Book Review: “Hell’s Corner” by David Baldacci

June 6, 2011

Genre: Thriller

Rating: 3 WaterTowers

After meeting with the President, Oliver Stone (now nearly everyone knows he is John Carr) accepts a near suicide mission to help stop an influx of Russian spies tied to the, now, very powerful Russian drug cartels.

This is the price he has to pay for killing two Government officials in cold blood, and he accepts the mission like the Triple Six killer that he was. No complaints.

Pondering his fate the next night, Oliver decides to take a walk through his old stomping grounds, Lafayette Park (which is across from the White House). Normally, this late at night there is no one in the park.

But this night, Oliver’s radar goes up when he spots several unlikely park inhabitants just as the British Prime Minister is on his way to the Blair House from the White House. A woman sitting on a bench making a cell phone call, a fat man in a jogging outfit, a man in a suit carrying a briefcase, and a gang banger.

When bullets rain down on the park, Oliver takes cover and the others scatter. The fat man runs and jumps into a hole waiting for a new tree to be planted. Suddenly a bomb goes off destroying the statue of Polish general Tadeusz Kosciuszko, and severely killing the fat man in the jogging suit (he went in the hole as one, and came out a crowd). Stone was injured and rushed to the hospital.

The next day, Stone is recruited by the U.S. Gov’t as an Agent to help solve this with a new partner from Britian’s MI6: Mary Chapman.

What follows is a very complex plot line involving the Mexican cartels, Russian cartels, spies, and a traitor. Unfortunately, the Camel Club (Reuben, Caleb, Annabelle, Harry Finn, and Alex Ford) is (are?) only involved twice in the book, and those parts SPARKLE. The rest of the book is not Baldacci’s best (and you know I love Baldacci). Maybe too complex?

That said….the last 100 pages, or so, are the Camel Club (and I suppose possible new members of the Camel Club) at their very best doing what they do best: Independently kicking ass and taking names!

Here is a WikiPedia entry on Lafayette Park.