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David Baldacci-the #1 bestselling author of The Whole Truth and First Family-returns with his most surprising, heart-stopping, and timely thriller to date . . .
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Evan Waller is a monster. He has built a fortune from his willingness to buy and sell anything . . . and anyone. In search of new opportunities, Waller has just begun a new business venture: one that could lead to millions of deaths all over the globe.
On Waller's trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from The Whole Truth, who must prevent Waller from closing his latest deal. Shaw's one chance to bring him down will come in the most unlikely of places: a serene, bucolic village in Provence.
But Waller's depravity and ruthlessness go deeper than Shaw knows. And now, there is someone else pursuing Waller in Provence-Reggie Campion, an agent for a secret vigilante group headquartered in a musty old English estate-and she has an agenda of her own.
Hunting the same man and unaware of each other's mission, Shaw and Reggie will be caught in a deadly duel of nerve and wits. Hitchcockian in its intimate buildup of suspense and filled with the remarkable characters, breathtaking plot turns, and blockbuster finale that are David Baldacci's hallmarks, DELIVER US FROM EVIL will be one of the most gripping thrillers of the year.
David Baldacci lives with his family in Virginia. He and his wife have founded the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across America. He invites you to visit him at www.david-baldacci.com and his foundation at www.wishyouwellfoundation.org, and to look into its program to spread books across America at www.FeedingBodyandMind.com.
While his stories hinge on the complex machinations behind the presidency, the FBI, the Supreme Court and other spheres of influence, Baldacci (a former Washington, D.C.-based attorney) finds his way into a mystery through the eyes of the innocents. Semi-innocents, at least: small players who often don't realize they're players at all end up hunting down answers, and their hunt becomes the reader's.
According to Baldacci, reading John Irving's The World According to Garp convinced him that he wanted to be a novelist. Absolute Power -- in which a thief finds himself accidentally connected to a murder involving the president and the ensuing coverup -- was hardly Irvingesque; but it did begin Baldacci's friendly relationship with the bestseller lists, which has continued over his writing career.
Baldacci's style is brief and plot-driven, but he's not afraid to linger on macabre and vivid details, such as a rosary clenched in a plane crash victim's hand, or hard-learned lessons from a sniper's life (pack your food so you can find it at night, by touch). These small but memorable -- indeed, almost cinematic -- details give his books another layer that distinguishes them from the average potboiler.
Although the author has occasionally departed from his usual fare (examples include the tenderhearted coming-of-age tale Wish You Well and the holiday-themed adventure The Christmas Train), it is high-octane thrillers that are his true stock in trade. Whether it's a taut stand-alone or a new installment in his Camel Club series, readers know when they crack the spine of a new Baldacci book, they're in for an action-packed page-turner.
.He worked his way through college as a Pinkerton security guard and by washing and detailing 18-wheel trucks.
Baldacci writes under his own name except when published in Italy, where he uses a pseudonym because it is the homeland of his ancestors.
Bill Clinton selected The Simple Truth as his favorite novel of 1998, according to Baldacci's web site.
THE NINETY-SIX-YEAR-OLD MAN sat in his comfy armchair enjoying a book on Joseph Stalin. No mainstream publisher would touch the delusion-filled manuscript since the author had been unfailingly complimentary about the sadistic Soviet leader. Yet the self-published book’s positive opinion of Stalin appealed greatly to the old man. He’d purchased it directly from the writer not long before the latter was committed to a mental institution.
No stars could be seen hovering over the elderly man’s large estate because of a storm moving inland from the nearby ocean. Though he was wealthy and living in great luxury, his personal needs were relatively simple. He wore a decades-old faded sweater, his shirt collar secured all the way to his fleshy neck, which was thick with wattles. His cheap pants lay loose over his skeletal and useless legs. The hypnotic drum of rain on the roof had begun and he settled farther back in his chair, content to delve into the mind and career of a madman who had killed tens of millions of people unlucky enough to live under his cruel fist.
The old man occasionally laughed at something he read, at least the particularly gruesome parts, and nodded his head in agreement over passages where disciples of Stalin explained his graphic methods for the destruction of all civil liberties. In the Soviet dictator he clearly saw the leadership qualities necessary to drive a country to greatness while also causing the world to shake with terror. He tilted down his thick spectacles and glanced at his watch. Nearly eleven o’clock. The security system went on promptly at nine, with every door and window professionally monitored. His fortress was secure.
A crack of thunder seemed to cause the lights to flicker. They sputtered twice more and fluttered out. In the lower-level electronics room the battery backup in the security system had been removed, causing it to cease functioning when the power supply was interrupted. Each door and window was instantly disarmed. Ten seconds later the massive backup generators kicked in and brought the electrical flow back to full power, returning the security system to online status. However, within that ten-second span a window had opened and a hand had darted out and caught the digital camera that had been tossed from ground level. The window closed and was locked a second before the system armed once more.
Oblivious to this, the old man idly rubbed his hairless head; it was mottled over with scabs and patches of sun-damaged skin. His face had collapsed long ago into a pile of gravity-ravaged tissue that pulled his eyes, nose, and mouth downward into a permanent scowl. His body, what was left of it, had followed a similar route of degradation. He relied on others to help him perform the simplest tasks now. But at least he was still alive, when so many of his brothers in arms, indeed perhaps all of them, were dead, many by violent means. This made him angry. History showed that inferiors were perpetually jealous of those greater than them.
He finally put down his book. At his age three or four hours’ sleep at a time was all that was required, but it was now that he required it. He called for his attendant by pushing the blue button on the small circular device he always wore around his neck. It had three buttons, one for the attendant, one for his doctor, and one for security. He had enemies and ailments, but the attendant was mostly for pleasure.
The woman entered. Barbara had blonde hair and was dressed in a hip-hugging white miniskirt and tank-top blouse that allowed him a liberal view of her breasts as she bent down to help him up into his wheelchair. He had insisted on her wearing revealing clothing as a condition of employment. Old, rich, perverted men could do what they pleased. His wrinkled face nestled against her soft cleavage and lingered there. As her strong arms slid him onto the wide seat, his hand slipped under her skirt. His fingers glided along the backs of her firm thighs until they touched her buttocks. Then he gave each cheek a hard squeeze. He let out a small moan of appreciation. Barbara made no reaction because she was well paid to endure his groping.
She wheeled him to the elevator and they rode in the car together to his bedroom. She helped him undress, averting her eyes from his collapsed body. Even with all his fortune he could not force her to look at his nakedness. Decades ago she would have certainly looked at him, and also done so much more for him. If she wanted to live. Now he was simply helped on with his pajamas like an infant. In the morning he would be washed and fed, again like a baby instead of a man. The cycle was complete. From cradle back to cradle and then the grave.
“Sit with me, Barbara,” he commanded. “I want to look at you.” He said all this in German. That was the other reason he had hired her; she spoke his native language. There were few left around here who could.
She sat, crossed her long, tanned legs, and kept her hands in her lap, occasionally smiling at him because she was paid to. She should be thankful to him, he felt, because she could either work for him in this grand house where the tasks were easy and the time in between long, or else go whore herself on the streets of nearby Buenos Aires for what amounted to pennies a day.
He finally waved his hand and she immediately rose and closed the door behind her. He leaned back on the pillows. She would probably go to her room, strip off her clothes, leap in the shower, and scrub hard enough to rub the filth of his touch off her. He quietly chuckled at this image. Even as a shrunken old man he could have some effect on people.
He vividly remembered the glorious days when he would walk into a room, the heels of his knee-high officer’s boots clicking on the concrete floor. That sound alone would send ripples of terror throughout the entire camp. Now that was power. Every day he was given the privilege of feeling that sense of invincibility. His every command was carried out with no hesitation. His men would line up the vermin, long columns of them in their filthy clothes, their heads bowed, but still they eyed the shine of his magnificent boots, the power of his uniform. Playing God, he would decide which ones would die and which ones would live. The living hardly got the better of it, for their reward was a hell on earth, as painful and miserable and degrading as he could possibly make it.
He shifted to the left and pushed against a rectangle of paneling on his headboard. The piece of wood swung outward and his hand shakily punched in the combination on the safe door revealed there. He slid his hand in and pulled out the photo, then settled back on his pillow and looked down at it. He calculated that it was taken sixty-eight years ago to the day. His mind was still all there, even if his body had deserted him.
He was only in his late twenties in the picture, but he’d been given great responsibility because of his brains and ruthlessness. Tall and slender, he had light blond hair that was striking against his tanned, square-jawed face. He looked so fine in his full uniform with all his medals, though he had to concede that hardly any of them were actually earned. He had never seen combat since he had never been able to muster much personal courage. The talentless masses could fire the guns and die in the trenches. His skills had allowed him to seek safer ground. His eyes filled with tears at the sight of what he had once been; and next to him of course stood the man himself. He was small in stature, but colossal in every other way. His black mustache was frozen for all time over the expressive mouth.
He kissed his younger self in the photo and then did the same to the cheek of his magnificent Führer, completing his nighttime ritual. He returned the photo to its hiding place and thought about the years since he’d fled Germany months before the Allies marched in and Berlin fell. He’d come here by prearrangement because he’d seen the inevitable outcome of the war, perhaps before his superiors had. He’d spent decades in hiding but once more used his “talents” to build an empire of wealth from mineral and timber exports in his new homeland, ruthlessly crushing all competition. Yet he longed for the old days, when the life and death of another human being was solely in his hands.
He would sleep comfortably tonight as he did every night, his conscience clear. He felt his eyelids growing heavy when he was surprised to hear the door opening again. He looked across the gloom of the chamber. She stood there silhouetted against the darkness.
“Barbara?”
Excerpted from Deliver Us from Evil by Baldacci, David Copyright © 2010 by Baldacci, David. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
R_Wally
Posted May 22, 2010
I finished "Deliver us from Evil" copyright 2010 by David Baldacci on May 20, 2010. This is Baldacci's worst work and one of the most poorly conceived mysteries of all time. Here's the unbelievable plot climax. A psycopath, Kuchin, who has been thwarted by Shaw, a government assassin CIA type, and Reggie, a lovely and skilled killer of the worlds worst, invites them to his lair to save an old girlfriend of Shaw who has been kidnapped. They decide to go and Shaw and Reggie's old team others, Whit and Dominic, also want to go, "to get this guy". They have no plan whatsoever. I'll repeat that, they just drive to where Kuchin says with no one watching and with no plan to free the girlfriend or escape. They walk into the warehouse where Kuchin could have his men and who then could have put a gun to the heads of Dominic, Whit, and Shaw and killed them all taking off with Reggie for torture, sex and eventual killing. These four skilled and smart operatives thought they could talk their way out? OMG. I will never read another thing by Baldacci.
12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 11, 2010
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Normally I'm big fan of Baldicci's work but I found this book to be entirely disappointing. The plot is boring, tired and unimaginative. I didn't find the characters interesting at all and the writing was choppy. It was an easy book to walk away from. I really expected more from this book!
8 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged....and I am really annoyed at these e-book readers who abuse the review process to complain about pricing. It's the wrong venue for that.
I thank Baldacci for not writing another Camel Club novel as they were getting really stale. On the other hand, this one was hit or miss, as he kept going off on tangents and background stories that ruined the pace of the action. 100 pages shorter and it might have been a more suspenseful book.
7 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 6, 2010
an okay read, nothing special.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.I am still an avid fan but sure for how much longer. I enjoy his plots, however the endings leave in the middle of NOWHERE!
It is not that Baldacci is preparing us for another novel, it's just the novel is unfinished, period.
Too bad, for a truly talented writer.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.The main characters are Shaw (who is an enigma and a highly trained operative of some secret organization) and Reggie Campion, a vigilante who is a member of an organization determined to rid the world of those who got away with genocide. At the beginning of the book, the two main characters don't know each other and the interesting twist is how they end of following the same path and aiming at the same target. Some of the scenes that were portrayed were very graphic in detail, but I think that they were necessary in order to portray the horrors that had been committed by men like the character Evan Waller. He makes Hitler look tame and doesn't mind being the bad guy. He trusts no one and no one is safe from his wrath. The reader is caught up quickly in rooting for the good guys to win. An awesome thriller and a Baldacci collection must read!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 12, 2010
This new novel was not up to the usual standards set by this author. This was not nearly as good as his earlier books. Characters were not at all well-developed. I was disappointed. From now on I will wait until his newest novels come out in paperback before I decide to buy one.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 15, 2010
Have read every one of his books and this is only the second time I have not been totally delighted. Had a really hard time getting into this one. Finally got hooked about the last four chapters. Had to see how it ended. Maybe my mind just could not wrap itself around the evil of the villian.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 1, 2011
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David Baldacci " Deliver Us from Evil" is a great and well delivered thriller. The book is very compelling in maintaining the reader glued to every page. Great story developing.
Shaw, the mysterious operative of a secret multinational intelligence group makes an encore as a main character. Shaw join forces with Reggie Campion, a member of a clandestine vigilante group in search of war criminals. Fedir Kuchin, Ukrainian born. Served in the national secret police that reported to the KGB, and received orders directly from the Kremlin to do all in his power to crush the opposition. Under his command aerial poisons, toxins were placed into water supplies, and thousands of people were forced into pits where they were burned alive. In 1991 when the Soviet empire collapsed he managed to escape.Now in the present time the search has ended.
Baldacci takes readers to the village of Gordes, in Provence France where Shaw and Reggie will risk their lives in order to bring justice and concludes on the coast of Labrador, Canada for a spectacular ending.
"Deliver Us From Evil" doesn't disappoint, the author does know how to take a detour from the main plot and convert it to one exciting and dangerous human hunt. I like the beginning of the story, and I have to say that the ending doesn't fall short either. The characters are well developed through the entire book. Kuchin and Reggie's characters are great in content, and keep readers turning the pages.
However; every good book has to have its flaws, Baldacci could have done a better job in explaining the secret intelligence organization that Shaw works for. The plot and conclusion of the book was good, There were a few subplots that could have been developed more in deep. Kuchin's new venture did not have enough power to go all the way to the end. Perhaps that is the reason the author detoured the plot. Shaw's character was left lingering at the end, not strong enough to convey or close to his character.
I thought Reggie's character was great. There was so much that could have been done with her character, instead he focused on Shaw, falling a little short at the end.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 15, 2010
I started reading Deliver Us From Evil and was taken back at how disturbing the book is. I've read many Baldacci books and have enjoyed the talented and powerful writing and character development in almost all of his books. I am a very big fan of Shaw. I had to put this book down about a third into the story because it was just too ugly. If one can get past the violence I believe the story underneath is good. I couldn't get past it and I have wasted my money. Mr. Baldacci, you are a talented writer without the violence and ugly references.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 1, 2010
I enjoyed it though a bit too violent sometimes, with a final plot a bit too immaginative...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 23, 2010
Fast-paced, a familiar term to readers of mystery and suspense is often heralded as a key ingredient to success in this genre. Readers know that the flow is going to move forward at a pretty good clip and we can honestly expect little downtime and minimal fluff within the pages. "Deliver Us from Evil", David Baldacci's latest edition to the Shaw series doesn't quite fit into that classification. When in reality, "Deliver Us from Evil" moves at hyper-speed.
A combination of intrigue-through circling covert operations-met with highly intelligent, though clearly damaged characters makes the hunt for a modern day monster electric. New readers may find Baldacci's writing style can catch you slightly off guard when the reality of certain scenes literally makes your stomach turn. But don't quit there because as the story races around the globe the unexpected climax makes this a first-rate thriller.
Reviewed by Suspense Magazine
www.suspensemagazine.com
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 23, 2010
I am getting disappointed by David Baldacci. His recent novels True Blue and now Deliver Us from Evil has been weak and almost unreadable and doesn't compare to his earlier works.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 17, 2010
A pretty gripping novel from Baldacci.
Familiar territory, characters and plot line.
Nice build up and but disappointing ending.Seems like two stories put together.
Still, major pleasure for easy and fast reading for the beach or plane.
Always look forward to his next novel.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 16, 2010
The book provides a pleasant reading experience. His last book proved that and this continues to prove his ability.
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 11, 2010
A pretty good book. I would say I liked it. Almost. Maybe not as much as I could have. But then again, I could have liked it less. You never know. Do you? Maybe you do. I don't know. That's why YOU'RE the doctor.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 10, 2010
Not up to his normal standards. The Book ends with no resolution of the relationships between the hero and the two women. Ends with a feeling of incompletness. Probably intending to resolve in the next book, but was disappointed.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 20, 2012
Im sorry but i hve to leave....ive been so helpless lately and i must get away from it,i have to lern to be tuff...some may think i am now but im not,being a princess now is something i cant do...maybe i can lern by a few years...im sorry.... ~ Princess Warlinn~ (this is where im going,you can find me by descrambleing it: scralte lettre)
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Posted May 16, 2012
May I please join?
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.curlyhair
Posted May 10, 2012
Another suspenseful story with King and Maxwell.
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Overview
David Baldacci-the #1 bestselling author of The Whole Truth and First Family-returns with his most surprising, heart-stopping, and timely thriller to date . . .
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
Evan Waller is a monster. He has built a fortune from his willingness to buy and sell anything . . . and anyone. In search of new opportunities, Waller has just begun a new business venture: one that could lead to millions of deaths all over the globe.
On Waller's trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from The Whole Truth, who must prevent Waller from closing his latest ...