Divine Justice (Camel Club) by David Baldacci Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Divine Justice (Camel Club)
Book Review: Another heart racing novel by David Baldacci
Summary: 5 Stars
Once again David Baldacci has written a great book. Yes, it does continue with the same individuals from some of his other books who are know as the Camel Club, but even if you have not read any of his previous books you will still be able to follow the story line.
I myself was introduced to Davids Books just recently and was so enthralled that I had to run to the library and start reading from his very first book. With almost every book I found that I could not put it down.
This story had me sitting on the end of my seat wishing I could get to the end of the book sooner then later. He writes so well in fact that I became one with the book. As always he leaves me wanting to read his next book and wishing he could write just a little bit faster.
Book Review: Baffling plunge: hastily dashed, clumsy & flimsy plot; brutish agency brawling
Summary: 1 Stars
Baldacci long has been one of my favorite authors: solid and clever plot, witty terse style and elegant prose. Hence I felt cheated by what appears to be a hastily dashed together plot ... as if the author tried to meet a publisher's deadline with a (once) successful formula. The result is a drifting aimlessly rambling unimaginative plot, relying on tediously boring brutish fighting--and incongruously lucky victories--substituting for Baldacci's normally substantial and masterful thriller development.
Homeland Insecurity, and intelligence agencies run by bumbling desk warriors with CYA mentality, seem no match for a single loose cannon rogue agent. After a dozen chapters of hoping that the puzzle eventually would fall together, and the actions and motives begin to make sense, I gave up in disgust, exasparated by book jacket promises unmet. "Divine Justice" seems more like a ghost-written "Dubious Legacy" -- utterly devoid of this gifted author's deft touch in sustaining edge-of-seat suspension to the very end.
Book Review: Baldacci Does it again
Summary: 5 Stars
After I read Stone Cold, I had to have this book! David Baldacci brings you into the Camel Club, and once you're in you can never get out. A real page turner. Be ready to read cover to cover.Book Review: Baldacci meets Lee Child
Summary: 3 Stars
The fourth (and probably the last) in the Camel Club series.
The Camel Club was an interesting diversion for Baldacci, the books started off very light and then got darker as the series progressed. I would not recommend Divine Justice unless you have read the previous novels in the series.
This starts off with our hero John Carr (aka Oliver Stone) on the run having taken out two senior US officials (who were bad guys). A manhunt is underway and Carr is looking for somewhere to disappear when he gets involved in a fracas and ends up in Divine, a small town which is hiding a lot of secrets. Does he keep his head down or does he get involved?
Meanwhile tenacious CIA tracker Joe Knox is on his trail and getting closer, as are Carr's friends from the Camel Club who want to help their friend....
As other reviewers have mentioned much of this did remind me of Lee Child's latest (Nothing To Lose) where his hero Reacher ends up in a small town called Despair which also has many secrets.
This ends up as a hit and miss book, the Joe Knox and Camel Club elements are the most interesting but the stuff in Divine was so similar to Lee Child's latest that it really did jar and the scenario around the bad guys felt too contrived.
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