David Baldacci: Deliver Us From Evil

Outlines:

I do both typewritten and handwritten outlines. Outlines change all the time, and some days I write off the cuff, pure seat-of-the-pants, inspired pixie dust, whatever you want to call it. But outlines are useful for marshaling ideas, organizing story flow and, like airlines and air traffic controllers do every day, getting equipment (characters) where they need to be to carry it all off safely and professionally. The pages you’re looking at here detail my ideas in formulating the plot, character elements, twists, action flow, locale descriptions, and the like. When used properly outlines are invaluable. When used badly-for example, the novel simply being a bare bones outline with too many action scenes and plot contrivances to fill in the huge holes in the story-it can be disastrous. I also do quite a bit of research for my novels, and all that information is neatly organized in huge binders that I assemble for every novel. This may include personal interviews, photos, book and online research and first-hand descriptions I take when visiting a location. But the rule for me with research is that you must leave most of it out. I don’t write textbooks, I write fiction. And if the research gets in the way of the story flow I haven’t done my job.

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

Fedir Kuchin fell backward with Shaw on top of him. And he hit him, once, twice, the blows accelerated, raining down on the dead man until there was no face left, only tissue that had been turned to pulp as Shaw’s knuckles cracked and his hands bled.

“Shaw! Shaw!”

Reggie tried to pull him off, but he used one big arm to knock her off her feet. Then seeming to realize what had happened, Shaw jumped up and raced to Katie. He straddled her, pumped her chest, then pinched her nose and blew air into her mouth. He pumped and blew. Pushing down on her chest, forcing air into lungs that refused to expand.

“Shaw, stop! She’s dead. Stop! Stop it! You can’t bring her back.”

Shaw was covered in the woman’s blood. Every time he dipped his lips to hers he collected more of it on him. When Reggie tried to pull him off, he turned and, enraged, flung her five feet in the air. She landed with a hard thud and stayed there, her chest heaving, tears pouring down her face.

Shaw slowly turned back to Katie James. But he didn’t push at her chest. He didn’t blow into her mouth. He just sat there on his haunches, staring down, rocking back and forth.

He reached down, gently lifted her up and held her.

Just held her.

Katie James was buried near the town where she’d been born and where some of her family still lived. Shaw attended the funeral along with Frank. As soon as the priest threw the fistful of dirt into the open grave, Shaw turned and left. Frank waited for a few respectful seconds and then followed. Shaw’s long legs ate up the consecrated ground and he was already in the driver’s seat of the rental when Frank popped open the passenger door.

“Sure you don’t want me to drive?”

“Just get in.”

Shaw drove faster than he should have to the airport.

Frank looked over nervously from time to time, but seemed afraid to break the silence. Finally, he did. "Seems like this Pascal character is taking over Kuchin’s business. But it seems he’s getting out of the illegal crap and just running the legit fronts. We’ll watch him but probably just let it go.”

“Good for him.” Shaw’s gaze never veered from the road ahead.

He and Frank boarded a commercial airliner that carried them to JFK where they switched to a British Airways jumbo that skipped them across the pond that night. Frank watched a movie, had some drinks and dinner, did some work and napped.

Shaw spent the entire six hour and fourteen minute flight staring out the window. When they landed the men cleared customs, collected their bags and walked toward the exits.

“Shaw I’ve got a car. You want a lift into town?”

“Just get me another job, the sooner the better.” Shaw kept walking, head down, bag swinging at his side.

Frank stared at him for a bit, then found his ride and was driven off.

Shaw got into London an hour later on a bus. He didn’t go to the Savoy. He wasn’t working. He couldn’t afford the place on his own dime. He checked into a far more modestly priced room in a far less desirable part of town. He had just thrown his bag down in a chair, slipped off his jacket and jerked off his tie when his phone rang.