True Evil [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

Greg Iles (Author), Dick Hill (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 28, 2007

“If you wanted to kill your spouse and get away with it, you had to do something truly ingenious: something that wouldn’t even be perceived as murder. And that was the service that Andrew Rusk had found a way to provide. Like any quality product, it did not come cheap. Nor did it come quickly. And perhaps most important of all, it was not for those with weak constitutions. Demand was high, of course, but few people were truly suitable clients. It took a deep-rooted hatred to watch your spouse die in agony, knowing that you had brought about that pain. But on the other hand, some people bore up remarkably well.” With these words, New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles returns to his trademark Southern milieu in this terrifying thriller, an unnerving tale of evil lurking beneath the veneer of idyllic suburban life. Brimming with the masterful suspense and intense psychological drama that made Turning Angel, Blood Memory, and The Quiet Game bestsellers, True Evil tells the chilling story of a divorce attorney who may be orchestrating the deaths of his clients’ spouses, bringing new meaning to the phrase “’til death do us part.” Dr. Chris Shepard is thirty-six years old, newly married, and well on his way to a perfect life. Or so he believes. But that future is forever cast into doubt the day Special Agent Alexandra Morse walks into his office and drops a bombshell: Dr. Shepard’s beautiful new wife is plotting his murder. Shepard is so shocked that he almost throws Agent Morse out of his office. Yet once he is alone, doubt begins to gnaw at him. Paranoia magnifies the small cracks in his marital relationship, and soon he can have no peace unless he knows the truth. When Agent Morse reappears, Chris agrees to act as bait to help her unravel the divorce lawyer’s scheme, which may already have cost nine unsuspecting spouses their lives. At the center of the mystery lies a maddeningly simple question: If these people really were murdered, why can’t the FBI prove it? Rigorous autopsies have uncovered no forensic evidence of foul play, and the police believe no crimes have occurred. As Dr. Shepard and Agent Morse struggle against an invisible adversary, Shepard realizes that he’s working with a desperate woman. The reason: the killer’s last known victim was Alex Morse’s sister, who from her deathbed accused her husband of murder and extracted a vow that Alex save her ten-year-old nephew from his father. This has driven Alex to risk both her life and her career to fulfill that vow. But Chris Shepard soon feels desperation of his own. As he probes his wife’s hidden past, he is confronted by the probability that the woman he loves wants him dead. He has adopted her son and given her everything he has to give, and yet somewhere out there, a killer with the brilliance to outwit the top forensic scientists in the world is closing in on him. Who is this merciless assassin? Why is murder an art form for him? And what clues could exist to lead them to a man of such twisted talents? Not even the clients who hire him know his identity, and the lawyer who works with him fears him above all else. Most terrifying, those who choose murder over divorce soon learn a terrible truth: once set in motion, the instrument of their anger cannot be stopped.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Smooth prose, psychological depth and crafty plotting lift bestseller Iles's latest suspense thriller, which puts a fresh twist on a familiar theme-the cat-and-mouse game between an FBI agent and a fiendishly-clever serial killer. One personal tragedy after another has struck Alexandra Morse, a rising star in the FBI who specializes in hostage negotiation: her father's shooting death in a robbery, her mother's diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer, and a misstep on the job that left her face scarred and a fellow agent dead. Now Alex's sister, Grace, lies dying in a Jackson, Miss., hospital after suffering a stroke. Alex arrives from Washington just in time to hear Grace say that her husband has murdered her. After Grace's death, Alex learns that Dr. Eldon Tarver, a brilliant scientist in need of funds for research into developing a biological superweapon, has teamed with a Mississippi divorce attorney who offers select clients the opportunity to avoid a protracted court fight by arranging for their spouses to die. When Alex identifies the next intended victim, Dr. Chris Shepard, she goes undercover as one of the idealistic doctor's patients and soon finds herself in a race against Tarver as well as her own superiors, who have not sanctioned her investigation. This pulse-pounder is sure to be another bestseller for Iles (Turning Angel).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The new novel by the author of, among others, Mortal Fear (1996), 24 Hours (2000), and (most recently) Turning Angel (2005)begins with a big surprise. Dr. Chris Shepard, a doctor in Natchez, Mississippi (where the author lives), is visited by an FBI agent who tells him two things: a local divorce lawyer has a series of clients whose spouses have all died suspiciously, and Dr. Shepard's wife paid this lawyer a visit about a week ago. Now agent Alex Morse wants Dr. Shepard to help her trap a killer. If Iles has a trademark, a single literary feature that identifies him, it's his intriguing, ordinary-people-in-extraordinary-situations premises that hook readers immediately, forcing us to read on. How will Chris Shepard, a successful doctor in a seemingly happy marriage, react to the news that his wife may be planning to have him killed? Will Alex Morse, the deeply troubled FBI agent (she's still recovering from her own brush with death), confuse professional responsibility with personal interest? Before you know it, you've reached the last page, and you're all out of breath--but you've had one hell of a ride. Plot-driven is too often used as a pejorative term; Iles shows the other side. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Value Priced; Abridged edition (September 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423318005
• ISBN-13: 978-1423318002
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Iles was born in 1960 in Germany where his father ran the US Embassy medical clinic during the height of the Cold War. After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1983 he performed for several years with the rock band Frankly Scarlet and is currently member of the band The Rock Bottom Remainders. His first novel, Spandau Phoenix, a thriller about war criminal Rudolf Hess, was published in 1993 and became a New York Times bestseller. Iles went on to write ten bestselling novels, including Third Degree, True Evil, Turning Angel, Blood Memory, The Footprints of God, and 24 Hours (released by Sony Pictures as Trapped, with full screenwriting credit for Iles). He lives in Natchez, Mississippi.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can evil conquer all?, April 22, 2007

By 

- Kasia S. (New York City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: True Evil: A Novel (Hardcover)

Hands down this was one of the best books I have read in a long time. Greg Iles does a brilliant job of writing a book that reads like a movie, the plot and scenery so realistic that I had a hard time tearing myself away from the story, reading it in three sittings despite the 500 plus page span. I would suggest not reading too much of the dust jacket as it tells the reader a lot about the story and I found to be a bit of a spoiler so I waited until the book was over to read it and realized that not knowing some of those facts made the book even better.

The main meat of the story is about the wicked way in which people decide to get away from their spouses while keeping all the money without dealing with messy and long divorce procedures. Husbands and wives no longer keen on keeping their marital vows turn to Andrew Rush, a divorce lawyer who for a price gives them eternal piece of mind; he has the answer to a perfect murder that would be their solution if they proved to be capable of paying for and keeping it confidential. Working with a brilliant doctor who induces cancer or deadly diseases in people while they have no idea about it, Andrew seeks out rich and morally corrupt people to make money off the crimes they consent to. All was going well for the evil duo until they decided to kill of a wife whose sister is an FBI agent. Alexandra Morse is the heroine whose sister dies in agony telling her something that is terrifying, the dark truth about her husband and his plot that ultimately ends in her demise.

Outraged and lusting for revenge, Alex is on a mission while working on her own to prove that her sister was murdered. Using her FBI contacts and friends who can help her solve her sister's untimely death she seeks out all other victims who have died in a similar way with any connections to Andrew Rush. Along the way she finds the next victim of the lawyer and the scientist through an unfaithful wife who was seen meeting with Rusk. She decides to confront him and hopes that he can help her frame the murderers and saves his life at the same time.

There was so much more to this story that kept me at the edge of the seat that I wish I could tell about, but it would simply give away too much. The character development is flawless and so is the dialogue in this non stop ride of a thriller. The science behind cancers and diseases is well presented and very interesting while the main heroine is as real to me as my best friend. True Evil dealt with some really bad people and the quest to catch them while engaging in an iron battle of wits.

I can't wait to read more of this author as this was a delectable and engrossing book, something that will haunt my memory for a long time. I promise that the ending will be even better than one can predict and the book will leave a deep hunger for more good reading. This story will leave any bookworm full to the brim and deeply satisfied!

- Kasia S.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another home run, January 11, 2007

By 

Kevin Hogan "Author - Psychology of Persuasion" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: True Evil: A Novel (Hardcover)

True Evil is a brilliantly conceived story of love and betrayal...and what happens next....

Returning star Alex Morse and new character Chris Shepard. Alex wants to save Chris's life but Chris doesn't see the threat from his wife that Alex does. And no one is safe in Mississippi in this 500 page thriller. Not Alex, not Chris...not anyone.

Oh, and we get to see Tom Cage again, and in more than a walk on role.

The intricately woven plot causes you to miss one nights sleep as you fly through the pages.

Iles writes like few others can. Almost as good as Turning Angel and certainly every bit as good as the five stars it gets today.

Iles just keeps writing these gems and I am thrilled that he does.

Kevin Hogan, Psy.D.
Author of Covert Persuasion
[...]

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Does True Evil really Exist??, June 11, 2007

By 

Charlean Souligne (Port St. Lucie, Fl. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: True Evil: A Novel (Hardcover)

Greg Iles has written another page-turner thriller. It is no surprise to fans of Iles that he builds his story line and continually adds to it as each chapter unfolds. It's like peeling an onion to get to the center of the story.

His characters are complex, and as we go along, more and more details are revealed about each one.

This book has a large cast of characters. The premise is almost science fiction in nature, ALMOST. We begin to believe that a cancer-causing virus is plausible. Maybe it has already been done. If so, then the research Iles does to create his fiction is extensive.

We have all the elements of a good thriller, and evil doctor, a money hungry, greedy, manipulative lawyer, a rogue FBI agent, innocent victims, including children, government conspiracies, medical/bio agents of destruction, uncooperative government agents, and a heroine who won't give up. What more could we ask for in a thriller?

Some of Iles books are just too technical for me to follow, but this one made even the medical/technical aspects clear enough for me to understand and follow along.

The story is fast-paced, they are under a time limit to stop this evil person, and the justice at the end is fitting to the crimes committed.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read and one to keep you thinking of the implicated possibilities long after the conclusion.