The Camel Club
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
The Camel Club by bestselling sensation David Baldacci is the exciting first instalment of a breathtaking series.
The Camel Club: a group of conspiracy theorists led by the mysterious Oliver Stone, who camp outside the White House. Their goal – to expose corruption at the upper echelons of US government.
The stakes are raised when the group witness the murder of an intelligence analyst. A murder the authorities seem intent on writing off as suicide. Looking at the case more closely provokes more questions than answers.
Joining forces with Secret Service Agent Alex Ford, the Camel Club prepare to shine a spotlight on a conspiracy that reaches into the heart of Washington’s corridors of power. In doing so, Ford finds out that his worst nightmare is about to happen . . .
The Camel Club is followed by The Collectors, Stone Cold, Divine Justice and Hell's Corner.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
David Baldacci’s Inside Story: “The Camel Club came about long before I was writing novels. I had moved to Washington, DC to practice law and remember walking past Lafayette Park for the first time. The park was filled with what I called permanent White House protestors: people that set up shop in the park. There was one banner between two trees which said, ‘Have a nice doomsday’ and I thought maybe I should leave DC and head back to Richmond. But there was one woman who caught my attention.
“She was a protestor against nuclear weapons, with a little tent full of pamphlets. She ended up in that park for probably 30 years and died just a couple of years ago. The authorities never felt she presented a threat, but she was out there in her little tent every day. I thought back to this lady when I was thinking about a new series, which became The Camel Club. I thought about those protestors and what if one of these people was actually a guy who used to work for the government in a really secret capacity—maybe as an assassin—before something bad happened. He was set-up, had to go on the run and spent a few years underground before coming back to protest a government he knows to be corrupt.
“That was the genesis for Oliver Stone, John Carr and The Camel Club. I put this ensemble cast together about people fighting against corruption, only really because I’d walked past the park one day and saw some interesting people. That’s what I tell people who ask me all the time, ‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ I tell them, ‘I get my ideas from waking up every day and walking out the door.’ You never know what you’re going to see and all of a sudden, it can spark something.’
“I also caught a lot of criticism from certain people for how I portrayed Muslims in the book. My emails and letters for next 10 years were…quite something. Let’s just say other people did not see the world as I saw it. We were right in the middle of the wars in the Middle East and part of me felt that the world had gone mad, so I thought, ‘I’m going to go down a different path.’ Every thriller that I had been reading at the time presented Muslims as these stock caricature villains hellbent on destroying everything. I wanted to put a different spin on it. Which, being honest, got me hate mail and death threats that we had to pass on to the FBI.
“But The Camel Club turned out to be one of my most popular ever series. I think people just really took to the characters and to the stories that I was trying to tell—which were intended to be more even-handed and a little more sophisticated and nuanced than some other books might have been. It’s very easy to label people villains and just forget about who they might be.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Arab terrorists, nuclear threat and political perfidy drive bestselling Baldacci's latest. The Camel Club, a four-man group of Washington, D.C., misfits (their leader has taken the ironic pseudonym "Oliver Stone") gathers every week to discuss political conspiracies they believe exist and what actions they might take. One night, while meeting on Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac River, club members witness the murder of Secret Service employee Patrick Johnson, thus thrusting the wacky crew into the middle of a bigger conspiracy than they could ever have imagined. There are scores of characters and subplots to keep track of while the story veers back and forth between venues and villains, forcing readers to remain alert yet patient while awaiting the high-concept payoff. When it finally appears, it's a doozy: kidnappers who harm no one and are reasonable people with a legitimate gripe bring the U.S. to the verge of nuking Damascus. Baldacci maintains interest during the long buildup by supplying fascinating historical facts, amusing characters, high-tech spy lore and the backstories of his super agents, both good and evil. As fans of this writer know, years of experience have made him an author who promises a good story and then delivers it.
Customer Reviews
Good page turner typical of Baldacci
#1 of Camel Club Series.
A good one
Camel club
Great read as always
Thrills and intrigue
Another thriller from David Baldacci featuring the indestructible Oliver Stone,whose true identity is revealed in this novel. Fast paced, neat detail and a plot that convinces by the power of the narrative drive. Your disbelief is suspended to the last when Mr Baldacci rearranges his characters on the board ready for another adventure once the wounds are healed and the scars hardened. Will you buy the next one? I will.