Deliver Us From Evil by Robin Caroll

U. S. Marshall Roark Holland is back on the job after a tragic loss. His assignment is to guard a donor heart being transported for a government witness who is comatose after being in the line of fire. When a blizzard causes the helicopter to crash, Brannon Callahan, a helicopter pilot who runs search-and-rescue missions in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, must find him and help save him and the heart. If she doesn’t, the witness will die, and a child trafficking ring will continue its operations.

The writing is good. There’s no question about that. Caroll makes you want to see what happens next, and has created distinguishable characters. That being said, I only got through the first five chapters.

This isn’t a reflection on the author, but my ability to read the content. I have a hard time reading books (or watching movies) where children are being hurt. There are chapters that are from the point of view of a child stuck in the trafficking ring, and while they are not overly descriptive (some things are left to the imagination), it is vivid enough that my stomach turned.

Had the chapters with the child not been included, or possibly done a bit differently, I probably could have continued with no problem. The action was done so that I could see this would be an engaging thriller, but I couldn’t get past the child. And that would be my one content warning.

Since I feel like I read enough to get the feel of the writer’s style and where the book was headed, I’ll use my ratings system, which still leaves the book with a nice score. I may try another book from Caroll in the future, but this one wasn’t for me.

1) Overall Plot =3.5
2) Characters = 4
3) Flow/Pace of the story = 4
4) Is the story easy to follow? = 4.5
5) Overall Enjoyability = 2

Average of score 3.6 out of 5

Where to buy the book: Amazon | B&N