What Book to Read?

I noted in a recent post that American crime writers don’t seem drawn to police procedurals, preferring private or forensic investigators, or stories about crimes against the State. The Camel Club (2005) is one of the latter, being part crime, part intrigue among the Intelligence community, with the added spice of the threat of terrorism. It is the first in a series of five, of which Hell’s Corner (2010) is the most recent. Overall, David Baldacci has a written a total of twenty-two books, mainly in this genre. He has sold over 100 million copies, so this sort of story is clearly popular.

The Camel Club combines crime and intrigue with the trope of the mysterious loner with hidden powers (think most Westerns, think the mild manneredClark Kent or the suave Bruce Wayne). The leader of the Camel Club, (so called for the stamina of camels), is a man known as Oliver Stone. He spends part of his time outside the White House in a tent with a sign that reads I WANT THE TRUTH and the rest working in a cemetery. The other members of the Camel Club are all misfits too: a Vietnam veteran, a computer whizz with OCD and a librarian in the rare books section of the Library of Congress. They stumble on a crime that involves them in matters of national security at the highest levels. While this group is central to the action, the story is also carried by a number of other characters, including a Secret Service agent, various members of the (fictional) National Intelligence Centre (though there is a Director of National Intelligence) and an American hired gun who oversees a group of Middle Easterners clearly up to no good. It is a story of idealism, treachery and betrayal.

The story has a number of threads, each gradually developed by a character or set of characters. These threads gradually intertwine and ultimately come together in a final crisis. The action is chopped into short chapters, which are designed to build tension, as the participants in each thread face various threats to life or purpose. One of my criticisms of the book is that there are too many characters; I had trouble in the early stages in remembering who was who. (I also found the various intelligence agencies – mostly referred to by their initials – quite confusing.) Of course there is meant to be confusion – who are these people and what are they doing? But the need for all these characters to lay out their part in the story means there isn’t much tension in the early stages, and it all comes in a rush at the end. The short chapters make it easy to keep reading, but for quite a while, despite near misses and lucky escapes, the story isn’t really compelling. And there’s rather too much stodgy prose.

Baldacci isn’t writing a simple story about good and evil. Most of the more important characters are compromised in some way, or feel themselves comprised by past events. The issue of terrorism isn’t presented as completely one-sided; the nanny Djamila, for example, is given plenty of reasons for hatingAmerica. The response of the US government to the crisis it faces isn’t particularly edifying either. And the conspiracy at the centre of the story is based on an interesting and unexpected premise. Baldacci is clearly making a point here, though I think that his way of making it stretches the bounds of possibility rather too far. I can suspend disbelief to the extent of accepting the heroics of the Camel Club, but the motive for the action, and its effect on the story, is a bridge too far for me.

Overall, I’m fairly critical of this story. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth reading, particularly if you are in the mood for escapism.

I was interested to note that other writers Baldacci admires include Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith, and strangely enough, Anne Tyler.

You can find out more about Baldacci here.