Divine Justice (Camel Club)
by David Baldacci
List Price:
Our Price: $0.92
You Save: $27.07 (97%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: David BaldacciEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-04
ISBN: 0446195502
Number of pages: 326
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Product features:
- Clean and tight book without damage. Minor wear to dust jacket.
Book Reviews of Divine Justice (Camel Club)
Book Review: Baldacci must have needed the money . . .
Summary: 2 Stars
Did Baldacci have some pressing debts to pay? Is he angry with his publisher and trying to get out of his contract? There must be some solid reason for a skilled writer like Baldacci to turn out a grotesquerie like "Divine Justice".
In a word (and, of course, in my own humble opinion, "Divine Justice" stinks.
Baldacci has ridden his "Oliver Stone" (a/k/a Vietnam war hero and CIA assassin John Carr) character more or less sucessfully through three prior installments.
Oliver Stone has a past shrouded in mystery, more or less, as he camped out in Lafayette Park across from the White House for years demanding "truth". He assembled a band of, more or less, misfits around him who call themselves "The Camel Club" who, more or less, solve major mysteries or prevent this and that, like the kidnapping of the President or the takeover of the nation by a kook who wants to start a new world war. Barely believable, but Baldacci has, more or less, pulled it off successfully in the past.
This time, however, Baldacci falls on his face.
Oliver Stone needs to get out of Washington. He has, after all, just shot and killed a US Senator and a former CIA Director. (Not a spoiler: that was the ending of the last book.)
So Stone nee Carr, the master Special Forces guy takes an Amtrak train from Washington to New Orleans. His use of Amtrak becomes important later in the story at a point where Baldacci has long lost any ability to convince the reader. Here's this super hotshot guy getting away from a crime scene by riding Amtrak. No, it doesn't make any sense - and soon makes even less.
Stone steps in to rescue a young man who is being beaten on the train by three toughs. Sure, Stone is twice, almost three times the age of the three roughnecks, but he takes them out one, two, three. Sure, every former CIA assassin knowing he is fleeing the scene of two spectacular murders is going to take an Amtrak train - and then make a public spectacle of himself on said train.
Anyway, Stone and the young man leave the train in a desolate part of Virginia and make their way to the young man's home town, Divine.
At this point, I got the impression that Baldacci was channeling Lee Child, the author of the very successful Jack Reacher series; Upton Sinclair, a muckraker from decades ago and the vaucous noisemakers on the left-wing. Baldacci has played out the Vietnam vet thing as far as it could go and then some. His views on imaginary current government policies are yawners.
In a nutshell, Divine is a coal mining town where the men are condemned to livesa of virtual servitude in the mines, where they all eventually die or contract terminal illnesses, or the supermax prison conveniently built on top of a collapsed mine. Oh by the way, lots of the miners are drug addicts too. Hint, hint.
There has been a rash of untimely deaths in the town, but the one man police force consisting of strong, handsome Lincoln Tyree - whose brother is the warden of the supermax hasn't found out much them.
Back in Washington, the evil Macklin Hayes, who is missing only the twirled mustache of the cartoon like silent film villains, sics superstar CIA tracker Joe Knox on the trail of super assassin Stone/Carr.
The story quickly becomes unbeleivable. The misfits of The Camel Club become involved and start tracking Knox who is tracking Stone and is, in turn, being tracked by Macklin. Stone, meanwhile, is saving one person after another from gruesome deaths, except when the people are killed. Quite a show for a murderer on the run, but Stone/Carr is really a good guy.
The plot quickly turns ludicrous. The writing isn't bad: just the plot and characters are unbelievable. Totally unbelievable. Events soon become preposterous.
Like I said, Baldacci must have some pressing debts or wants to get out of his contract with his publisher or something. Maybe he has just let his previously justified fame go to his head. Who knows?
In any event, fans of the prior Camel Club novels are likely to be disappointed. I certainly was.
Jerry
Summary of Divine Justice (Camel Club)
Following the instant # 1 New York Times bestseller Stone Cold, Oliver Stone and the Camel Club return in David Baldacci's most surprising thriller yet . . .Known by his alias, "Oliver Stone," John Carr is the most wanted man in
But his freedom comes at a steep price: The assassinations he carried out prompt the highest levels of the
With their friend and unofficial leader in hiding, the members of the Camel Club risk everything to save him. Now, as the hunters close in, Stone's flight from the demons of his past will take him from the power corridors of Washington, D.C., to the small, isolated coal-mining town of Divine, Virginia-and into a world every bit as lethal as the one he left behind.
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Total Controlby David Baldacci
Vision; Published: 1997-12-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
Split Secondby David Baldacci
Vision; Published: 2004-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Winnerby David Baldacci
Vision; Published: 1998-12-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.11
Price in other shops:
First Familyby David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2009-04-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Collectorsby David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2006-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.25
Price in other shops:
Hell's Cornerby David Baldacci
Vision; Published: 2011-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
Hell's Corner (Camel Club, Book 5)by David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2010-11-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
The Collectorsby David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2007-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.02
Price in other shops:
Stone Coldby David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2007-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops: