David Baldacci The Collectors

The Collectors

David Baldacci

Warner, Oct 2006, $26.99

ISBN: 044653109X

CIA agent Roger Seagraves has opened up a gun for hire business. He calmly assassinates the Speaker of the House the Honorable Robert Bradley. For obvious reasons he has shaken the country and put fear into the hearts of the DC leadership especially chicken hawks used to others dying on their behalf, but to Roger it is one less "bloody politician". The four wacky Camel Club members (the leader with no past named Oliver Stone, a rare books expert at the Library of Congress, a former Jeopardy champion, and a former Defense Intelligence operative) begin investigating the homicide. Due to their connection to the Library of Congress, they quickly link the Congressman's death to that of the Library's Rare Book Collection Director.

As the sleuths struggle with uncovering and stooping the killer, con artist Annabelle Conroy sets in motion a scheme to scam thirty-three million from Atlantic City casino owner Jerry Bagger. As Annabelle and her crew succeed in their con, she has to follow-up in DC where she meets the Camel Club who unofficially makes her a member as the quintet search for a killer who knows his or her way inside the corridors of government.

The sequel to the madcap Camel Club centers more on the killer and the con artist than the dysfunctional behavior of the quartet. The two subplots are filled with action that never slows down, but the tying of them into one storyline seems overly extended lacking probability. Still fans of David Baldacci will enjoy The Collectors as the cat and mouse battle with Seagraves augmented by the addition of a female into the miscreant male group makes for a fine suspense thriller.

Harriet Klausner