Customer Reviews

True Evil

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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
[...]

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.

I'm a big fan of Greg Iles, but TRUE EVIL was a big disappointment for me. The main reason I enjoy Iles is because he is highly skilled at creating unique, fascinating main characters who seem like real people. His best novels, like DEAD SLEEP and THE QUIET GAME, are genuinely exciting because you deeply care for the protagonists and genuinely fear for their safety.

Unfortunately, TRUE EVIL lacks good characters. There are too many of them in this novel and most of them are simply caricatures. Alexandra Morse, the rogue FBI agent character, is pretty much just a cliche that I've seen many times before. All the bad guys are cartoonishly evil and have no depth whatsoever. In short, this book reminded me more of a silly action movie than the character-based thrillers that Iles is famous for.

This novel is also surprisingly slow-paced and drags in the middle. There is very little mystery in this novel. From the very beginning, the reader knows who the killers are and what they're up to. There are no really big surprises or twists in this book. Most of what unfolds is quite predictable. As a result, I didn't have much incentive to turn the pages.

Greg Iles, to his credit, doesn't write the same novel twice. But I found TRUE EVIL to be a bore, because I ultimately didn't believe in most of the characters and their motivations. If you haven't read Iles yet, my advice is to try some of his earlier work, like THE QUIET GAME, which is far superior to this book.

This is the best Iles book to date - a detailed thriller not a 3-day treadmill read (like recent James Patterson). As a healthcare professional, I think the author handled a medical topic fairly well. Although he obviously does not have a medical background, his research was thorough. The book was also very suspenseful; I was up late reading it for at least 3 nights. Iles deserves to be recognized - right up there with Baldacci and Grisham.

This was my first Greg Iles book, and I am now a certified fan! An original premise, combined with first-rate writing and a fast-paced plot, make for an engrossing and entertaining read. I love thrillers, and this book did not disappoint. It was just a hair too long - not from the standpoint of not being able to finish the book, but rather that I think the last hundred or so pages probably could have been compressed a little. Nevertheless, this was an outstanding book, and I read it in fewer than 3 days despite the 500+ pages. It's hard to find a thriller with a truly original storyline (a la the incomparable "Dexter" series by Jeff Lindsay), but this book does it. A truly satisfying novel.

"True Evil" will chill you to the bone and have you thinking twice and then twice again before saying "I Do" to anyone. The story was so riveting, it was impossible to put down. If you don't think you can read 500 plus pages in a day, start reading this book and surprise yourself. The storyline is unique, the characters believable (too much so) and the cat and mouse games keep you glued to the pages. This has to be the best book I've read all year and I recommend it to everyone I talk to. You won't be disappointed.

In the past, I have really enjoyed reading a Greg Iles novel, so I was glad to see that another one had come out. While True Evil is not as good as his first three or four books, it does provide an interesting premise and delivers pretty good suspense. I did not really get wrapped up in True Evil as much as I did with Iles' earliest novels. For readers who are familiar with his work, several characters from prior novels make appearances in True Evil. It's by no means overdone, but it did make me nostalgic for what I think are more memorable characters from his previous books. There were several parts of the book where he glossed over some things where he tended to go into a lot more detail before. I miss that level of complexity that I think is beginning to decrease in Iles' books over time. But there is still much more to an Iles novel than much of the other suspense fiction that is coming out, so I will continue to recommend books by Greg Iles and look forward to the next one that he will write.

It's interesting to spend time with characters who know more than simply how to destroy and how to hurt. True Evil assembles a group of professionals who know a lot and let their knowledge influence how they think and what they notice. Even the "bad guys" use their intelligence and apply their commonsense. Serial killers are so often thought of as damaged in some way, even insane. But when that isn't true, ordinary doubts turn into nightmare fears and normally reasonable distrust drives every thought and feeling to a desperate extreme. Iles doesn't keep you guessing, he keeps you horrified.

I have read some of Iles' previous books including "Spandau Phoenix" (which I thoroughly enjoyed) so I thought I'd give "True Evil" a try. The book features an FBI Agent (Alex Morse) who is dealing with the loss of a partner on a case (she blames herself) and is trying to cope with her mother's declining health. In the meantime, an up and coming doctor is married to a great looking woman who is not all she appears to be.

Alex Morse's sister dies (a lot of dying early in the book) and things begin to unravel. A doctor (well done at first, but becomes cliche near the end of the book) has his own "experiments" with various people and a divorce lawyer is in on this particular doctor's way of getting rid of people in a clever medical technique. The book is scary at times and the sociopathic doctor is frightening, but as the book wore on I found myself less afraid of him and began to tire of him and some of the other characters. The last part of the book is confusing and it wraps up far too neatly.

It's not a bad read at all, but I think it could have been about 50 pages shorter and the last few chapters felt rushed and could have been better.