Deliver Us From Evil

DAVID BALDACCI ON DELIVER US FROM EVIL

How can you make beautiful Provence deadly? Place a thriller smack in the heart of it. I pride myself on research and I try to go to as many of the places that I write about in my books as I can. Last summer I traveled to Gordes in Provence. It was so beautiful and so mysterious that I wanted to write a story set there, at least in part. There was the history, the mystery, the closeness of the players in the drama. It has an Alfred Hitchcock movie feel to it, like To Catch a Thief.

Shaw, my mysterious one-name international agent, is in his element in this novel, which takes readers from Provence to London, Washington, and the Canadian frontier. He is up against a villain quite unlike any I’ve ever created before. Evan Waller is certainly evil but he is also clever, driven, smart and a survivor with a fascinating personal history. It will take everything Shaw and his new sidekick, Reggie Campion, can bring to the battle to defeat him.

The justice-driven group that Reggie works for is based at an old musty estate in the English countryside. They are characters that I will definitely explore again in future novels. I love this group and what they do. It brings together all the elements I love in fiction: history, action, fascinating locations, dramatic relationships, high stakes and the goal of vanquishing evil. What could be better?

In this enriched e-Book version of the novel you will be able to see photos that I took of real places during my trip to Provence and that I later incorporated into the novel. They’re annotated so you’ll know what you’re looking at and why I decided to use that particular location. If the eBook reader you use has the capability, you will also be able to see video and audio commentary featuring yours truly talking about the ideas behind Deliver.

Also, as in a director’s cut DVD, I will try to bring you behind the scenes, so to speak. You will be able to see hand-edited pages, which will allow you to follow my thought processes and choices I made as I edited the actual manuscript. And there are also outline pages so you can see how I created the plot. In addition, I’ve provided you with a different ending that I discarded after many pleas from my agent, editor and, most important, my wife!

I hope you like the new enriched e-Book. This is new territory for authors and book publishers. We want to improve the experience going forward so any comments you have will be appreciated. Please email me at author@davidbaldacci.comor Grand Central Publishing at GCPbookfeedback@hbgusa.comwith any feedback you might have on this new experience. We plan to do with this with future books, and we may go back to some of my earlier books and build in similar enhancements. I hope you enjoy the novel. Now on with the show!

Happy Reading,

David Baldacci