The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)

The Collectors (Camel Club #2)

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93  ·  rating details  ·  14,668 ratings  ·  856 reviews
In Washington, D.C, where power is everything and too few have too much of it, four highly eccentric men with mysterious pasts call themselves the Camel Club. Their mission: find out what's really going on behind the closed doors of America's leaders.

The assassination of the U.S. Speaker of the House has shaken the nation. And the outrageous iconoclasts of the Camel Club...more
Hardcover, 438 pages
Published October 18th 2006 by Warner Books (first published January 1st 2006)
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
Transfer of Power by Vince FlynnDeception Point by Dan BrownThe Hunt for Red October by Tom ClancyAbsolute Power by David BaldacciProtect and Defend by Vince Flynn
Political Thrillers
16th out of 194 books — 155 voters
Nonofficial Asset by William SewellThe Hunt for Red October by Tom ClancyTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le CarréThe Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le CarréThe Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Best Spy Novels
116th out of 486 books — 417 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Donna
Jan 20, 2008 Donna rated it 1 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Action-adventure fans who don't care much about credibility
Shelves: unfinished
I got to page 117. I realized it was time to quit when I found myself thinking, "Gee I really should read a few pages in that book I'm working on, but I'd rather clean the bathroom." With all due respect to Mr. Baldacci. His writing obviously affords many people untold hours of welcome diversion. But apparently I'm not going to be one of them.

So far, what we've got is a dead body in a locked room and two groups of people running around like gangs of middle school kids, playing at being grownups....more
Eric Bjerke
Jun 07, 2008 Eric Bjerke rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like complex thrillers
Recommended to Eric by: found on a table in teacher's lounge
Shelves: fiction
Anytime I read a book from cover-to-cover in just a couple of days, I obviously enjoyed it. I am easily bored and this one was not boring. I learned about con artists, and ex-CIA hit men, and rare books. That said, it wasn't clever enough. I don't mean the plot--I will never understand how people come up with such a twisting, complex tale--but the characters just seemed so pedestrian to me. Obviously a book like this is not going to contain charaters that are dynamic because it is all about the...more
Carol Hunter
It took me a little while to get started in "the flow" of reading this D.C. suspense novel involving the sale of our national secrets AND a woman leading a long con against a casino owner. When all the disparate elements came together, I began devouring this book to see how it would end. I plan to read the sequel, as it will illuminate how the "Camel Club" will deal with the enraged casino owner.
D.K.
Oliver Stones suspects there is a link between the assassination of the U.S Speaker of the House and the director of the Library of Congress rare books room. The Camel Club is joined by Annabelle Conroy, a con-artist who should be running for her life, but is instead aiding the group to solve this mystery.

All the members of the Camel Club lives are threaten by a ruthless enemy that once worked for the same ultra secret organization as Oliver Stone.

David Baldacci has the amazing ability to thri...more
Priya
Ugh.

I'm not going to say this book wasn't completely lacking in entertainment value--but it came pretty close. I've read other books by David Baldacci(Absolute Power) and none of those had writing that made me cringe.

Anyway--the storyline reeked of someone who spent a lot of time in Washington DC and wanted to write something filled with Da Vinci Code/National Treasuresesque intrigue. He spent a lot of time describing people's pasts and not enough time showing through actions who the people rea...more
Kevan
If I could give a book a six star rating I would. Very few books recently have captured me so thoroughly that I stayed up all night finishing it. It is also incredibly rare that I think the second book of a series is so much better than the first.

The most amazing thing to me about this book is that he manages to tell a complete and complex story, and simultaneously develops the beginning of a third story that leaves me drooling at the mouth in anticipation of its completion. I got the satisfacti...more
Toni Osborne
Sequel to "The Camel Club"

Soon after the Speaker of the House is assassinated, Caleb Shaw a quiet librarian stumbles upon the body of his boss Jonathan DeHaven at the Library of Congress narrowly escaping the same fate. "The Camel Club" group promptly sets out to investigate and it becomes a race to stop a man who is determined to auction off America to the highest bidder.

On a local level, Annabelle Conroy, a gifted con artist, is out to pull off a major con against a ruthlessly violent casino b...more
Carl Alves
The Collectors is a fast paced thriller filled with espionage and intrigue. It follows two separate story lines that eventually come together. The more enjoyable story line was when Annabelle Conroy tries to run a long con on a casino executive who is more mobster than corporate CEO. This man killed Annabelle's mother when she was just a young girl. Meanwhile the eclectic Camel Club, led by their leader Oliver Stone (not the famous director) is investigating a murder of one of their member's fri...more
Angela
Anything about libraries and old books will guarantee you my interest, I'll admit that. When I started reading the book it seemed more like a typical thriller with assassinations and intrigues. I was hopeful there would be some more involvement of, well, libraries and books. But despite being set in the Library of Congress and (view spoiler)[ the actually minor plot point with the Psalm Book. I was really disappointed. (hide spoiler)] this book could have been set in any location. The Library ju...more
Kevin Rubin
"The Collectors" is a pretty typical Baldacci book, fast paced, light reading.

This one has two not-really-related plots, one with a small group of con artists ripping off a nasty Atlantic City casino operator, and the main one with Baldacci's Camel Club regrouping to solve a murder leading to a major national security issue.

While the plots don't really relate to each other, one of the characters moves from one to the other and leads to the next book, which unfortunately I read first, earlier thi...more
Doug Clark
David Baldacci’s recent book, The Collectors, is the second in his series on The Camel Club, a loosely organized collection of four men who have met and bonded over the years in Washington, D.C. The Camel Club consists of Oliver Stone, nee’ John Carr, a former assassin for the CIA and now a groundskeeper/caretaker for an old cemetery and sometime protester with a tent in front of the White House; Caleb Shaw, a research specialist in the Rare Books room of the Library of Congress; Rueben Rhodes,...more
Jan Derksen

In Washington D.C. vinden kort na elkaar twee prominente figuren de dood. De een is Robert Bradley, Speaker of Congres, die wordt doodgeschoten tijdens een politieke bijeenkomst. De tweede dode is Jonathan DeHaven. Hij sterft onder mysterieuze omstandigheden op de afdeling Zeldzame Boeken van de Library of Congres, waarvan hij de directeur is.
Op het eerste gezicht hebben de twee gebeurtenissen niets met elkaar te maken. Maar wanneer DeHavens collega Caleb Shaw wordt aangesteld als executeur-te

...more
Sheila Callaham
The Collectors is a deeply involved and highly complex plot that merges two key stories into one suspense-filled read. When House Speaker Bob Bradley is murdered, members of the informal watchdog organization, Camel Club, want to know the truth. Led by former CIA agent Oliver Stone, the four Camel Club members are further challenged when the rare books librarian at the Library of Congress ends up dead as well.

Far from the politics on Capital Hill, Annabelle Conroy is about to execute the con of...more
Bob O'Laughlin
Wow. I have not experienced such a dramatic conclusion to a mystery since the last time I watched Scooby-Doo.

Zoinks!

This author (not the book) was recommended to me by my mother (an extremely smart and well read person) after I told her I was a Nelson DeMille fan. I picked up this book at the library and found myself quickly skeptical of the formulaic (we're talking Steven Seagal movie characters) "Camel Club" and thin (we're talking Kate Moss in Ethiopia) plot. I thought this might be because I...more
Jean
What librarian would not love to find danger and intrigue in the hallowed halls of the Library of Congress? I picked this audio up because of the picture of the reading room on the cover, not knowing it was #2 in a series. I don't know if it would have been better if I had read #1 first, but I thouroughly enjoyed the book anyway. In fact, I was so anxious to find out what was going to happen that I checked the book out to read the last 75 pages since I knew it would take several days if I just l...more
Lainy
Time Taken To Read - 2 days

Blurb From Goodreads

In Washington, D.C, where power is everything and too few have too much of it, four highly eccentric men with mysterious pasts call themselves the Camel Club. Their mission: find out what's really going on behind the closed doors of America's leaders.

The assassination of the U.S. Speaker of the House has shaken the nation. And the outrageous iconoclasts of the Camel Club have found a chilling connection with another death: the demise of the director...more
Patrick Gibson
Aug 04, 2009 Patrick Gibson rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: mystery, murder, conspiracy
Shelves: testosterone
I didn’t realize this was a continuation of The Camel Club. Well it isn’t really a continuation, but uses some of the same characters—which are refreshingly nerd-like and a little over the hill, until they swing into action.

There are two stories here. First there’s a band of grifters who are pulling some clever bank and casino scams. Their last involves forty million dollars and will apparently be resolved in a future book. Somewhere in the middle of this story the grifters meet up with the Came...more
Dan Schwartz
A great follow up in a great series. Introducing a great female character who is mysterious, smart, beautiful, and a trickers, although the two female characters from the first book are just kind of gone with no mention, but I think it is a good trade. This storyline is not as intense as the first, but there is most more character development (in fact Milton, the character with OCD who was starting to get on my nerves in the first book, apparantly must have been going to treatment that was worki...more
Bev
After finishing "The Camel Club," I was eager to read another in this series of Baldacci books, so I chose the second book in the Camel Club series. Like the first in the series, this is another which follows several disparate groups for several chapters. Perhaps more disparate than in the first book, since while the book starts with the murder of the Speaker of the house, it then jumps to a scam perpetrated on an Atlantic City casino. Seemed difficult to figure out how the two plot lines would...more
Adam
Post Listen Review: Well this was a bit sillier than I expected what with all of the con-men and women, over the top secret agents, gas that can kill you without leaving a trace and mafia hit-men but it was still pretty entertaining. I was thinking it would seem more serious really but then maybe it seems less serious to me because one of the narrators' voice reminds me of the voice of the male wonder-twin from the Justice League cartoon. There are some good guys and bad guys and they mostly try...more
Sadaf
I've never read Baldacci before, and now I realize that I should have. Although this is number two in the Camel Club series, I could catch on pretty well.
There are two simultaneous plots going on - one of Annabelle and her crew pulling the biggest con in a lifetime and making millions. And another, Caleb Shaw, a member of the Camel Club becoming literary executor of Jonathen Dehaven's book collection, after he dies. What seems to be a natural death, turns out to be much more.
As things start to...more
Becky
The four members of the Camel Club are back in the second book of the series. The Collectors focuses on a conspiracy behind the death of a rare book collector. One of the club's members, Caleb, is appointed to value and distribute the books in the deceased man's collection. This endangers Caleb as well as the others who are helping him in the process. Annabelle Conroy, a con, is introduced in this story. She is the ex-wife of the deceased and two plots gradually come together.



I like that there i...more
Kelly
I just love David Baldacci. I think he is my guilty pleasure when it comes to books. He does such a wonderful job of character development and plot timing. The first part of this book, I was trying and trying to figure out how the two seemingly disconnected stories were going to tie together, and then BAM. Never saw it coming. The Camel Club is an organization of disenfranchised former (and current) government employees who always seem to be in the thick of things and have a unique combination o...more
Luis Gutierrez
A talented spy-for-hire assassin shoots the Speaker of the House and kills the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books Room. How could these two crimes be related? One of the members of the Camel Club, Caleb Shaw is thrown in the middle of the case, by nearly falling victim too.
Meanwhile, in Atlantic City, a gifted beautiful con woman assembles a first rate team to pull an incredible and dangerous scam on one of the most dangerous men in the country. She succeeds taking 40 million doll...more
Seanna
I am choosing this one at random of all of the Baldaccis I have read in the last month or so. I am chewing through them like it's a paid gig. With a few exceptions, I am rating them with 4 stars. He seems to be about a head above the pack in terms of mass market suspensers. I mean, I'm not giving any of his 5 stars, but if I did, and he read this, he'd probably discount my review himself. Five stars are for the classics, man.

Anyway, I am digging this Camel Club series. I am on the last one and...more
Joe Bartello
I thought I would try a David Baldacci book, looking for the "motherlode", which is for me, a series of books that allow me to dive in and enjoy for several months without thinking too much about choice.
Sadly this will be my one and only visit to this author.
If it is representative of his other works, I can only say that his popularity is baffling. The characters were one dimensional, unbelievable and hinting at but lacking any real depth. The plot line was just barely discernable and the outcom...more
Kait
I picked up this David Baldacci for two reasons: it was on sale for $4.35 and I've wondered about the hype that follows Baldacci's every book. I was not impressed. It actually took some effort and resolve to keep reading until the final third of the book. Once the two plots melded, it was less of a task to flip the pages, but the holes and cliches irked me in unacceptable ways. Five years ago, I got myself caught up in the Danielle Steele trap, and this book gave me an unsettling deja vu. As hap...more
Bridgette Redman
Libraries conjure up peaceful images—quiet, stately places where everything is minutely ordered. It's a place where minds meet and share ideas from ancient to modern days. So it might seem an unusual place to set a violent espionage thriller.

And yet, the pages within the spines of the books collected at libraries everywhere narrate limitless accounts of adventure, knowledge, and conjecture. So perhaps it is far less ironic than it might seem. In fact, one might almost say that a library is a pe...more
Frederick Bingham
A real page turner. This is the story of the Camel Club, a group of friends who live in Washington DC and meet to discuss conspiracy theories. They are led by a guy named Oliver Stone. One day they read in the news of a powerful member of Congress that is killed. At nearly the same time, in a seemingly unconnected incident, a librarian in the rare books room of the Library of Congress dies of heart failure in a reading room. One of the members of the club finds him. Of course the Camel Club memb...more
LaDawn
In the summer I hanker after salads and light meals whereas in the winter I want hearty hefty stews. Similarly, in the summer I like to clear out the cobwebs of my winter reading list with some light page turning fiction candy. I take this time to devour chick lit, thrillers, romance and other that aren't disrupted by a nap in the hammock. Baldacci's novel are perfect for this time of year. I really enjoyed this 2nd installment of the (mis)adventures of The Camel Club. I think the characters are...more
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 99 100 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)
The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)
The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)
The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)
The Collectors (Camel Club, #2)

9291
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 sixteen novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Win...more
More about David Baldacci...
Absolute Power The Camel Club (Camel Club, #1) The Winner Divine Justice (Camel Club, #4) Split Second (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell, #1)

Share This Book

Your website

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »