Deliver Us From Evil (novel)
 Hardcover edition | |
| Author | David Baldacci |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Shaw and Katie James |
| Genre | Thriller novel |
| Publisher | Grand Central Publishing |
Publication date | April 20, 2010 |
| Media type | Print, e-book, audiobook |
| Pages | 416 pp. (Hardcover) |
| ISBN | 978-0446564083 |
| Preceded by | The Whole Truth |
Deliver Us From Evil is a thriller novel written by David Baldacci. This is the second installment in the book series featuring A. Shaw and Katie James. The book was initially published on April 20, 2010 by Grand Central Publishing.[1][2]
Plot
Evan Waller, aka Fadir Kuchin, aka “the Butcher of Kiev,” aka “the Ukrainian psychopath,” is one of those deep-dyed villains a certain kind of fiction can’t do without. Serving with distinction as part of the Soviet Union’s KGB, he joyfully and indiscriminately killed thousands. Now, many years later, posing as a successful businessman, he’s vacationing in Provence where, unbeknownst to him, two separate clandestine operations are being mounted by people who do not regard him with favor. Reggie Campion—28 and gorgeous—spearheads the first, an ad hoc group of monster-hunting vigilantes. Studly, tall Shaw (no first name supplied) is point guard for a rival team, shadowy enough to leave the matter of its origin ambiguous. While their respective teams reconnoiter and jockey for position, studly boy meets gorgeous girl. Monster-hunters are famous for having trust issues, but clearly these are drawn to each other in the time-honored Hollywood fashion. Shaw saves Reggie’s life. She returns the favor. The attraction deepens and heats up to the point where team-members on both sides grow unsettled by the loss of focus, singularly inopportune since, as monsters go, Waller rises to the second coming of Caligula—ample testimony furnished by a six-page, unsparingly detailed torture scene. In the end, the stalkers strike, bullets fly, screams curdle the blood, love has its innings and a monster does what a monster’s got to do.The characters are paper thin, the plot twists mostly telegraphed, but the betting here is that the Baldacci army will once again show the stuff it’s made of.
Reception
Inspired by the profitable example of John Grisham many a lawyer has felled a forest or two by writing legal thrillers based on the template of The Firm or The Client. Of the breakout names from this aspirational group one of the most talented is Baldacci who, with such exemplary novels as Simple Genius, has put distance between himself and his courtroom contemporaries.He has also moved out of the Grisham orbit by writing a very different kind of book these days, away from the drama of the courtroom and firmly in the realms of the large-canvas adventure thriller. It’s a tricky field to master but Baldacci has pulled it off with panache. ... That book was a truly exhilarating read but this new outing for the duo sports an even more ambitious global narrative.
Baldacci, a writer who knows how to give the reader pulse-accelerating jolts at unexpected intervals, is an absolute master of the blockbuster thriller. If anything he has this new field even more securely under his belt than the legal novel.
If he keeps on delivering books as forceful as this, few will wish him back in the law courts, either professionally or on the printed page.
Verdict: 4/5
—Review by Daily Express[4]
References
- ↑ "Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci". amazon.com. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
- ↑ "Deliver Us From Evil (A. Shaw #2) by David Baldacci". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
- ↑ "The Target by David Baldacci". kirkusreviews.com. April 15, 2010. Retrieved 2015-01-10.
- ↑ Forshaw, Barry (November 26, 2010). "Review: Deliver Us From Evil by David Baldacci". express.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-01-10.