When two operatives from two different organizations seek the same man, things can become a bit confusing. Reggie and Shaw are both, secretively, trying to get Waller; Reggie to kill him for his atrocious war crimes; Shaw to take him in when Waller shows signs of wanting to blow the whole world up. As Shaw and Reggie dance around each other with suspicion – wondering who the other is - Waller watches with growing curiosity, cunning awareness and final rage. If Shaw & Reggie get out of this alive they will certainly have stories to tell... This was a weird book. I am not sure if I liked it or not. It was a relatively fast read - it was over sooner than I expected. I ordinarily would probably not have chosen this book to read, but a co-worker asked to borrow a book from me after I had finished reading it and he gave [loaned] me his copy of this book to read. Some of it was very disturbing - I do not fully understand why authors feel the need to attempt to outdo each other in terms of graphic descriptions of people being tortured and/or killed. It is possible to enjoy a book without reading about horrifically gruesome injuries/acts being inflicted upon people, be they criminals or victims.In this story, there are two separate clandestine groups that are seeking to capture a Ukrainian mass-murderer. One group wants to stop a nuclear arms deal with Muslim terrorists; the other group wants to kill him for heinous war crimes and other acts against humanity. The three groups of people [three being the two hunter groups and their prey] end up meeting in some town in France. The prey, one Evan Waller, is nearly killed by his Muslim buyers - he naturally seeks revenge in the most horrific means possible to deter future betrayals by Muslims as well as to find out who decided to kill him. When Shaw [the point men for the quasi-legal clandestine group] and Co. realize Waller is no longer going to attempt to sell nuclear-grade materials, they back off, not realizing Waller's secret background as a KGB murder/executioner/torture expert. This group is more than content to let Waller continue selling young women around the world as sex slaves and prostitutes before their young lives are snuffed out. Reggie [the point woman for the decidedly non-legal in any sense of the word secret group] and her compatriots capture Waller and drag him into some catacombs in order to kill him. Their plan goes awry. The previously captured Shaw had escaped his captors and saved the group ambushed during their attempt to kill Waller. The group escapes back to England. The two clandestine groups join forces [temporarily] to find Waller. Shaw finds out that his group will allow Reggie's group to kill the man after uncovering his buried past. However, Waller kidnaps a former girlfriend of Shaw and uses her as bait to bring his four would-be-assassins into his clutches. One of the four is executed upon arriving at Waller's private hunting grounds, and the other three are set free to attempt to escape before he kills them. They free Shaw's former flame after doubling back to Waller's cabin; this proves to be a fatal error for some of them. There is a surprise twist at the end where Waller's bastard son ends up helping them by providing them with some means to defend themselves against Waller; Waller's bastard son wants Waller killed because Waller abandoned Pascal's mother but refuses to deed himself because Waller is, after all, Pascal's father. Reggie ends up killing Waller after Waller injures Shaw's lady friend; in the end, Shaw walks away from both women, alone.I ended up liking this book more than I thought I would, and I thought for sure I would absolutely hate this book. The gruesomeness and graphic descriptions were a bit much, but that alone would not have necessarily deterred me from liking the book, overall. The other 'issue' I had was this author's continually describing Waller, a man of unspeakable evil and horrible brutality, as a church-goer and believer in God. Really? The man is not even living his life remotely like how a believer in God [the God of the Catholic Bible, anyway] would [or should] be living his life. Waller is a hypocrite, a charlatan, a liar, and a deceiver if he truly believes his attending Mass on a regular basis will allow him into Heaven. He has truly deceived himself, yet the author continually makes comments in the early portion of the book about how this man considers himself to be a 'believer' and a follower of God. The character is despicable and a liar; he is also undeniably confused if he believes his continual wallowing in the muck and mire of sin, depravity, and wickedness will be overlooked by the holy, just God that he claims to follow and believe. I hate books that do this - they create this stupid straw-man character who is evil incarnate yet claims to 'believe in God' and 'attends church/mass regularly' before having his [or her] heroes making disparaging remarks about ALL believers and how it is the hypocrites that make it had to believe there is a God Who exists and does not tolerate wickedness. The guy wasn't a Christian! Never was, never would be! His lifestyle did not exhibit in any way, shape, or form, the fruits of the Spirit or any other kind of 'Spiritual fruit' one would expect from a believer.I think the book would have been better without ALL of the gruesome descriptions. I understand some were necessary to express the depravity of the villain; I just did not feel it was necessary for me to plumb the villain's depths with him. I am not sure if I will read any other books by this author; this book did not really stand out to me as something I would gladly, willingly, reread again; nor did it encourage me to find other books by this author to further expand my reading materials. I do not see myself reading this book ever again [unless there is nothing else to read and this is all that is available; I may still opt not to reread this book and just use my imagination instead].Okay, I just looked at a list of 100 Christian books under 'listopia' and this is how this list of 100 book was described: "Top 100 Christian Library - The most academically sound and historically orthodox books ever written by some of the greatest Christian thinkers and intellectuals of our time." Wow! Talk about an epic fail! This book comes nowhere near the description given for this list! There were numerous fictional books by this author on the list as well! How did this book make this list? It totally beggars the brain and staggers the imagination. In regard to this list this book is a pile of crap that should NOT be on such a list!!!!!!
What do You think about Deliver Us From Evil (2010)?
I usually love Baldacci's books. This one left me disappointed after having a really cool premise.
—luli
