Divine Justice (Camel Club) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

David Baldacci (Author)

Book Description

Series: Camel Club | Publication Date: November 4, 2008

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 America. With two pulls of the trigger, the men who destroyed Stone's life and kept him in the shadows were finally silenced.

But his freedom comes at a steep price: The assassinations he carried out prompt the highest levels of the U.S. government to unleash a massive manhunt. Behind the scenes, master spy Macklin Hayes is playing a very personal game of cat and mouse. He, more than anyone, wants Stone dead.

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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 clichéd 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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*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. --David Pitt --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Lrg edition (November 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446505382
• ISBN-13: 978-0446505383
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.5 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (173 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #805,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Baldacci was born in Virginia, in 1960, where he currently resides. He received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Mr. Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and corporate attorney.
David Baldacci has published seventeen novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train, Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors, Simple Genius, Stone Cold, and The Whole Truth; and in his young adult series, Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Adventures of Silas Finklebean. He has also published a novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, written for Holland's Year 2000 "Month of the Thriller." Baldacci authored a short story, "The Mighty Johns," as part of a mystery anthology published in 2002.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another good Camel Club thriller, November 6, 2008

By 

BrianB (Northern California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divine Justice (Camel Club) (Hardcover)

The fourth installment of the Camel Club series is a fast paced thriller that shows Baldacci's winning style. If you are a Baldacci fan, I can recommend this novel. If you are not a fan, you will be one after finishing Divine Justice. It is not the best novel of the series, but it is a high quality mystery nonetheless.

The heroes of The Camel Club return their latest adventure, one which may be their last. The action puts all of them into jeopardy, and they find themselves in a series of desperate situations. There is a nation wide manhunt for Oliver Stone, who flees to a small town, only to find himself immersed in anther dangerous mystery there.

The main characters, Oliver Stone and Joe Knox, are flawed but understandable characters, men who don't always do the right thing, but try to act according to their principles. You get to hear their thoughts as one hunts the other, and I found myself caring about both of them, even though they were headed for an inevitable show-down. This element heightens the tension in the story, and made it hard to put the book down. Making Stone seem sympathetic to new readers was a considerable feat for Baldacci, after his main character executes a US senator and the "Head of Intelligence" in the first chapter. Both men admit to themselves that they have broken laws along the way, and they are troubled individuals. The fact that they are often more threatened by their own people than by the bad guys makes the story difficult to put down.

In a rare moment of agreement with Publisher's Weekly, I must admit that this is not Balducci's best effort. Nevertheless, his characters are believable and sympathetic, the action never slows, and the book will hold your interest to the last page. Balducci's lesser novels are better than many author's best.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "With two early morning pulls of the trigger...", November 7, 2008

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divine Justice (Camel Club) (Hardcover)

If you haven't already read a David Baldacci book, can't imagine how you missed him. He's penned fifteen bestsellers four of which feature affecting protagonist John Carr also known as Oliver Stone. Once a CIA assassin Stone now battles mightily to right wrongs. Through this character Baldacci has taken readers to Washington, more often than not shocking them with scenarios that may be too close to the truth.

Stone is back in this the fourth installment in the Camel Club series, and he's once again on the run. "With two early morning pulls of the trigger he'd become the most wanted man in America."

He's too smart to try to board a plane knowing the major airports are alive with those looking for him but instead buys a ticket on the Amtrack Crescent, headed for New Orleans. Once settled in his seat, ever alert, he takes note of his fellow passengers - a mother with a baby, a thin man eating a cheeseburger, and a kid a few years out of high school but still wearing his varsity jacket. "To Stone's eye the young man also had the look of someone who was certain that the world owed him everything and had never bothered paying its bill"

The young man is Danny Riker who is soon assaulted by a trio who accuse him of cheating at cards. Stone rescues Danny and the two leave the train at the next stop. When Stone finds out that Danny is from an Appalachian coal mining town, Divine, Virginia, he decides that might be the perfect place for him to hide out.

Divine might be a good place to take cover but it's also a place where corruption is rampant and most of the coal miners are methadone addicts due to the daily injections they take to pass inspections. Couple this with a suicide that in truth might have been murder, and you have an idea what Stone is up against.

In addition to being a masterful storyteller, an expert at creating riveting suspense, Baldacci is a native of Virginia and lives there today. Thus, he brings an added realism to his descriptions of this area and its people.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Baldacci meets Lee Child, November 21, 2008

By 

N. Brett (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Divine Justice (Camel Club) (Hardcover)

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.