The Collectors

This is the second book in the Camel Club series.

Roger Seagraves, a former government assassin now working a desk job at the CIA, decides to kill the new Speaker of the House, Robert "Bob" Bradley. From a vacant building across from an exclusive D.C. club, Seagraves shoots Bradley with a sniper rifle. He then executes a complex escape plan that involves posing as a police officer and staging a fake chase. An explosion destroys Bradley's empty town house, and a fake domestic terrorist group called Americans Against 1984 later claims responsibility, making the assassination look like an act of terrorism. Seagraves returns to his mundane life at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Meanwhile, master con artist Annabelle Conroy recruits her old acquaintance, Leo Richter, for a high-stakes "long con." To fund it, they plan two smaller "short cons." They travel to Los Angeles and assemble a crew, adding Tony Wallace, a young man who skims credit card information at a high-end boutique, and Freddy Driscoll, an expert forger who sells counterfeit luxury goods.

In a parallel plot, Seagraves meets with his partner, Albert Trent, a senior staff member for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Seagraves provides Trent with a briefing book containing the coded identities of four undercover American agents, which they have sold to a terrorist organization. In return, Trent gives Seagraves his next target: Jonathan DeHaven, the director of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.

Jonathan DeHaven follows his usual morning routine, reflecting on his brief, annulled marriage to a woman he loved and his wealthy neighbor, defense contractor Cornelius Behan. At the library, while performing his daily ritual of inspecting the rare book vaults, DeHaven suddenly collapses and dies alone under mysterious circumstances. Seagroves soon receives a phone call confirming the target has been eliminated.

Caleb Shaw, a research specialist at the library, discovers DeHaven's body and faints from shock. His friend, Oliver Stone, is the leader of a small watchdog group called the Camel Club. Stone rushes to the hospital to see Caleb, where they are joined by the other members: Reuben Rhodes, a Vietnam veteran, and Milton Farb, a genius with a photographic memory. Stone, aware that DeHaven was in excellent health, becomes suspicious about the cause of death.

Annabelle's crew executes two smaller cons, an ATM skimming scheme and a check-forging operation, to amass over $3 million in seed money. The team successfully passes most of the fraudulent checks, though Tony nearly gets caught after flirting with a teller and using the wrong fake ID. Annabelle, in disguise, creates a diversion that allows him to escape.

Caleb is named the literary executor of DeHaven's estate. The Camel Club accompanies him to DeHaven's house, where Stone discovers a hidden safe inside the main book vault. Using the reading room's number, LJ239, as the combination, Caleb opens it. Inside, they find what Caleb identifies as a first-edition Bay Psalm Book, one of the rarest books in the world. They are interrupted by Cornelius Behan, who expresses curiosity about the collection. As they leave, the group is followed by a mysterious van.

Stone realizes they are being tailed by a powerful government agency after Secret Service agents are waved off from investigating the van. Reuben rescues Stone from an attempted abduction. Seagraves, the man behind the surveillance, learns that "Oliver Stone" is a former CIA assassin with a "Triple Six" classification. He has Stone kidnapped and interrogated. Stone, believing Behan is behind everything, offers this theory as a misdirection. Convinced, Seagraves releases him.

Annabelle reveals her long con target: Jerry Bagger, the ruthless owner of the Pompeii Casino in Atlantic City and the man who murdered her mother. Posing as a clandestine government operative, Annabelle offers Bagger a money-laundering scheme with a 10% return every two days. After several successful trial runs, funded by her crew's seed money, she manipulates the greedy Bagger into suggesting a final $40 million wire transfer. Spyware that Tony had secretly installed on the casino's computer system reroutes the money to Annabelle's private account.

While preparing to flee the country, Annabelle sees DeHaven's obituary and flies to Washington, D.C., for the funeral. There, Stone recognizes her as DeHaven's ex-wife from a photograph he found. Posing as "Susan Farmer," she joins the Camel Club's investigation. They discover a telescope in DeHaven's attic pointed at Behan's house, revealing DeHaven was a voyeur. Later, Stone and Milton interview Dennis Warren, Speaker Bradley's former chief of staff, who reveals that Albert Trent was the one who orchestrated the toast that placed Bradley in the assassin's line of fire.

While conducting surveillance from DeHaven's attic, Reuben is knocked unconscious. The killer then uses the attic window to shoot and kill Behan and his mistress. The murder weapon is planted, and Reuben is arrested when he tries to flee. Annabelle sees a news report about the arrest and decides to stay. The club investigates and discovers that Fire Control, Inc., a subsidiary of Behan's company, supplied a cylinder of lethal carbon dioxide gas, mislabeled as a fire suppressant, which was used to kill DeHaven in the library vault.

Annabelle and Caleb review library security tapes and spot a patron, Jewell English, using sleight of hand to swap her glasses. Annabelle pickpockets English's real glasses and discovers the special lenses reveal a secret code of highlighted letters in a dime novel. The code is created with a time-sensitive chemical that evaporates after a few hours. Meanwhile, a furious Jerry Bagger tracks down Tony Wallace in Europe. Under torture, Tony reveals Annabelle Conroy's identity.

Caleb is kidnapped by Roger Seagraves, who poses as a book collector. Seagraves demands an exchange: Caleb for Albert Trent. With help from Secret Service agent Alex Ford, the Camel Club captures Trent. The exchange is set for the National Mall, where Caleb is brought in wearing what his captors claim is a poison-dart collar. Stone realizes it is actually a bomb and throws it into a fountain just before it detonates. In the chaos, Seagraves escapes with Trent into the Metro.

The group deduces that the coded books were prepared in the library's conservation department by Monty Chambers, a book conservator who is secretly the rare book expert Vincent Pearl. They confront him at his shop and find Trent hiding there. Chambers confesses to being part of the spy ring, but Seagraves appears and shoots Trent. As he prepares to kill the others, Stone kills him with a thrown knife. The FBI arrives, and Chambers is arrested. He returns the Bay Psalm Book, which he had stolen from DeHaven's vault.

Albert Trent survives and confesses, exposing the entire spy ring. Annabelle reveals that she stole the original Bay Psalm Book years ago as a gift for Jonathan, replacing it with a forgery. She and Milton plan to return the original to the church it was taken from. Having formed a bond with Stone, Annabelle decides to stay in D.C. The story ends as she and Stone work together in the cemetery, unaware that Jerry Bagger is closing in on her.