development as Baldacci intended. I’ve already acquired the 5th and last book in the series, and I’ll start that next – but I don’t want it to come to an end.
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