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The Collectors

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Overview

Annabelle is a beautiful stranger with a mysterious past, planning the heist of the century - two short cons to fund a long con, then a life of unashamed luxury, incognito in a foreign land. Jonathan DeHaven, the shy head of the Rare Books Division at the Library of Congress, is planning nothing more than an uneventful day amongst his cherished collection. But when Jonathan is found dead by Caleb Shaw, a member of the Camel Club, two conspiracies are destined to meet as the Club determines to track down the dead man's long-lost wife - and Annabelle decides to avenge the death of her beloved ex-husband. Unfortunately, the victim of Annabelle's long con has sworn eternal revenge and Jonathan's killers will stop at nothing to keep the truth about his death, and the code they have perfected over the years, from surfacing . . .

Editorial Reviews

In bestseller Baldacci's entertaining if overly long sequel to The Camel Club (2005), renegade CIA agent Roger Seagraves has set himself up in the business of freelance assassination and selling our country's secrets to the highest bidder. The Camel Club, a group of four dysfunctional crime solvers headed by ex-CIA assassin Caleb Shaw, becomes involved with Seagraves through a killing at the Library of Congress, where one of the club members works. Meanwhile, an enigmatic young woman, Annabelle Conroy, is assembling a team to engineer a "long con," a $33 million scam targeting Jerry Bagger, the sleazy owner of an Atlantic City casino. This time around, Baldacci wisely tones down the wackiness of the club members, focusing instead on bringing Seagraves to justice while Annabelle works her ingenious scam. The splicing of the two plots is problematic, but Baldacci sacrifices a bit of believability to cobble together a new cast of characters destined to continue fighting the forces of evil in the next installment. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of David Baldacci

David Baldacci was born in Virginia, in 1960, where he currently resides. He received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University and a law degree from the University of Virginia. Mr. Baldacci practiced law for nine years in Washington, D.C., as both a trial and corporate attorney. David Baldacci has published fourteen novels: Absolute Power, Total Control, The Winner, The Simple Truth, Saving Faith, Wish You Well, Last Man Standing, The Christmas Train, Split Second, Hour Game, The Camel Club, The Collectors, and in his young adult series, Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive! and Freddy and the French Fries: The Advendures of Silas Finklebean. He has also published a novella for the Dutch entitled Office Hours, written for Holland's Year 2000 "Month of the Thriller." Baldacci authored a short story, "The Mighty Johns," as part of a mystery anthology published in 2002. His works have been in numerous worldwide magazines, newspapers, journals, and publications. Baldacci has authored seven original screenplays. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. All of his books have been national and international bestsellers. Over 50 million copies of Mr. Baldacci's books are in print worldwide.

Customer Reviews

  • 4 stars out of 5Review of The Collectors

    Posted December 27, 2007 by jhand, Atlanta

    Good airplane read, especially if you like DC conspiracy theories. Not sure the spy encryption methods were necessary from a plot perspective (ie surely in this day and age, there is an easier way to transfer secret information), but DB ties it together well enough in the end, though he obviously leaves the door open for a sequel and it appears that it is out.

  • 5 stars out of 5GREAT!!

    Posted April 21, 2009 by Toni, FL

    I just loved these old guys. Baldacci does it again!!

  • 3 stars out of 5A little too long but interesting...

    Posted October 22, 2009 by love2travel2gthr, Scottsdale, AZ

    I am usually a fan of David Baldacci and so after reading numerous good reviews on the Collectors, I thought I would give it a try. The story line is a good one but I think it went on for a little too long. I was ready to be done with it when there were about 150 pages left. I like the way the characters intertwined to form one story by the end but even with that there were probably a few characters that were not necessary. Would I recommend this book? I think so but be prepared for the long haul.

Additional Info

Imprint

Hachette Book Group USA

Filesize

1.11 MB

Number of Pages

448

eBook ISBN

075957491X

Awards

  • Library Journal Best Books of the Year

Excerpt from: The Collectors by David Baldacci

ROGER SEAGRAVES WALKED OUT of the U.S. Capitol after an interesting meeting that, surprisingly, had had little to do with politics. That evening he sat alone in the living room of his modest suburban home after arriving at an important decision. He had to kill someone, and that someone was a very significant target. Instead of a daunting proposition, Seagraves saw it as a worthy challenge.

The next morning Seagraves drove to his office in northern Virginia. Sitting at his desk in a space that was small and cluttered, and looked exactly the same as other work spaces up and down the corridor, he mentally assembled the critical pieces of his task. Seagraves finally concluded that he would do the deed himself, unwilling to trust it to a third party. He'd killed before, many times in fact; the only difference now was he wouldn't be doing it for his government. This one was all for him.

He spent the next two days in careful, decisive preparation efficiently conducted around his day job. The three imperatives of his mission were embedded in every action he performed: (1) keep it simple; (2) provide for every contingency; and (3) never panic no matter how much your plan goes awry, which it occasionally did. However, if there were a fourth rule, it would have to be: exploit the fact that most people are fools when it comes to things that actually matter, like their own survival. He had never suffered from that shortcoming.

Roger Seagraves was forty-two, single and childless. A wife and brats would certainly have complicated his unorthodox lifestyle. In his previous career with the federal government he'd adopted false identities and traveled across the world. Fortunately, changing identities was stunningly easy to do in the computer age. A few clicks of the Dell, a server somewhere in India hummed, and from one's fancy laser printer out popped a new you with all the official bells, whistles and available credit.

Seagraves could actually buy all that he needed on an Internet site that required a carefully guarded password. It was akin to a Macy's department store for criminals, sometimes dubbed by its felonious clientele as "EvilBay." There one could purchase everything from first-rate ID packs and stolen credit card numbers to the services of professional hit men, or sterilized weapons if you were inclined to commit the murder yourself. He usually obtained the necessary materials from a dealer who had a 99 percent approval rating from his customers and a money-back guarantee. Even killers liked to go with quality.

Roger Seagraves was tall, well built and handsome with thick blond wavy hair; on the surface he seemed carefree in his ways and possessed an infectious grin. Virtually every woman in his vicinity copped a second look, as did some envious men. He often used this to his advantage. When you had to kill or deceive, you used whatever tools you had as effectively as possible. His government had taught him that too. Though he still technically labored for the United States, he also worked for himself. His "official" pension plan fell far short of giving him the quality retirement he felt he deserved after so many years of risking his life for the red, white and blue. For him, though, it had been mostly red.

On the third afternoon after his enlightening visit to the Capitol Seagraves subtly modified his features and put on several layers of clothing. When it grew dark, he drove a van up into the expensive fringes of northwest D.C. where the embassies and private mansions all had paranoid guards patrolling their compounds.

He parked in a small courtyard behind a building across the street from a very exclusive club housed in an imposing brick Georgian that catered to wealthy and politically obsessed persons, of whom Washington had more than any city on earth. These folks loved to gather over passable food and average wine and talk polls, policies and patronage to their hearts' content.