BOOK REVIEW: Deliver Us From Evil

David Baldacci can usually be found on the New York Times bestseller list, but he has become so prolific that some of his books have lost their edge. DELIVER US FROM EVIL, last year’s bestseller, has come out in paperback and it is a thriller in true Baldacci style.

Reggie Campion is an agent with a secret vigilante group. This is a group that tracks and kills Nazi fugitives who have been living comfortably since the war. Reggie is very good at what she does.
The mysterious Shaw is also a member of a secret group that hunts down the bad guys, the ones who are a danger to the world today. Shaw is also extremely good at his job.

Although they do not know it, they are both involved with a man named Evan Waller. Reggie wants to find him to make him pay for his war crimes; Shaw wants to stop him from providing materials to terrorist groups who would have the ability to cause the deaths of millions of people.

The three of them arrive in Provence; Waller to meet with his contact and sell his low-enriched uranium, Shaw to stop Waller from making the sale and to capture him, Reggie to kill Waller.

A warning to the faint of heart: Waller is a very evil man and some of the scenes with him are very violent. He watches old movies of the mass destruction of villages that he orchestrated. The men who betray him are tortured in very creative ways.

Reggie is not as cruel, but she does have a secret agenda of her own and is willing to go to extremes to carry her plans to the end. She wants her victims to know why she is killing them.

Shaw, as the anti-hero, plays a little more by the book, but is still ruthless when he has a job to do. Being a part of a branch of our government, he also has unlimited resources.

The three of them make for a suspense story worthy of Hitchcock at his best. It is full of remarkable characters, death defying action, plot twists, and a final scene that will cause you to hold your breath for several pages---all of the things that I want a Baldacci book to do.

The book stands on its own, but Shaw’s previous relationship with one of the minor characters plays a part in the plot. Shaw was first introduced by Baldacci in The Whole Truth, which you may want to read as a companion book. Just don’t blame me if they get you hooked on David Baldacci.