Deliver Us From Evil

David Baldacci

Book 2 of Shaw and Katie James

Language: English

Publisher: Vision

Published: Jan 1, 2009

Pages: 406

Description:

Locked in a battle of nerve and wits, a mysterious intelligence operative and a vigilante agent race against time to take down a greedy businessman bent on destroying millions of lives in this #1 New York Times bestselling thriller.

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 his trail is Shaw, the mysterious operative from The Whole Truth, who has tracked Waller to Provence and must prevent him from closing his latest deal. But someone else is pursuing Waller: 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 nerves 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 is one of the most gripping thrillers you'll read this year.

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.

This eBook includes:

  • Written commentary by David Baldacci
  • Links to a special web page for: Video & Audio, commentary, Character Travel Maps, and the TV spot produced for the book
  • Extra Photos
  • Research notes
  • Hand edited manuscript pages
  • Alternate title page
  • Original Ending
  • Links to Goya websites for paintings referenced in the text

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Baldacci's sequel to The Whole Truth (2008) lacks the creative plotting and masterful handling of suspense that marked his earlier thrillers. Evan Waller, outwardly a respectable Canadian businessman but secretly a human trafficker who sells children into prostitution, has expanded into arranging nuclear weapons deals with Islamic fundamentalists. Shaw, the lead of The Whole Truth, sets out to stop Evan, as does Regina Reggie Campion, a British femme fatale, who works for a clandestine group that tracks down and executes war criminals. Reggie and Shaw, both of whom intend to make their move while Evan is on vacation in Provence, cross paths while maintaining their cover stories. Shaw becomes attracted to Reggie, even as he fears that Evan, who's in fact a sadistic Ukrainian who served the Soviets, will abduct her. Crucial developments come across as contrived rather than clever. The ultimate resolution will surprise few. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Ostensibly, Baldacci’s latest is another novel (after The Whole Truth, 2008) about Shaw, the enigmatic agent working for an enigmatic organization. But it feels a lot more like the launch of a brand-new series, as though Baldacci is using a familiar character, Shaw, to segue to a new series lead: Regina “Reggie” Campion, a beautiful and deadly woman who works for an even-more-enigmatic group dedicated to ridding the world of evil. Both Shaw and Reggie are after the same man, Evan Waller, although each of them is unaware of it. To Shaw, Waller is a dealer in black-market nuclear materials; to Reggie, he’s the former Fedir Kuchin, a Ukrainian mass murderer. Reggie and Shaw both arrive in Provence, where Waller/Kuchin is vacationing. This is a very clever novel, and full marks go to Baldacci for pulling off an especially difficult type of story—one in which neither of the central characters knows entirely what’s going on, while the reader is omniscient. It’s a lot of fun watching the two scope each other out, trying to determine whether the other is a threat (even as their mutual attraction grows). We become intensely involved in the story, wishing we could step inside the book and clue its two protagonists into what’s going on. The only problem—for fans of Shaw, anyway—is that, in Reggie, Baldacci has created such an interesting and engaging character that he might have made Shaw redundant. --David Pitt