Copyright 2007 by Columbus Rose Ltd. Published by Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group USA, New York.

This is the 3rd of 5 books by Baldacci featuring the “Camel Club”, a ragtag group of men in Washington DC who perform nearly superhuman feats of derring-do, mostly in service of the national security of the USA. The group is headed by a cemetery caretaker, Oliver Stone, who is actually a former CIA assassin, John Carr. He reportedly died years earlier but obviously the reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Very few people knew that Carr survived, but two of those people are Alex Ford, an active duty Secret Service agent and friend, and Carter Gray, a former head of the CIA and mortal enemy. In this book Carter learns of Carr’s survival and is bent on finishing the job.

Much of the story involves the unresolved conflict between Gray and Carr/Stone, with the catalyst being Harry Finn and Finn’s mother, a former Soviet spy. They are on a vendetta to eliminate the remaining members of the Carr-led team that killed her husband and Finn’s father – an assassination ordered by Gray. One of the targets is Roger Simpson, a Senator and potential candidate for President.

In addition to the assassinations there is also a second plotline involving Annabelle Conroy, a beautiful con artist, and Jerry Bagger, a ruthless Atlantic City casino owner that Conroy takes for $40 million. He is on a vendetta of his own, to find and kill Conroy and her father, also a con artist who also ripped him off, but only for a piddling $10K.

This all gets very complicated and the plotlines stretched my credulity. It bordered on the ridiculous.

5 out of 10.

Copyright 2022 by David Benjamin. Published by Last Kid Books, Madison WI.

First, the usual disclaimer: David Benjamin is one of my best friends. But he is also a very talented author. I enjoy his books very much.

Benjamin’s work can’t be pigeon-holed. He can write romance, mystery and historical fiction. Choose Moose is a political novel. About a school board in Blackhawk WI. I can’t imagine a political novel smaller than that – a school board in a small town. But the unlikely protagonist is Henry Haddock, an 11-year-old sixth grader who becomes agitated when some popular teachers and programs – including art, Henry’s favorite class – are cut due to a budget crunch. He starts attending school board meetings and tries to ask some questions but is ignored by the school board’s chairman, the imperious “Scooter” McDuff. But Henry persists and learns about school committee procedures and meetings. He finds evidence that the school board has violated the state’s Open Meeting law, gets the local paper involved and general becomes a thorn in the side of McDuff.

He then starts to learn the importance of money in politics. In the case of Blackhawk, the town’s most prominent (i.e. richest) citizen, Paul Lamartine, is a staunch backer of both McDuff and the “Thundering Three Hundred,” Blackhawk’s famous marching band. Why was the band not cut along with the teachers? Because Lamartine’s daughter is in the band, of course.

This all seems wildly unfair to Henry. After his attempt to get three members of the school board recalled is thwarted he organizes opposition to those three in the next general election, enlisting, as candidates, former Town Attorney Charlie Mulcahy, a flamboyant gay man and a just-turned-18 high school sports star, “Moose” Fulton. These three become the “reform” candidates.

The local election of a small town’s school board is not, in global terms, important. But the vivid characters make this a very enjoyable tale of small town politics. I never lost interest.

7 out of 10.