The Camel Club Meets Again -- An Audio Book Review

TITLE: "Divine Justice"
AUTHOR: David Baldacci, "The Collectors," "Stone
Cold," "The Camel Club"
GENRE: Action and Intrigue
LENGTH: 11.5 hours, unabridged
PUBLISHER: Hachette Audio
NARRATOR: Ron McLarty, voice for many David Baldacci, James Lee Burke, Danielle Steele,
Stephen King books, and many others

LOG LINE
Empathetic, former CIA assassin saves small town from corruption while being hunted by his former boss.

COMMENT
Oliver Stone and his Camel Club friends convene again in the fourth sequel of this popular series. It picks up where the last one left off - with the former assassin on-the-lam after avenging his wife and daughter's death by killing his evil CIA boss and a corrupt U.S. Senator.

Baldacci uses the same A and B story formula from the previous Camel Club stories. The 'A' line is John Carr, retired Triple-Six agent (read 007), now a truth-seeking, empathetic cemetery caretaker known as Oliver Stone. They just won't leave the poor guy alone. Another evil intelligence boss wants him dead. This one, a Xerox of the last spy chief Stone whacked - even sounds like him in the voice of series narrator, Ron McLarty.

The 'B' story line has Stone and his Camel Club friends bringing down a corrupt official's nefarious operations in a small Virginia coal mining town called Divine where, you betcha, there will justice. This particular corruptor is a clone of the previous sadist corruptor, Jerry Baggers. You see the problem? There's nothing novel here. While Baldacci does brutal killers well, this one doesn't enter the picture until more than half-way through. By this time, a newcomer to this series, or any self-respecting ADD listener, has already bailed.

The listening experience is helped immeasurably by McLarty's artful narration and stronger-than-usual production values including effective music and sound effects that pump-up the action.

BOTTOM LINE
The Camel Club needs invigoration, or a new agenda, or to declare victory and go home. Newcomers should try the first in the series called The Camel Club. That's a first-rate political action thriller.