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Jan 20, 2008

Donna rated it:

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, play More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2008

Eric rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2008

Carol rated it:

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.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 12, 2008

D.K. rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2007

Priya rated it:

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 a More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Kevan rated it:

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 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2009

Toni rated it:

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 maj More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Nancy rated it:

The Collectors is book two of the Camel Club series. There are actually two different plotlines here that are eventually going to merge. First, Caleb Shaw (the Library of Congress librarian) discovers his boss Jonathan DeHaven dead at the library, and passes out. He wakes up in the hospital, where Oliver Stone (the Camel Club's leader), overhears something that leads him to wonder if DeHaven's death was more than the heart attack he supposedly died from. This one remark will put the Camel Club More...

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Jul 03, 2011

Sheila rated it:

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 t More...

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Aug 08, 2010

Bob rated it:

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) plo More...

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Jun 02, 2010

Jean rated it:

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 jus More...

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Aug 04, 2009

Patrick rated it:

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 w More...

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Dec 02, 2011

Dan rated it:

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 work More...

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Oct 09, 2011

Bev rated it:

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 More...

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Jan 28, 2011

Adam rated it:

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 More...

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Feb 23, 2009

Becky rated it:

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.

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Jul 14, 2011

Luis rated it:

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 More...

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Jul 06, 2009

Kait rated it:

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...

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Jan 01, 2012

Frederick rated it:

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...

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Jul 13, 2011

LaDawn rated it:

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 character More...

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Nov 06, 2010

iubookgirl rated it:

The Collectors is the second book in the Camel Club series. The mystery involves the selling of U.S. secrets; and the Camel Club becomes involved following the mysterious death of Caleb Shaw's supervisor in the Library of Congress' Rare Books Division. The increased focus on Caleb Shaw and Milton Farb, the less danger savvy members of the club, made for some amusing moments. Their eccentricities had me laughing out loud at times. This sense of humor plus the element of bibliomystery made for a v More...

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Aug 18, 2009

Bridgit rated it:

Ok - so i will preface this by saying that i read an ARC, so some of this may have been different from the final published book. While I enjoyed the overall story, I thought the whole Annabelle string was just irrelevant. Sadly, I enjoyed the con artist part of the story the most, but it really had little to do with the actual plot. I was frustrated that it wasnt wrapped up at the end. I hate loose endings.

Other than that, the pace of the story was good and kept you reading. The pre More...

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Mar 18, 2009

Sharon rated it:

This was a good story, but amateur writing hour...I'm STUNNED this guy is a best-selling author (although maybe this book doesn't demonstrate his best work -- I haven't read any others). It does lead me to believe that the books that men read and like (I'm guessing this one) and the books women read and like are written very differently. I like lots of descritive writing (paint a picture for me -- put me there!). This is more, point blank. The twists and turns of the story were compelling enough More...

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Sep 10, 2009

Chad rated it:

This is the second installment of the Camel Club series of stories by bestselling author David Baldacci. The first - The Camel Club - was previously reviewed. This installment picks up shortly after the conclusion of the first. As with the first, this story really revolves around the core group of four characters that make up the Camel Club, and Baldacci has once again done a wonderful job of drawing the reader into the lives of idiosyncrasies of each of the characters. However, unlike the first More...

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Jun 18, 2009

Dina P. rated it:

Masih tentang Camel Club (Oliver Stone, Milton Farb, Caleb Shaw, Reuben Rhodes) yang menggemari teori konspirasi. Kali ini mereka terjebak di tengah-tengah kegilaan seorang anggota intelejen Amerika. Seperti Oliver Stone yang pernah menjadi Triple Six ("mesin pembunuh" pemerintah Amerika), Ryan Seagraves juga seorang Triple Six yang hobi mengoleksi barang-barang milik korbannya dan punya pekerjaan sampingan sebagai penjual rahasia negara.
Seri ini sangat menarik, ceritanya melompa More...

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Apr 03, 2009

Kim rated it:

This book was "okay", what i consider a beach read. Not real deep , not anything i would read again, and not something i lost sleep over staying up all night to read just one more chapter... Maybe it was because i listened to it rather than read it, maybe it was because i didn't read the first book, but i doubt it, the book seemed to ....searching for the right words here... James Bondish without the appeal, I like James Bond so i don't know if that is the best comparrison.

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Dec 30, 2008

Karen rated it:

This is a sequel of sorts of his book "The Camel Club", with the same group of 4 men in Washington D.C. who call themselves The Camel Club. This group finds that there is a connection between the assassination of the Speaker of the House and the death of the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books and Special Collections Division. Behind all this is a spy who was a former CIA operative. There is also a concurrent story about a woman conartist, and I was a little disappointe More...

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Oct 30, 2011

Brian rated it:

This is the sequel to The Camel Club. It takes place immediately after the events of the first book. The new Speaker of the House is assassinated. Then the director of the Library of Congress's Rare Books and Special Collections Division is killed mysteriously. Caleb Shaw works at the Library of Congress. He and the other members of the Camel Club investigate the deaths. They are joined by a very creative con artist, Annabel Conroy, who had just pulled off a con on a casino owner. Their i More...

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Feb 19, 2009

Jonah rated it:

It's been a long time since I've read a book like this, you know, the absolutely mindless thriller a la John Grisham, James Patterson, etc. I will say, though, that I enjoyed reading a book like this again. Yes, the dialogue was ridiculously cheesy. Yes, the ending reminded me of every single Scooby Doo episode I've ever watched. However, the plot twists (though mostly predictable and expected) kept me reading to the point where I finished the book in about two days. It is my understanding More...

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Apr 22, 2009

Irene added it

Din't really grip me from the start. I expected a little more and was disappointed in the character portrayals. Do such educated men that are so involved in their respective fields really react that way to a woman who suddenly appears on the scene, not to mention the casino thug who should have been more than a little suspicious ? A bit more unnecessary dialogue than I thought was needed, and really, most of the characters were thoroughly unlikable, with the exception of "Oliver Stone" More...

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