Customer Reviews

Hell's Corner (Camel Club, Book 5)

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(50)

 

 

Oliver Stone has led so many lives he lost count. For all the losses he has suffered there has been the gain in his friends and cohorts known as the Camel Club. A group of people that are as different they come together and make one large, right group. They solve crimes, take care of each other and never fail to have one another's back. But this latest case is one Stone has to handle on his own and no one including him is happy about it even though the President of the United States is asking for his help.

But before Stone can do his work for the President a bomb goes off across the street from the White House creating the scenario where conclusions are drawn, angles are worked and assumptions made. While everyone is running to the right the masterminds are veering to the left and keeping everyone off balance including all the alphabet agencies in Washington, DC. Stone is drafted back into the service of the government with the promise that all past indiscretions would be erased yet the problem for Stone is that his sins have been of such huge proportion he is not sure this is a statement based in fact. But Stone finds himself partnered with an MI6 agent who is as cunning as he is and keeps up even while running after him. The Camel Club goes from upset at being turned away to forcing its way into the investigation and from that moment on the determination to capture the criminal and figure out what is really going on grows to a proportion even Stone can't control.

But the agency he is now working for is throwing him off with smoke and mirrors, bodies are piling up, misconceptions abound and everyone becomes a suspect. Stone wants the nightmare to stop but for every decision he makes that draws a resolution to the case another one shows up to prove to him the last one was way off base and leads blow away with the wind.

Without his group Stone knows he can't solve this case but in this particular situation is the gain of apprehension worth the answer to who did the deed?

This series blows me away every time because the characters have so much depth and they are written with such clarity that you feel they just passed you on the street and said Good Morning. Stone may lead this merry band of misfits but he is not their leader he is a member of a close knit, well thought out group of people that can easily carry any book on their own and have proven that in the past. Mr. Baldacci knows how to write a great story and this one stands out in that it will scare you to realize the fiction he is proposing is probably fact and I hope there is a retired Agent Stone out there protecting us.

I haven't read the other Camel Club books but this stand-alone thriller interested me after reading the highly recommended Gods of Ruin: A Political Thriller. Hell's Corner is the park accross from the white house that is guarded by DC police, Secret Service, and park police and is the hub for tourists and protesters. I wasn't sure why it was called that until all hell broke loose when the protagonist, Oliver Stone (a dig on the director?) was caught in gunfire and an explosion when meeting his band of patriots at the park.

When Stone awakes from getting knocked out, he's got a new mission: find out who was behind the attack at Hell's Corner. He teams up with a Brit and gets help from his Camel Club peeps as he investigates first a Mexican drug cartel, then the Russians. During the investigation, one government bureaucracy after another gets in the way.

If you like "Gods", which has a better premise, you'll like Hell's Corner. It's got political commentary, action, and it's well-written (better than Baldacci's earlier works).

I've just started the book and am about a quarter of the way through it. I just was checking to see if there were any reviews yet and of course it has a horrible rating because of the price, it is very annoying that people do that over the price. I am enjoying the book very much so I will give it 5 stars. I am on my second kindle and yes I am very disappointed with the price but I am not going to punish one of my favorite authors for something he has no control over. I have started to buy hard covers again and I share them with friends. Please stop reviewing the price here, it is really unfair to the people who want to know what others think of it. Ya know people who have actually bought the book and read it.

I have read all the Camel Club books, and I enjoyed all of the others more than this one. The club takes a back seat in this novel, and it is just Stone/Carr against the world as he plods through this overly complicated plot.

Missing is the personality development and the interactions between the various members of the club, which made Baldacci's other novels so entertaining.

If you are a fan of the Camel Club books, you will have to read this one, just so you will know where all of the characters are starting from in the next novel - but, rest assured, this will not turn out as one of your favorites.

Oliver Stone is recruited by the President of the United States to help serve his country on a top secret mission. In exchange for his services, Stone will never have to worry about the government knocking on his door again. The offer is too good for Stone to refuse.

Stone is standing outside in Lafayette park, outside of the White House, enjoying his last night before he heads out of the country. High dignitaries are heading to their cars after being wined and dined at a dinner honoring the British Prime Minister. Suddenly, everything turns to disaster when a bomb goes off. Stone wakes up in the hospital. Due to the high nature of this threat the FBI, Secret Services, and the Camel Club are all working on solving the case.

It was great to see the Camel Club together again in action. Everyone brings something new to the table. Stone is the ultimate action hero. He dishes out the butt-kicking and always leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Right from the beginning I was fully mersed into this book. I could not get enough of Stone. The dynamics between Stone and the rest of the characters were nice. They all worked well together. Everyone equally measured up to the story line. I kept trying to figure out who the rat was in the story and every time I would start to think it was so and so, another twist was get thrown my way. There was not a moment that I was not enjoying myself reading this book. The suspense levels were high. The ending was great. I can not wait to read the next Stone novel. Hell's Corner delivers the action and punches!

As a very loyal Fan of Mr Baldacci, I bought this book as soon as it came out, but it was very disappointing. The president himself begs an aging (60+ graveyard caretaker who doesn't even speak Russian) to stop the Russian Government from destroying America by flooding the country with drugs. Because NO ONE in the CIA, or any other organization has the special skills to Before he has a chance to do it, He is embroiled in determining who tried to kill the British Prime Minister, To do this he is paired with the Super Sexy British spy(who makes James bond look like a week girl scout, In any good spy thriller, the basic premise should at least be plausible but this goes way beyond the limits of believability. The dialog is boring. that action is boring, the whole book is boring!!!!

The Camel Club returns! They're my kind of guys: Old geezers who still have the knack to handle tough assignments. In spite of the not-so-great review from some brain trust reviewing agency, Baldacci didn't disappoint with this book. Oliver Stone is, as always, a friend, a patriot (in spite of the fact the government screws him)and someone I've grown to respect and trust. He ranks up there with Daniel Silva's character Gabriel Allon. It's refreshing to read a book that offers an adult hero instead of the usual pap of tough guy, lady killer, dumb as rocks and generally obnoxious. Oliver doesn't have to show off...he uses intellect and years of experience to get the job done. The one thing that always bothers me about the Camel Club series is how much of the governmental intrique is fiction and how much is real. I lean toward the latter. If you like thoughtful action by a mature lead character and skilfully woven plotting, don't miss this one. I'm anxious for the next one! If you're too cheap to buy the book, quit carping about it and don't offer a pseudo review blathering on about it's cost.

This book was a HUGE disappointment. I have read all of David Baldacci's books and this one was a real "downer". It just dragged on and on with little action until the very end and that was quickly dispatched with. I waited such a long time for this book and loved the previous Camel Club group and all of the other Baldacci books. I hope this is an anomoly and that his next book is back to his previous form. I'm not sorry that I bought it but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.

Oliver Stone is back and this time he is actually working again for the U.S. government. Oliver is requested by the President to come back into government work to help solve a problem. Sure he is getting old but the problem is that the cold war with Russia is heating back up on a new front and the young CIA agents of today don't have the experience necessary to deal with the problem.

So the President asks Oliver to come back to work. Hard to believe but he agrees to take the task. But as soon as he does the task spins out of control as a bomb goes off right across the street from the White House.

In this novel we are going to be introduced to a whole new set of characters as Oliver tells the Camel Club to take a hike and instead he is tasked to work with agent Chapman, an MI6 British agent. Their partnership is going to give us a great ride as they struggle to solve the bombing while being hampered by inter agency rivalries and very intentional mis direction from each of their handlers.

The problem, both Stone and Chapman are so capable that they keep peeling back the layers of deception and discover that there has to be a mole working the inside of this case and staying one step ahead of them. Every lead they get keeps ending up dead.

Baldacci does a great job of keeping you interested in what's going on and develops the new characters so well that you feel as though they are old friends even though they have just arrived.

Don't worry though, the Camel Club members won't be pushed to the side, they force their way back into Oliver's life and come along side to help with the case. Oh an agent Chapman, a by the book agent, learns from Stone that sometimes you have to break the rules and trust your partner more than your superiors.

I couldn't put the book done and know that if you are a Camel Club fan you are going to love this novel. My only sadness is that I finished the book and the next installment is no where in sight. David, please write faster and get us the next book :)

Enjoy!

If ever there was an example of squeezing too much blood out of a series, then this is it. I have been a great fan of the Camel Club series up to now, but honestly it was only out of respect for the entertainment I have gotten from Baldacci's previous works (both Camel Club and others) that I finished this one. Too many red herrings and blindsides, boring politics, cliched foreigners, and - most of all - not enough input from Stone's other Camel Club colleagues. These were the characters that made the previous books in the series so entertaining, but in this they are pure bit part players. Time for you Oliver to retire to the beach..........