Divine justice

*Starred Review* Readers who have been holding their breath since the end of Stone Cold (2007), the previous Camel Club novel, can inhale: Oliver Stone did survive his plunge into the water. For the uninitiated, Baldacci's Oliver Stone isn't the noted film director; he's a former government assassin who has made a risky living foiling government conspiracies. Now, having eluded capture after committing a pair of necessary assassinations, Stone (or John Carr, if you prefer to use his real name) is on the run, hiding out in rural America, where he discovers that small-town intrigue is at least as intricate and dangerous as anything he's come up against previously. Combining the Camel Club series' wit and fast pace with a Fugitive-like story (casting Stone as Richard Kimble, the man on the run who risks his life to protect the lives of strangers), Baldacci shows once again that he is a sort of thriller Renaissance man: a master of plot, dialogue, and character. It's fascinating to observe how Stone operates when he's entirely on his own, too. Not only is he evading his pursuers, especially Macklin Hayes, whose obsessive determination to capture Stone may be based more on personal reasons than professional ones, but he's also cast himself adrift from his comrades, who are working feverishly behind the scenes to find him and keep him safe. A rousing success, although this should come as no surprise to faithful Baldacci readers.--Pitt, David Copyright 2008 Booklist

Near the start of bestseller Baldacci's less than compelling fourth Camel Club thriller (after Stone Cold), former CIA assassin Oliver Stone (aka John Carr) boards a New Orleans-bound train at Washington's Union Station after shooting to death "a well-known U.S. senator and the nation's intelligence chief," the two men responsible for his wife's murder. Ever the Good Samaritan, Stone intervenes in a fight on the train, but when the Amtrak conductor asks to see his ID, he gets off at the next station, knowing his fake ID won't withstand scrutiny. So much for Stone's vaunted ability as a resourceful planner. This sudden detour takes Stone to Divine, Va., a mining town where he becomes enmeshed in corruption and intrigue--and falls, in just one of several clichEd situations, for an attractive if beleaguered widow. Series fans should be satisfied, but this effort lacks the imagination that distinguished Baldacci's debut, Absolute Power (1996). (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Having offed two guys who knew too much about his past, Oliver Stone is hiding--and his Camel Club is bereft. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Baldacci (The Whole Truth, 2008, etc.) moves his recurring Camel Club characters far enough offstage to let tough guy hero Oliver Stone take on a mean mountain town singlehandedly (for a while, at least) in something of the fashion of Lee Child's Jack Reacher. The dark American hole in need of a flushing out is Divine, a tiny burg in Virginia's far southwest coal country where quietly modest Vietnam hero Stone, n John Carr, has landed. It's not where he was going. He had been getting the hell out of Washington, D.C., where heavy-handed, stonehearted, government forces were about to close in on him, but he couldn't help stepping into an unfair fight brewing in his Amtrak coach. Handsome, youngish ex-high school quarterback Danny Riker was stupid enough to accuse knuckle draggers with whom he had been playing cards of cheating, leading to a knock down drag out in which Stone wasted all of the thugs and incurred the wrath of the Amtrak conductor, making it necessary for all involved to get off at the next stop. Stone takes Danny under his wing and Danny reluctantly takes Stone back home to Divine and his pretty motherAbby, owner of Divine's best diner. Stone notes quickly that Divine has a gloss of prosperity very unlike the neighboring hellholes. That sheen doesn't extend to the downtrodden miners whose hideous labors keep them gobbling methadone day after day. Where's the money coming from? There is one other visible industry, a supermax prison run by the brother of the handsome, straight-shooting sheriff, but that doesn't explain the prosperity. Stone begins to nose around the place, running up against numerous unsavory characters, saving lives when possible, getting mad when not, dodging the usual falling safes until his probing causes him to wake up buried alive in a dead coal mine. There is a dalliance withAbby, but the evil feds close in on Stone so it is necessary for his Camel Club cohorts to dig him out in the end. Tighter than the writer's most recent efforts, but far from spellbinding. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

*Starred Review* Readers who have been holding their breath since the end of Stone Cold (2007), the previous Camel Club novel, can inhale: Oliver Stone did survive his plunge into the water. For the uninitiated, Baldacci's Oliver Stone isn't the noted film director; he's a former government assassin who has made a risky living foiling government conspiracies. Now, having eluded capture after committing a pair of necessary assassinations, Stone (or John Carr, if you prefer to use his real name) is on the run, hiding out in rural America, where he discovers that small-town intrigue is at least as intricate and dangerous as anything he's come up against previously. Combining the Camel Club series' wit and fast pace with a Fugitive-like story (casting Stone as Richard Kimble, the man on the run who risks his life to protect the lives of strangers), Baldacci shows once again that he is a sort of thriller Renaissance man: a master of plot, dialogue, and character. It's fascinating to observe how Stone operates when he's entirely on his own, too. Not only is he evading his pursuers, especially Macklin Hayes, whose obsessive determination to capture Stone may be based more on personal reasons than professional ones, but he's also cast himself adrift from his comrades, who are working feverishly behind the scenes to find him and keep him safe. A rousing success, although this should come as no surprise to faithful Baldacci readers. Copyright 2008 Booklist Reviews.

Having offed two guys who knew too much about his past, Oliver Stone is hiding--and his Camel Club is bereft. Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Justice is in the eye of the beholder. In Baldacci's fourth novel (after Stone Cold) in his "Camel Club" series, Oliver Stone (aka John Carr, ex-CIA assassin) is wanted dead by his enemies and alive by his friends. Stone is on the run after assassinating the two men responsible for the death of his family and his friend Milton. Now Stone's former superior, Gen. Macklin Hayes, enlists tracker Joe Knox to locate Stone so Hayes can silence Stone forever. During Stone's flight from the law, a random act of kindness by Stone forces him on an unwanted detour to Divine, VA. There, Stone's continued good deeds might end up costing him his life as he quickly gets tangled in the hidden web of deceit to which the town owes its prosperity. Meanwhile, both Stone's friends and enemies are furtively searching for him. Who will reach Stone first? Baldacci fans will welcome this latest tale about the charismatic Stone and his exceedingly loyal friends with its fast-paced action and intriguing plot twists. Highly recommended for all thriller collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/08.]—Susan O. Moritz, Montgomery Cty. P.L.s, MD

Near the start of bestseller Baldacci's less than compelling fourth Camel Club thriller (after Stone Cold ), former CIA assassin Oliver Stone (aka John Carr) boards a New Orleans–bound train at Washington's Union Station after shooting to death "a well-known U.S. senator and the nation's intelligence chief," the two men responsible for his wife's murder. Ever the Good Samaritan, Stone intervenes in a fight on the train, but when the Amtrak conductor asks to see his ID, he gets off at the next station, knowing his fake ID won't withstand scrutiny. So much for Stone's vaunted ability as a resourceful planner. This sudden detour takes Stone to Divine, Va., a mining town where he becomes enmeshed in corruption and intrigue—and falls, in just one of several clichd situations, for an attractive if beleaguered widow. Series fans should be satisfied, but this effort lacks the imagination that distinguished Baldacci's debut, Absolute Power (1996). (Nov.)