A review by weaselweader
Deliver Us from Evil by David Baldacci
4.0
Extradition? We don't need no steenking extradition!
I doubt if anyone ever accused David Baldacci of writing literary masterpieces replete with symbolism, satire, social commentary, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia, allegory, alliteration, pathetic fallacy, subliminal moral messages or any of those things that our English teachers were wont to torture their students with. But if you're looking for a solid, entertaining thriller, a compelling plot line that is not only always innovative but can be counted on for an unexpected twist or three, and a series of educational, informative and always fascinating "info-dump" side bar essays that are used to further the plot without ever threatening to derail it or slow it down - then Baldacci's books are what you're looking for and DELIVER US FROM EVIL is no exception.
A. Shaw (Shaw contends that the A doesn't stand for anything at all!), a globetrotting undercover operative for a shadowy black ops quasi-government organization, delivers slippery bad guys to well-deserved justice anywhere in the world (Extradition? We don't need no steenking extradition!). This time around his target is Evan Waller, a wealthy Canadian businessman who has earned his pile human trafficking - selling Asian women into prostitution and sex slavery. When Waller stepped into the arena of international politics and terrorism by deciding to sell smuggled highly enriched uranium to a middle eastern terrorist cell, Shaw's controllers knew enough was enough and Waller became a takedown target. What Shaw doesn't know is that Waller is actually an alias for Fedir Kuchin, a savage, blood-thirsty, post WW II ex-KBG officer responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians in the period following WW II and Stalin's iron-fisted rule over Russia. As such, Kuchin aka Waller is the current target of a second undercover group whose mission is the termination of war criminals who have evaded justice and slipped through the world's cracks.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL tells a remarkable, hair-raising story of two undercover groups working unbeknownst to one another toward a similar end. And what they don't know about one another might be enough to allow a vicious, sadistic soldier who has obviously learned to survive against all odds to evade capture once again.
As you are relentlessly pulled through the story, take note of those side-bar essays - a brief history of a relatively unknown genocidal event, the Holodomor, the relentless "death by hunger" of thousands of Ukrainian dissidents and civilians; the technical details of the use of HEU (highly enriched uranium) versus plutonium in tactical nuclear weapons; the evolution of the bizarre artistry of the Spanish painter, Francisco Goy; a remarkable, vivid description of the bleak, semi-polar landscape of the coastal tundra of Labrador; and more.
It's worth observing that at the close of the novel, every last plot thread is tied up and closed out superbly. But there are a couple of open-ended ideas concerning the development of Baldacci's characters that would lead one to believe that Baldacci has a third novel in the series in mind. I'll look forward to that.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
I doubt if anyone ever accused David Baldacci of writing literary masterpieces replete with symbolism, satire, social commentary, foreshadowing, onomatopoeia, allegory, alliteration, pathetic fallacy, subliminal moral messages or any of those things that our English teachers were wont to torture their students with. But if you're looking for a solid, entertaining thriller, a compelling plot line that is not only always innovative but can be counted on for an unexpected twist or three, and a series of educational, informative and always fascinating "info-dump" side bar essays that are used to further the plot without ever threatening to derail it or slow it down - then Baldacci's books are what you're looking for and DELIVER US FROM EVIL is no exception.
A. Shaw (Shaw contends that the A doesn't stand for anything at all!), a globetrotting undercover operative for a shadowy black ops quasi-government organization, delivers slippery bad guys to well-deserved justice anywhere in the world (Extradition? We don't need no steenking extradition!). This time around his target is Evan Waller, a wealthy Canadian businessman who has earned his pile human trafficking - selling Asian women into prostitution and sex slavery. When Waller stepped into the arena of international politics and terrorism by deciding to sell smuggled highly enriched uranium to a middle eastern terrorist cell, Shaw's controllers knew enough was enough and Waller became a takedown target. What Shaw doesn't know is that Waller is actually an alias for Fedir Kuchin, a savage, blood-thirsty, post WW II ex-KBG officer responsible for the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians in the period following WW II and Stalin's iron-fisted rule over Russia. As such, Kuchin aka Waller is the current target of a second undercover group whose mission is the termination of war criminals who have evaded justice and slipped through the world's cracks.
DELIVER US FROM EVIL tells a remarkable, hair-raising story of two undercover groups working unbeknownst to one another toward a similar end. And what they don't know about one another might be enough to allow a vicious, sadistic soldier who has obviously learned to survive against all odds to evade capture once again.
As you are relentlessly pulled through the story, take note of those side-bar essays - a brief history of a relatively unknown genocidal event, the Holodomor, the relentless "death by hunger" of thousands of Ukrainian dissidents and civilians; the technical details of the use of HEU (highly enriched uranium) versus plutonium in tactical nuclear weapons; the evolution of the bizarre artistry of the Spanish painter, Francisco Goy; a remarkable, vivid description of the bleak, semi-polar landscape of the coastal tundra of Labrador; and more.
It's worth observing that at the close of the novel, every last plot thread is tied up and closed out superbly. But there are a couple of open-ended ideas concerning the development of Baldacci's characters that would lead one to believe that Baldacci has a third novel in the series in mind. I'll look forward to that.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss