Divine Justice
David Baldacci
Grand Central, Nov 2008, $27.99
ISBN: 0446195502

Joe Knox scans two homicide scenes in which he concludes a professional sniper took out DC super VIPs, Intel Chief Carter Gray and US Senator from Alabama Roger Simpson. At the same time Joe concludes the same sniper did both murders and that the Intel community was hiding something, former CIA assassin Oliver Stone takes the Amtrak train from Union Station heading to New Orleans after killing the two government superheavyweights who murdered his wife and for all intent and purposes buried his real identity John Carr with her.

Unable to mind his business, Stone intercedes in a fight on the train, but when the Amtrak conductor asks for a picture identification, he knows he must disembark ASAP because he will be exposed as a fake with minimal examination. He ends up in the mining town of Divine, Virginia where once again his tendency to get involved in a David vs. Goliath good cause gets him in trouble with high level corruption and a widow in peril.

The latest Camel Club thriller (see 'The Collectors,' 'Stone Cold' and 'The Camel Club') is an exciting tale that fans of the series will relish as Stone's code of justice makes him act when he should remain passively in the background. He cannot help himself when he took out the VIPS, on the train or in Divine. Although somewhat formulaic in the mining town reminiscent of Spencer Tracey in Bad Day At Black Rock and Steven Seagal in Fire Down Below, readers will enjoy Stone's latest escapades.

Harriet Klausner