Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil  by David Baldacci

Although i generally really enjoy this author, he’s written some books that I consider a humongous waste of time.  I felt this way after reading his last one, True Blue (I’m reading his works sequentially).  Fortunately, I thought this one was much better - although a glance through reader’s reviews on Amazon tells us that many felt otherwise.

Not only does Baldacci have many books devoted to “King and Maxwell” and “The Camel Club”, but this story, as well features yet another recurring group of characters.  Our hero in this story is named Shaw.  I honestly don’t remember if he has a last name or not.  We first met him a few years ago in “The Whole Truth”.   He’s an older, powerfully trained government operative who is working somewhat against his will bringing down various bad guys all over the world.  He doesn’t really enjoy doing this kind of work, but those in power in Washington don’t care.  He’s good, and he’s needed.  If he doesn’t like it, tough.

His latest target is evil Evan Waller.  Not his real name, he’s actually a former evil KGB assassin that many think is dead.  He’s very much alive, and very much bad.  Among many of his sins are human trafficking, which seems to be about the worst thing anyone can be guilty of these days.

Well, it seems like there’s another clandestine group somewhere in England that works behind the scenes eliminating bad guys as well.  They’re a very well crafted organization, and one of their mercenaries is beautiful Reggie Campion.  She knows how to use her looks to her advantage, so she is recruited by her organization to go after the same exact guy that Shaw is targeting.  Quite the coincidence.

So we see Shaw and Campion show up in the same general vicinity of the target, and of course, being professionals, they’re quite wary of each other.  Who is this person so close to my target?  So there’s a lot of suspicion - especially when Campion befriends Evan Waller to win his trust (his lust, really), and things get murky in a hurry.

I won’t give away much more of the plot other than to say I thought the book took a nice neat turn into a direction that I didn’t think it would go.  If you read the first “Shaw” book, you remember Katie James.  She shows up here in this book as well, although I thought her presence was a bit unnecessary and mainly thrown in out of obligation to keep the character fresh in everyone’s mind.

I’ve really enjoyed the two “Shaw” books.  He seems quite cool and calm under pressure. and his advanced age (I’m guessing he’s in his 50s - don’t remember if Baldacci ever told us) makes his quick thinking quite believable as he always seems to know exactly what needs to happen to  get out of tight situations.  I’m not sure if there have been any other Shaw novels, but I wouldn’t mind reading more of his adventures.  Baldacci has been hit or miss for me recently.  Fortunately, this one was a plus for me.