Customer Reviews

Stone Cold

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you liked either The Camel Club or The Collectors, don't miss this book!

If you haven't read The Camel Club or The Collectors, read those books before this one.

Stone Cold is an exciting and major step forward in the plot development of the Camel Club series as Oliver Stone and Annabelle Conroy deal with deadly challenges and old demons. In Stone Cold, the Camel Club moves from focusing on quirky to being operationally driven by the tools and tradecraft of assassins. The title appears to be an attempt to capture the psychology of the professional assassin, someone who is effective because he brings no emotion to terminating life. In keeping with Mr. Baldacci's ability to define and beautifully develop new characters, you'll be fascinated by the new character, Harry Finn, who tests for terrorist vulnerabilities as a profession, is a loving husband and father, and moonlights in assassinating assassins to settle an old score.

The novel has three main story lines: Finn's quest to eliminate old enemies, Annabelle Conroy's efforts to avoid being crushed by Jerry Bagger (the man she conned out of forty million dollars in The Collectors), and Oliver Stone's attempt to stay out of the public eye as someone chooses to expose his old connections to the CIA. I found this worked well for making the story fast-paced and continually surprising because the stories interweave.

But ultimately the appeal of this book is that it brings a lot of resolution to past and current conflicts in the series.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was that it lacked most of the usual quirkiness of the characters and past plots. Instead, this book is more of a standard spy versus spy, crook versus crook, and government against the bad guys type of story. But it's quite good for what it is. I hope the quirkiness doesn't disappear after this story.

After you read this story, think about where you have followed orders . . . orders that you should have questioned. What orders should you be questioning now?

I enjoy the method he uses to tangle the story in several different directions. He keeps
my interest and therefore I enjoy reading his works. In fact, I just re-read "Camel Club" and enjoyed it as much as the lst time.

It is a good series and one that I will keep in my library. Also it delves into what could be

David Baldacci is one of my favorite writers. I always have a hard time putting his books down because he keeps me wanting more. He is exceptional and never disappoints me.

Interesting characters ... twists and turns that hurt the neck. Once it is over you want more. If you haven't read any of Baldacci or any on the Stone character until now I guarantee you will be hooked!

Camel Club, book 3

Annabelle Conroy is again joining Oliver Stone and the Camel Club's group of mismatched characters in this suspenseful and unforgettable novel of revenge, conspiracy and murder.

The previous novel "The Collector" (a must read) laid the background for this novel, in it Annabelle Conroy pulled a con on Casino king Jerry Bagger and she is now hunted by him and needs all the resources the Camel Club can provide to protect her.

While protecting Annabelle, the group faces a new opponent, one by one, retired CIA agents involved in Stone's former unit are being picked off by a seemingly ruthless assassin. Who is behind this, certainly someone in power with a dark secret? Did Stone meet his match in this unstoppable killer? At this point, Baldacci honours us with a plethora of action as the two plots interweave at a very fast and entertaining pace leading to a very suspense filled unforeseen conclusion.

Stone Cold is heavy on character and plot development, the riveting descriptions leave the reader breathless and unbelievably satisfied.

The eclectic crew of the Camel Club are back in action and better than ever! First, if you have not read the Camel Club or the collectors I highly recommend you do before starting this book. Especially read the Collectors as this is a continuation of a story line from that book. The Stone and the boys' skills are tested as they try to protect Annabella Conroy from the crazy casino owner Jerry Bagger, who Annabella has conned Millions from (see The Collectors). But Stone's attention is soon diverted when old deeds and causes come back to haunt him. Don't want to ruin the surprises but a new deadly Villain is waiting in the wings, and is killing Triple Six members one at a time, is Stone next on the list. This is a gripping, fully loaded thriller, with surprising twists that delivers on all cylinders!

Excellent read, riveting to the end, kept you turning the pages to find out what was going to happen next, definitely worth the purhase.