Hell's Corner
 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | David Baldacci |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Camel Club |
| Genre | Crime novel |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
Publication date | November 9, 2010 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 720 pp (hardback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-4465-7369-6 |
| Preceded by | Divine Justice |
Hell's Corner is a crime novel written by David Baldacci. This is the fifth and final installment to feature the Camel Club, a small group of Washington, D.C. civilian misfits led by "Oliver Stone", a former CIA trained assassin. The book was initially published on November 9, 2010 by Grand Central Publishing.[1][2]
Plot
The Russian mafia, the Mexican drug cartel, billions of dollars and bombs targeting presidents and prime ministers combine to entrap John Carr (aka Oliver Stone) and the Camel Club into another quick-paced adventure.Stone, disgraced virtuoso of the CIA's lethal Triple Six section, is summoned by the American president, who believes the Russian mafia, conspiring with the Moscow oligarchy, has overthrown the Mexican drug cartel's leadership and intends to do with cocaine what the USSR could not do with military force: destroy the USA. Stone contemplates his covert assignment while walking through Lafayette Park near the White House. Suddenly there's machine gun fire and a bomb explodes. With the British prime minister on hand for a state dinner, authorities first think it's a botched assassination attempt. Stone's mission is changed. Find out who set the bomb. Enter an old acquaintance of Stone's, British spymaster Sir James McElroy, and a cast of characters including MI6 operative Mary Chapman and agents from FBI, ATF, Secret Service and the shadowy NIC. Stone, Chapman and the Club encounter double-agents and triple-agents, villains and victims, as evidence spins in chaotic circles. The book moves through the Washington's halls of power, to the Bronx and to the aptly named Murder Mountain. Stone copes with nanobot technology, fear of biological weapons, a Turkish professor supposedly on the trail of Osama bin Laden and a beautiful lobbyist who is interested in more that peddling influence. Character development is basic, the Washington, D.C., setting is rendered with familiarity and the writing doesn't get in the way of the fast-moving plot.
Reception
In Baldacci’s newest Camel Club installment, “Hell’s Corner,” Stone is dragged back into service by none other than the president (whose life he saved in an earlier Camel Club episode), which doesn’t contribute to his popularity with certain functionaries. The task he’s given seems impossible — and would be, for nearly anyone but Stone — but a sharp detour very soon after his assignment sends him off on a completely different adventure, one in which he and his cohorts make almost no progress for much of the book as they’re confronted by one frustrating obstacle after another.The story, which starts in the very same Lafayette Park (dubbed “Hell’s Corner” because of conflicting jurisdictions), involves Russian and Mexican cartels, but Baldacci doesn’t dig too deeply into cultural idiosyncrasies. He’s too busy developing characters, and what fascinating characters they are. Which agents are really double agents? And is there such a thing as a triple agent? Only Baldacci, it seems, knows for sure.
There was one predictable element: Despite a harrowing encounter that could have killed them all, the Camel Club survived, and before I reached that part of the book I was sure of it.
—Review by Las Vegas Review-Journal[4]
References
- ↑ "Hell's Corner by David Baldacci". amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "Hell's Corner (Camel Club #5) by David Baldacci". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ "Hell's Corner by David Baldacci". kirkusreviews.com. September 13, 2010. Retrieved 2015-01-07.
- ↑ Knapp Rinella, Heidi (July 15, 2011). "Baldacci's 'Hell's Corner' a heavenly read". reviewjournal.com. Retrieved 2015-01-07.