| Title | : | The Camel Club (The Camel Club, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 606 |
| Publication | : | First published October 25, 2005 |
Existing at the fringes of Washington D.C., the Club consists of four eccentric members. Led by a mysterious man known as "Oliver Stone," they study conspiracy theories, current events, and the machinations of government to attempt to discover the "truth" behind the country's actions.
Their efforts bear little fruit --- until the group witnesses a shocking murder, and becomes embroiled in an astounding, far-reaching conspiracy. Now the Club must join forces with a Secret Service agent to confront one of the most chilling spectacles ever to take place on American soil --- an event that may trigger the ultimate war between two different worlds. All that stands in the way of this apocalypse is five unexpected heroes.
Librarian's note: there are five novels and a short story in the author's Camel Club series. They are: 1. The Camel Club (2005), 2. The Collectors (2006), 3. Stone Cold (2007), 4. Divine Justice (2008), and 5. Hell's Corner (2010). The short story is: 6. Bullseye (2014), a Will Robie / Camel Club Short Story.
The Camel Club (The Camel Club, #1) Reviews
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Some people follow sports teams, other people follow actors or rock bands. But me, I follow authors. And while some people fantasize about celebrities they’d like to dine with, I have a list of rock star authors I dream of interviewing.
Recently, one of my dreams came true when David Baldacci agreed to an email interview with me. Upon hearing the news, my impulse was to jump and kick in a manner my legs haven’t experienced since the late 1980s, when I was a high school cheerleader. I quickly discovered my body is no longer qualified in jumping and kicking. It is, however, perfectly fine sitting at a computer conducting research on a favorite author. So that’s what I did. And here’s what I learned:
Before becoming an internationally-acclaimed bestselling author, Baldacci practiced law for nine years. He hit success with his first novel, “Absolute Power” and hasn’t looked back. He’s written more than a dozen best sellers. Baldacci’s works are translated into more than 45 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. And over 60 million copies of Baldacci's books are in print worldwide.
Even I, an ardent Baldacci fan, was surprised by those statistics. And if I wasn’t a fan, upon learning those stats, I’d feel inclined to read a Baldacci title.
A good place to start is with Baldacci’s “The Camel Club.” This book is the first in a series which follows a club of D.C.-based truth seekers. The club consists of an unusual mix of four members: a man without a past currently called "Oliver Stone"; obsessive computer genius Milton Farb; blue-collar laborer Reuben Rhodes; and Library of Congress reference specialist Caleb Shaw.
In “The Camel Club,” the members witness a shocking murder in a D.C.-area park. While secretly trying to unravel the crime, the foursome is slammed into a plot that threatens national security and world stability.
If that’s not enough to get you reading Baldacci, perhaps a taste of my interview will do it. (The full interview is available on my blog, address below.)
Question: An enormous amount of research must go into your writing. Is there a particular research experience or discovery you’ll always remember?
Answer: Listening to incessant gunfire at Quantico while I was down there researching “Last Man Standing.” I felt like I was in the Middle East. Being nearly arrested by the FBI while toting around a German film crew in D.C. Ranks right up there. And then my experience on the Acela train after two passengers overheard me talking to a medical expert about poisoning someone for research for a book and summoned the police. That was fun too. Now whenever I travel, I duct tape my mouth shut just to be safe. -
Updating just to correct some typos and grammatical problems.
Well....here I go. I can't really recommend this one. You know there are books by Mr. Baldacci that I enjoy greatly. I have noted before that he can be...that's "can be" one of those authors who can get very heavy handed about their political beliefs.
I find that the case here. He pretty much had me feeling he was really (really) mostly interested in making a political point. This is obviously a point to be agreed or disagreed on as I see some reviewers agree with me and others don't. Possibly it depends on how much you agree with him (Baldacci) and therefore how much that part of the book...sticks out or overwhelms the plot and characters. I don't know. You'll have to decide for yourself.
Now that said, this is not the primary problem with the novel for me and it's not why I give it a low rating. The novel starts out with an idea and a cast of characters we are to get to know. The primary protagonist is Oliver Stone. No not the movie maker. We have another refugee from the world of secret, black ops, covert...stuff. His having taken the name of the movie maker who's interest in conspiracies is sort of legend may just have been part of the reason why the name was chosen as our hero's nom de plume. Sadly however from the very first things spin out in several directions and the story gets not so much laid out with lots of threads...as it seems to fray out in all directions with the threads lashing about in the wind.
It wasn't that I couldn't keep track...I just came to the point where I didn't care to.
So, I don't plan to follow up with any more of the series and really can't recommend it. I just found myself too often losing interest and wanting to move on to something...interesting.
Oh and as I and others have said, Mr. Baldacci's politics quickly become the only true point. -
I feel cheated that I even had to assign a single star to this pathetic excuse for a book.
Let me describe this book like this... this is the kind of book that comes in only two forms - paperback and audio. It's excrement smeared on paper and then bound and placed in airport bookstore shelves.
It's your basic Tom Clancy bite off of the terrorist plot to bring down the free world. The author has watched a couple of National Geographic Videos, maybe had lunch with about three or four guys who used to work for the State Department, NSA or CIA and spent a year or two in the Middle East and maybe read a Barnes & Noble edition of the abbreviated history of the Middle East as research for his big political thriller.
The book is utter crap and is an insult to anyone who likes political thrillers, knows anything about the Middle East and the politics of the region and anybody who just likes to read.
Lesson Learned: Never buy a paperback book from an airport bookstore no matter how bored you are or how long your flight's been delayed. -
“Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?”
The Camel Club started very slow for me. I had issues keeping all the characters straight. There were so many! I did enjoy the last half of the book once I was clear on who was who. By the end, I was reaching out for the second book.
The Camel Club begins with the apparent suicide of a government agent but this is far from the truth. Four men are witness to this "suicide". The four men are conspiracy theorists who seek the truth behind the conspiracies. They called themselves the Camel Club.
Oliver Stone, Milton Farb, Caleb Shaw, and Reuben Rhodes have been meeting in secrecy for many years. Unluckily, their last meeting place makes them a witness to this crime. Their lives will be in grave danger and if found, they might not live the week and perish at the hands of some very powerful people.
As the story progresses, we get to discover who Oliver Stone is and his past ties to the USA government. We also meet Agent Alex Ford who's a secret service agent who has had a good honest career. When Alex starts digging into the murder, he's demoted to White House protection detail. Unbeknownst to Alex, the stability of the USA is about to be challenged. Alex and the Camel Club are the only hope to prevent war.
The last part of the book is action-packed. The pages flew fast in a race to know the outcome. I couldn't wait for all the pieces to fall together.
My favorite character was Oliver Stone. A close second was Alex Ford. I was left wanting to learn more about the other three remaining Camel Club members. They all seem to have a very interesting past.
Cliffhanger: No
3/5 Fangs
MrsLeif's Two Fangs About It |
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2.0 stars. Probably would have given this 3 stars except for my extreme annoyance with the "heavy handed" political tone of the book. As far as I can tell from the authors depictions in the story, America is responsible for ALL of the evil in the world (especially in the Middle East), 9/11 was a justified response to American foreign policy and Americans are ignorant and racist. Great, thanks for that, now can we get on with the story. Oh, that is the story. Terrific!!!
Apart from the tone, this was a fairly fast-paced read with competent writing. I may check out the next book in the series at some point as I thought the basic premise of the Camel Club was intriguing. I just hope the author focuses more on story-telling and less on rhetoric in future books. -
I'm just blabbering about this read:
- how insignificant we are. Why fight/appose/criticize/object to anything when we're simply not important? Depressing;
- some Americans will approve of the criticism in the book, other will be furious and frustrated;
- this book proves a point. How democracy is used as a weapon to control countries, a well done and straightforward explanation; sadly true as well;
- a cliffhanger ending; don't want to indulge in the series, so I'm unhappy;
- I liked, as in really liked, the big WHAT IF scenario in the book, not preposterous at all;
- a political plot with eccentric interesting anti-hero, conspiracy theorist characters. A spy thriller with the usual James Bond, over the top, plot. Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Fredrick Forsyth, John Le Carré fans will love this book.
- there's a confusing 'message' in the book. Should Americans be proud of their weaponry? Sure. Should they be proud of the reason why they need it? uhummmm...if I was an American, I would be scared to death, instead. An angry world is an ugly enemy - is my humble opinion.
Everything is too predictable. We've seen these kind of heroes in too many self-soothing/ self-congratulatory, slap-on-the-back kind of books. I'll go for four stars, but actually would have liked 3.5.
Anyway, the book stirs thought, and that's a good thing. So I will stick to the four stars and be done with it. -
I've read this series a couple of times over the years. I'll update with a real review eventually.
UPDATED 9/2022:
I'm back at it with audio from the library this time. Yes, I own the series in hard cover and look at the spines regularly but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to listen to it! I enjoyed Jonathan Davis but with so many critical male characters, another narrator or two would've made it just that much more awesome to listen to.
Oliver, Rueben, Caleb, Milton, Alex, and those around them have never been safer, or in more danger, than when they get hot on a trail. I love all of the twists, turns, and nuances as they work to unravel the tangle of lies and deception that they've stumbled into.
While it's scary to think about something like this happening, even twenty years post-9/11 this story remains relevant.
Story: 5 stars
Narration: 4 stars
Listening Speed: 1.6x -
The Camel Club is comprised of a group of men who are sort of a counter culture of their own after having served the country in some form or fashion, enough to be suspicious of the publicly fed information from the government. They lead an odd existence, each with unique quirks and eccentricities, and meet each month to compare notes on what they're hearing from various inside sources. On one of these evenings, they unfortunately become witnesses to a stunning event that puts them in the middle of a situation that threatens the safety of the country and the world.
There are several stories going on here that ultimately converge, which is an approach I happen to love for this genre. While it presents a challenge to keep up with all the characters, it certainly heightens the mystery, suspense and intrigue. There are quite a few twists and surprises that make it even better, ultimately leading to a pretty exciting climax, though I had some issues with some things in the ending. Political perspectives are also rampant with multiple points of view to keep it provacative.
I highly recommend this book and plan to continue the series. -
Across the street from the White House, tells a story of a man, dead and alive, Oliver Stone. Old and homeless, he and a small group of friends known as The Camel Club, witness a murder on Roosevelt Island.
I read this book many years ago, but for the life of me, I could not remember very much of it. Except for the fact that Oliver Stone lived homeless across the street from the White house and was a mysterious old man. Now that I have re-read this first novel in the series, scenes and characters have come back to me, though I had to finish the book because I still couldn’t remember the ending! Explosive, to say the least and so many characters involved, you really have to pay attention.
A topic that stands out in this novel is the amount of veteran characters who were betrayed by their own government and the people high up in it. The president is a pompous ass who loves the cameras and doesn’t seem to care much for ‘the people’, just his looks and his image. Carter Gray, the nation's intelligence chief, struck me as some kind of snake and had his own agenda and I wasn’t wrong about that in the end. Alex, a CIA agent, gets a rookie partner, Jackie Simpson, who is also the daughter of a Senator. Jackie Simpson should never have transferred from beat cop to CIA, she was dumb as a door nail and I really didn’t like her. She was like an annoying fly buzzing around your head and wouldn’t figure things out on her own. Then of course we have a few CIA characters who were corrupt, some deranged Muslims, and some Korean ninjas.
The conspiracy itself was creative and well thought out. As always with the government, things aren’t what they seem. The Camel Club characters were memorable, mainly because of their atypical personalities and behaviors. Hard to picture a few old men trying to save the world though. We find out who Oliver Stone really is and he is interesting enough to continue reading the rest of the series, because my first question is, where did Oliver Stone come from? All we know in this first novel is that Oliver Stone is a force to be reckoned with and I want to read more. -
Extremely bad
I read this book because it was chosen by my book club - I don't think I would have bothered to finish it otherwise.
The plot is ridiculous and lunges around especially towards the end - it felt like a badly written James Bond movie. The nuclear strike was averted by just 1 second - that sort of timing is not dramatic - it's just annoying.
The characterisation was quite two dimensional and, in the case of Hemingway, quite nauseating - his accomplishments are just too unbelievable - standing on a 1 inch ledge in a gale force wind for 6 hours and being able to kill people with your fingers? Hai-ya!
I don't think these extremes are necessary to make an interesting character or story and the use of them just makes the book seem ridiculous.
I also found the writing very clunky and badly phrased. Some of the dialogue perhaps is accurate for the characters but the same inarticulate leaden style is in the narrative - I just found it to be very naive.
As for the educational aspects - I found that, at times, patronising. Worse though is that it spoiled the continuity of the writing. Perhaps if the elements were less convoluted then it may have made the going a bit easier? I really don't want to wade through so much instruction whilst reading escapist fiction.
On the whole I thought it was very poor and I would encourage anyone else to leave it well alone. -
How wrong can you be. This started ok. I wondered why the treatise on the nature of Islam, was prepared to accept that somehow the relevance of that would make itself apparent.
Wrong again
20% read and starting to find it tiresome, but this was an author recommended by a friend so I ploughed on.
What a lot of characters and acronyms and superheros and who the hell is this book written for? Seems to me the target audience is an adolescent youth the author is hoping to 'educate' Yet I'm thinking it more a 'Mills & Boon for boys. I never thought I'd ever see "educate" and Mills & Boon in the same paragraph, but there you go.
The fact that I think this book has a target audience doesn't go down well with me. A book written specifically to sell rather than an outlet for the tale needing to be told.
By the time I had managed to get 50% read I really couldn't take any more.
I really didn't like all the extra information - seemed to me the author was trying to prove he'd done some research. Not impressed - he may have read a few things but I never got the impression that he really understood the 'research' he'd done, he merely wanted to impress the reader. Didn't work - not impressed.
A book gratefully abandoned. I have to admit there were some bits I liked ... but not many. If I was desperate to read something and no other options I might read this to the end. -
Read the review of the entire Camel Club series at my
my blog
The Camel Club has an interesting premise in the action thriller genre. It consists of four washed up, eccentric senior gentlemen who want to make the world a better place. This premise intrigued me and made me pick up this book.
Now, I have read Baldacci's Will Robie before and I liked that series. The review of the series is available
here. The Camel Club is different since it does not rely on one individual to move the plot along though some members of the club are more equal than the others. This book takes the standard islamic terror plot and gives it an interesting twist. For the most part, the US is portrayed more as sinners than as being sinned against. The outlook here is far more international than I would have expected, which is good in a way. As a result, all the characters are interesting - both the protagonists and antagonists. -
David Baldacci's descriptive style of writing is worth reading. I like the way he puts all the events at bay.
As being a big fan of conspiracy theories, I had high expectations of The Camel Club. Tom Hemingway deserves more as a protagonist than a supporting role.
I'm glad David did justice with Tom Hemingway's martial arts and did not kill him by an ex-agent turned shooter.
Carter gray's assumed conviction of Tom Hemingway for doing the plot is a typical David Baldacci thing. Everything was before him and as being the best spy he did not comprehend until the last and after the anticipation of the Tom Hemingway's hideout by the protagonist i.e. Oliver Stone.
The end was balanced and he made everybody happy with it which is not the case all the time.
I'm looking forward to seeing Tom Hemingway in other books of the series. Quite a long book but worth reading. I enjoyed it. -
Baldacci wrote this in 2005 but is still a good read. The plot, as told by four old friends, is complex but very believable. At some points, the story seems a little drawn out, but overall, I enjoyed it. The shadows of current politics is chilling.
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The Camel Club - a rag tag team of friends led by the "past-less" Oliver Stone - is a strangely capable group who's purpose is to discover the truth about what's really going on in the government. When they stumbles upon a murder that smells of corruption - it becomes a lethal race to discover the murderers' identities and silence them before the Camel Club is the one to get silenced.
The Camel Club combines mystery, suspense, and action in a moderately paced adult read. Readers should be aware that it contains non-graphic killing (references to blood and method of death), profanity, sexual banter, and numerous debates of Islamic and Western cultures.
Although The Camel Club is the first book in a series, it can be treated as a stand alone book.
See this and more content based reviews at
Sarah's Reviews -
I’m so glad that I stuck with this book and finished it! It felt very daunting in the beginning. There were so many characters being introduced, at least for the first 100 pages. Then there was a deep background for most of them. I almost gave up on it. Then about 250 pages in, the story took hold and I could not put it down! I’m not much for conspiracy theories, which is the inspiration for the Camel Club, but for me this is a story of how government typically works. I really enjoyed this group of four unique individuals who’ve been friends for years and work together in their spare time to uncover this corruption. I also enjoyed Alex and Kate and hope we see them in some of the other books from this series.
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An introduction to the Camel Club, a group of conspiracy theorists led by the mysterious Oliver Stone who see a murder and get led into a major attempt against the US president. A monster book nearly 700 pages and I found the first 150-200 pages very slow in the set-up to the main story
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Four societal misfits and conspiracy theorists living in the Washington DC area have banded together to form what they refer to as the Camel Club. Led by Oliver Stone, a 60+ year old man with a mysterious past, they find themselves accidentally witnessing a murder. That launches them into an adventure beyond their wildest expectations involving a complex and bizarre terrorist plot.
I’ve been a David Baldacci fan since I read
Absolute Power. His books don’t always quite live up to that one in my mind but I can pretty much guarantee a good read. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting as much from this one due to some less-than-positive- reviews from my Goodreads friends whose opinions I greatly respect. But I will say now that I enjoyed this one quite a lot. The characters were engaging, not only the four members of the Camel Club but the Secret Service, the terrorists, and even the politicians. The plot required some suspension of disbelief but was nevertheless interesting and moved along swiftly. Most of the novel ticked along fairly predictably but it was evident that something else was unfolding that I needed to be patient for. The payoff was worth it as the nature of the terrorist plot turned out to be anything but predictable and was one of the most unusual I have yet read.
Looking forward to reading the rest of this series. -
On paper an interesting idea - The Camel Club ia small group of Washington, D.C. based civilian misfits led by "Oliver Stone", a former CIA trained assassin who investigate crime and/or conspiracy theories.
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Sadly with the rise of James Patterson mega selling series, this was more about creating a serial brand than actually telling a good story in my opinion - although this is something I can write with hindsight. At the time it just felt like an interesting idea wasn't really built upon by the usually great storytelling Baldaccci. Still very readable, but one of those books you quite happily forget about once you've turned over the last page! 4 out of 12. -
A tense thriller with some fascinating twists.
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Rating - 6/10(Okay) - Rip-off of White House Down!! :(
After reading the Camel Club series as a whole, the order of the books from better to worst is -
#5 > #4 > #2 > #3 >#1
After reading the synopsis of what the book will be about, I was thrilled. But I learned the hard way that not to judge the book by it's cover. The book, as the title suggests, is The Camel Club . It should revolve mostly around The Camel Club right? But this book gives us the impression that it will be based on them but throws stones at us by having them only in lesser part of the novel( I don't remember exactly the fraction). The book should have been named as The Revenge of the Arabs or White House Down... Not Again!!!
Oh man!!! That is some accusation. I am not going to go straight ahead and say not to read the book. The book is about a conspiracy plot(which IMO is not that much of a conspiracy, one would also think so) involving kidnapping of the president for god knows what until, you know, The Camel Club saves the day by a slim chance. Yeay!! The intention of this was also not that great. There were also many plot holes I thought should be resolved. The book also made me think that I wasn't supposed to ask how this particular person knows so and so things.
But apart from, the book stood strong in terms of the characters. The characters were the main reason I read the book till the end. The life and struggle the characters face in the world of chaos was portrayed beautifully. I loved the chemistry between the characters. The book also made me cry at the end. The pain of loosing one's daughter without knowing that it is one's daughter was the sad part of this entire novel. The book also rained on facts regarding American history, life, culture and how it affects other countries. The action scenes were completely terrific(prologue is my most favorite).
I would give this book 3.8 stars. I wanted to give this book 5 but due to these factors I had to lower the score. My suggestion is that the author should spend equal amounts in crafting a story well deserved to it's name and also on current affairs. I hope that it gets better as I read the sequels. -
This was an interesting book, a good book to start the Camel Club series, some of the book was hard to follow because there was just so much going on and so many characters and for a while you don't know how some of them relate to the plot of the story, but in the end it all starts to come together. The Camel Club is a group of people led by presumed deceased John Carr who is now known as Oliver Stone, and they witness the murder of a man, and they are the only ones who witness it, they are now trying to discover the truth behind the murder.
Now that I've read the first book in the series, I plan on reading the other books as well. -
This is straight out of last night's news, well similar anyways. A lot of research has gone into the topic of Middle East/American dynamics in the writing of this not so pretty story. Baldacci, like Grisham, skillfully writes a conspiracy theory and then proves it.
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Edit: Lengthier review
Amazing 700 pages of pure intensity! What I like about this book is that the pace is very consistent, and it weaves from plot to plot at the right spots.
The camaraderie of The Camel Club is also one to enjoy. I admit sometimes the characters are quite bland, but their interactions make up for it.
This book also keeps you on your toes till the very end. It does not reveal until it needs to, and it keeps you guessing how the different plots would converge.
I might also have some biased towards Elite geniuses/Chosen ones genres, but as a veteran in this field, I must say it is not overly done. Stones is a well-crafted character for my tastes: intelligent, yet reclusive. Not showy, but deft when need be.
Overall, I would say it is a very fast-paced book even at 700 pages. Devouring it is not difficult for anyone who loves action. -
The Camel Club is a political thriller that opens in Washington, D.C. (well, not quite. The opening chapter is not in D.C.), where we meet four eccentric, once-upon-a-time effective fellows who make up a group they call The Camel Club. Each has some kind of experience and/or brilliance that makes him essential to the small assembly; and each has been successful at one time or another in his life. Now, they are only reflections of what they once were. There's Oliver Stone (his assumed name), Caleb Shaw, Reuben Rhodes, and Milton Farb, conspiracy theorists all. They meet once a month in the middle of the night to discuss recent conspiracy theories and reflect/update those they've held for years. There are other interesting characters introduced in the early pages, including Secret Service agent Alex Ford who's on the downside of his career, and Kate Adams, a Department of Justice lawyer who works as a bartender at night. Go figure that one out! We are also briefly introduced to U.S. President, James H. Brennan, and to National Intelligence Center Director, Carter Gray, among others.
Stone has a tent near the White House where he watches what goes on there. His goal is to find out the "truth" of things. He believes the American people have been denied that most desirous of tenets. On the evening of the beginning of this story, the Camel Club meets as arranged, but in the course of their meeting they unwittingly see a terrible crime committed on Theodore Roosevelt Island. Now, they must decide what to do about it...and I'm only on page 70! More later.
October 29, 2005: It's later. Life sometimes gets in the way of finishing a good book, but it's been worth three nights up too late to do it in this case.
The Camel Club members find themselves in the middle of a mess, having witnessed the murder of a Secret Service agent. Another Secret Service agent, Alex Ford, angers his superiors by deciding to investigate the death further than they had planned for this intended puppet. Stone and Ford end up working together to find out what's going on as a myriad of characters come and go, some with nefarious plans up their sleeves (there may even be a traitor in the club). It seems there are traitors everywhere and it's one of those times when one doesn't know who to trust. If you are into political intrigue, conspiracy theories, espionage, terrorism and/or assassination plots and all-around political paranoia, you will love this book. It is also very clearly and very well written. I can only say I hope there are many more Stones and Fords around than Captain Jacks and, well, others.
Give yourself plenty of time to read The Camel Club. There are several subplots and lots of interesting facts about many things included in the story. The primary plot is very intense and you won't want to find yourself forgetting pertinent details leading up to the "game." It's enough to make the reader want to bolt the door and never leave home. I'm just glad it's fiction! -
This is more of a 3.5 star read and if I could give half stars, I'd rate it that, but it wasn't a book I'd round up to 4.*
It took me a while to get into this book, but I'm glad I stuck with it; eventually I got to the point where I read longer than I should (but never to the point where I stayed up most of the night). It may be that I'll like the second one better. The Blurb gives you a good draw without giving away too much of the story. The book came out in 2005, and it shows--it mentions 9/11 a number of times--and it's a bit far-fetched, but to be fair, that's part of what makes this book more enjoyable. I didn't read this to get fiction that was too close to real life.
One complaint that if you don't play piano, or you weren't taught good technique on it (and perhaps you couldn't care less), is about the callouses on the fingers (how someone figured out someone else played.) This is wrong for three reasons:
1. pianists don't get callouses, string players do.
2. if they did get them, there is no way they would cover the full upper part of your finger--good typing and playing leads to very similar contact points.
3. The person is not a professional and in no way has nearly enough hours in a day to practise as long as a concert pianist does.
Good hand position for classical pianist, and these are world class pianists from different centuries and continents:
*I am not sure how much of that is the book itself and how much of it is that I just finished Baldacci's Atlee Pine series where the last two books garnered 4 stars from me (the first two 3, but they are all more violent than I care for). I miss having a team that consists primarily of strong women, plus Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum (Blum is a gem of a character), although I do like the fact that some of the protagonists are not young. One thing I'll say for Baldacci is that he includes some strong women and older people in each of the books I've read.
