STONE COLD by David Baldacci

Finished Fr 10/5/18

This is a hardback that Janny loaned to me. She is a Baldacci Fan...and so am I. He is most definitely a 'heavy hitter' among the Usual Suspects- Lee Child, Michael Connelly, and Greg Ils.

However, I felt that there were a few too many moving parts in this novel. It is the third in a series by Baldacci concerning, 'The Camel Club- which is a small group of Washington DC mercenaries working under an ex-CIA hit-man, called 'Oliver Stone'.

Oliver Stone- works as a caretaker in a cemetery and looks homeless- long hair/ beard

Milton Farb- dresses preppy. round eye glasses. Can remember any document that he's read one time- regardless of how complex. Crippled with OCD.

Reuben Rhodes- hulking hippie. Several tours of Vietnam and veteran of various spy agencies.

Caleb Shaw- a collector of rare books and works at the Library of Congress. dresses in 19th century garb.

Although STONE COLD is a stand-alone novel I felt a little confused with all the characters since I wasn't aware of their past relationships. 

PLOT-

Harry Finn works for US Security. He is to infiltrate American installations (airports/ dams/ US Congress/ nuclear facilities) to test their security systems. This was the most interesting part of the novel and it's revealed that Americans are probably not as safe as they believe.

Decades ago Finn's father was a major player in the CIA and was murdered by the agency to cover-up his involvement in a successful plan to kill two Russian heads of state so that Gorbachev could run the country. Finn's mother is alive and in hiding. She was believed to be a Russian spy and she is 'running' Harry to assassinate all of the agents that were responsible for her husband's death. Harry's work life is secret from his suburban wife and children.

Annabelle Conroy is one of the world's greatest con artists. She has recently conned Jerry Bagger, an Atlantic City casino owner/ mobster out of $40,000,000. She is at odds with her father, Paddy. She believes that he abandoned the family when her mother died. Later it's learned that he was in jail at the time and loved her mother dearly.

A major sub-plot is how Bagger tries to capture and kill Annabelle. Annabelle is kind of a member of The Camel Club (still don't know why it's called this name).

Alex Ford is an agent with the Secret Service and is helping Annabelle and the Camel Club.

Carter Gray is the evil head of all US intelligence services and he is trying to kill just about every other person in the novel and then keep it covered up.  He has had a past relationship with Stone and this is not exactly clear.

When I finished STONE COLD I checked THE CAMEL CLUB out of the library on Kindle. This is the first in the series, STONE COLD is the third of five, and I think this will help my understanding greatly.

I liked the book, but I should have been more familiar with the series.