Divine Justice
By David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing, 2008)
Genre: Fiction- Thriller, Action/Adventure
Via; Library Book Sale
Pages (Print): 387
He’s lost beloved friends. His wife. And his daughter. And with two pulls of the trigger, Oliver Stone has become the most hunted man in America. Meanwhile, whoever thought a sleepy little coal mining town in the hinterlands of Virginia would end up like the Wild, Wild West? But it doesn’t take long in this David Baldacci page turner.
Well. At least “John Carr” is finally dead. But can the same be said about the shadowy “Camel Club” and the even shadowier “Triple Six Division of the CIA” – aka: the agency’s “political destabilization arm”?
The Basics
When we rescued this title from dusty shelf exile at a library book sale, the first thing we thought per the title was like, The Almighty. Just shows you what we know. In this context, Divine is a sleepy little coal mining town in the middle of Nowheresville, Virginia. And “justice” is no where in sight.
On the run from a double murder, Oliver Stone, aka: John Carr, hopes to hole up in Divine until the heat is off. But underneath Divine’s Mayberry, RFD veneer simmers a bunch of secrets. Deadly secrets. And Stone soon finds himself out of the frying pan, into the fire in this Baldacci thriller.
With CIA agent bulldog Joe Knox breathing down his neck, Stone links up with surly, impetuous twenty-something Danny Riker and his mom, Divine restaurant owner and widow Abby Riker. In a high stakes game of cat and mouse where no one is who they seem to be, Knox soon realizes that maybe the only way he’s going to survive the Carr/Stone manhunt is to find Carr. And that’s about to be a whole lot easier said than done.
Tightly Written
Tightly written and action-packed, Divine Justice isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s an adrenaline rush! Additionally, the writing is first-rate. Settings are rich and dialogue is crisp and credible. Villains in this story are terrif. Dark. Vile. Slithery (new word we just make up.) Characters are three-dimensional and well-rounded.
Yeah, Baby!
We also loved that Carr/Stone is no spring chicken. This dude’s been around long enough to earn some serious gray hairs. He’s also a crack shot. So woe to the young whipper-snappers who underestimate Gray Hair Dude. Just sayin’. There are also enough plot twists to rival the tilt-a-whirl at the county fair.
So, if you’re up for a high-octane thriller, check out Divine Justice. The book. Not the town, okay?
Pages & Paws 