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Jan 14, 2012zipread rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Deliver us from Evil by David Baldaci. This book doesn’t fool around. Before the first chapter’s through, and it’s a pretty brief one too, we get one nice assassination. So is this what is called “electrifying” or “fast moving” or “action packed”? Okay. So this is why you read Baldacci. Come on you fans, tell this Baldacci novice. So there’s this bad guy. A real scumbag: he’s the guy doing the torturing. And then there are these good guys, most notably Reggie (she’s a she not a he) who are out to eliminate the scumbag ‘cause that’s what they do to rid the world of evil and set things right. But then along come these high rollin’ other guys who are also after scumbag but then, for whatever reason, they stop being after scumbag. And that’s all I’m going to tell you. There’s some pretty gruesome, downright nasty torture stuff too. Not for the squeamish. I’ve passed a kidney stone, I know what some of the stuff that gets done to that poor victim feels like. Is this a certain personality that revels in reading this sort of violence? The setting for the first part of this novel couldn’t be nicer: the south of France; Provence to be certain. Gordes, Beaux and Citroens complete the picture. You can see the lavender and the sunflowers, smell the olives and the oleander. It’s really a great place to visit. Leisurely. But then something goes terribly wrong and before you can say aw-my-god the scumbag has the upper hand and we’re all in cold morose Labrador. The book proceeds with fits and turns. The ending is not particularly happy. So. Did I like the novel? Put it this way: I’m gonna check another Baldacci out of the library real soon.