A Quiet Belief In Angels

Product Details

Author : R.J. Ellory
Binding : Hardcover
EAN : 9780752873688
Number of Pages : 352
Product Group : Book
Publication Date : 2007-08-22
Publisher : Orion

ASIN : 0752873687

Customers who bought this goods also bought.

Editorial Reviews

Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph

"Once again R.J. Ellory shows off his special talents... This isn't your standard shock and bore serial killer novel. It's an impassioned story of a man's life told in Ellory's distinctive voice, and it confirms his place in the top flight of crime writing."

Review

"Once again R.J. Ellory shows off his special talents... This isn't your standard shock and bore serial killer novel. It's an impassioned story of a man's life told in Ellory's distinctive voice, and it confirms his place in the top flight of crime writing." (Susanna Yager Sunday Telegraph )

"Each jolt strikes perfectly, and the reader will seek, utterly riveted, this masochistic beating right to the end of the book... This is thriller writing of the very highest order." (Matthew Lewin The Guardian )

Product Description

Joseph Vaughan's life has been dogged by tragedy. Growing up in the 1940s, he was at the centre of series of killings of young girls in his small rural community. The girls were taken, assaulted and left horribly mutilated. Barely a teenager himself, Joseph becomes determined to try to protect his community and classmates from the predations of the killer. But despite banding together with his friends as 'Guardians', he was powerless to prevent more murders - and no one was ever caught. Only after a full ten years did the nightmare end when the one of his neighbours is found hanging from a rope - with articles from the dead girls around him. Thankfully though, the killings finally ceased. Ill-fortune was not yet done with Joseph though and in desperation he leaves the town of his birth to forge a new life in New York. But the past won't leave him alone - for it seems that the real murderer still lives and is killing again. And the secret of his identity lies in Joseph's own history?

Synopsis

Joseph Vaughan's life has been dogged by tragedy. Growing up in the 1940s, he was at the centre of series of killings of young girls in his small rural community. The girls were taken, assaulted and left horribly mutilated. Barely a teenager himself, Joseph becomes determined to try to protect his community and classmates from the predations of the killer. But despite banding together with his friends as 'Guardians', he was powerless to prevent more murders - and no one was ever caught. Only after a full ten years did the nightmare end when the one of his neighbours is found hanging from a rope - with articles from the dead girls around him. Thankfully though, the killings finally ceased. Ill-fortune was not yet done with Joseph though and in desperation he leaves the town of his birth to forge a new life in New York. But the past won't leave him alone - for it seems that the real murderer still lives and is killing again. And the secret of his identity lies in Joseph's own history?

From the Author

I would like to take this opportunity to communicate my thanks to all those who have read my book, and those who have taken the time and trouble to post a comment or review on Amazon. It is rare indeed, as an author, to actually receive any feedback, as writing a book is a somewhat individual and insular activity! To hear word back that a book has been enjoyed, or perhaps not enjoyed, means the world to me, and I am very grateful.

It is not my intention to confound or disappoint anyone with the books that I write. In the main, and evidenced by the very kind responses that have been posted, my work has been well-received. I am grateful indeed for the acknowledgement. But more important than anything, I wished always for my work to evoke and precipitate a response, to be something that people could either love or hate, embrace or discard as they decided. If it has accomplished any part of this, then I am happy.
I thank you for your time and attention, for the hours that you have devoted to reading what I have written, and I hope that we will continue from this point forward with a long and rewarding relationship as writer and reader.

My very best wishes,
R J Ellory.

About the Author

R.J. Ellory is the author of five novels including the bestselling A Quiet Belief In Angels, which is a Richard & Judy Book Club selection 2008. His other novels have been translated into Italian, German and Dutch and City of Lies and Candlemoth have both been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. He divides his time between his work as a novelist and voluntary programmes in the areas of drug rehabilitation and youth literacy. He is married with one son, and currently resides in England. www.rjellory.com Visit his website at www.rogerjonellory.com.

Customer Reviews

Very interesting (2008-09-02)

I enjoyed reading this. I don't normally choose this type of fiction, but I found it most interesting. The descriptions are beautiful, parts read more like a poem, and the simple beauty in parts of this novel, lighten the mostly dark and disturbing storyline. I would definately recomend this book, as not only a good thriller, but a poetic, and almost philosiphical read.

Over ambitious but interesting (2008-09-01)

I was gripped by the first quarter of this book - it is well written and original as it describes the effect on the hero Joseph and his community as young local girls are found brutally murdered. The contrast between the ordinariness of their everyday lives with the horror of the killings and their affect on the impressionable boy promises much.Sadly it loses its way. Some reviewers have compared it to Steinbeck, Harper Lee, even J D Salinger. I don't thinks so - those books resonate universality - they touch you and make you think about your own life. Ellory's story becomes swamped in Vaughan's self-obsessive fatalism but can't make up its mind whether to be great prose tragedy, an insightful coming of age novel about an "artist" or a serial killer mystery. Ultimately it fails on all counts - the metaphors start to become repetitive or obscure, the plot becomes unsatisfactorily compressed when Joseph goes to New York and the final denouement is sudden but anti-climactic. Where Ellory scores is his study on the effects of the girls' murders, the power of blood ties, small town xenophobia in wartime. I'd recommend Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars" as a much better attempt at a "serious" murder mystery. In terms of serial killer not even a master of the genre like Thomas Harris wouldn't attempt 29 victims !

Swampy falsities! I didn't believe a word! (2008-09-01)

'I am an exile' states the ill starred narrator of Ellory's homage to To Kill a Mocking Bird. We are in a Southern small town scratching at the door of childhood innocence, privately listening to a narrator weighed down by the grim lessons of the past. Ellory takes care to detail the details of this past, mingling references to the wider world of the Second World War with the glimpses of daily impoverished Southern Life. Joseph Vaughan, the hero of this Richard and Judy recommended read, falls in love with his teacher and also has to face the uneasy sexual revelation that his widowed mother is sleeping with his German neigbour in return for the odd dollar or two each week. In the midst of this rites of passage narrative, we encounter murders most horrid; a serial child killer is loose, and the close community has to face the terrible revelation that it might be one of them. All this sounds perhaps familiar and of course all stories repeat other stories and are haunted by echoes of others. Yet Ellory renders his narrative more ponderous and self-consciously 'regretful' than any novel I can remember. If you don't spot the killer before breakfast then you are probably being too distracted by pool side eye candy ...and all joy to you as this novel irritated me with its 'nostalgic' tone and unconvincing, self-condemnatory narration that wallowed in cliche and heavy handed signals of 'fate.' Interestingly I suppose, it reveals the imaginative truth that intimacy cannot just be presumed created textually, especially through the indiscriminate littering of insinuating italics and wordly 'wise' guilty retrospect: 'How I sat across from Dearing, a man who had walked through my childhood with me, and the way his face sort of folded around the eyes, a sense of defeat, a ghost upon his shoulders, and the tone of his voice as he said...'( p.154) Look at the weight of meaning engendered via the word 'How'. We hear the sigh of regret and then we are 'programmed' to acknowledge wistfully with the unlucky narrator, that retrospect gives shape to the chaos of life. But do we 'see' Dearing at all? Is he present in this word of sighs? And why does the final clause peter out into ellipsis? Of course we know( sigh) that Joseph 'knows' more as he writes now, than he ever could know at the time( sigh) and that such revelation( sigh) is best told through detail that privileges weary. blighted characterisation. Unless a character is 'real' to the reader before they are to be made dramatically 'useful' , then a writer cannot make his/him real through such heavy handed signposting. It's just posturing and I found myself trying to look behind these set pieces, blinking to see if anything or anyone was really there. Guess what? Not a glimpse!

Emotional rollercoaster! (2008-08-28)

I had seen A Quiet Belief In Angels at the top of the book chart for a while and decided it was time for me to see what all the fuss was about.Rarely does a book live up to the hype that has surrounded it but R.J Ellory delivers such a haunting, emotional story that even 5 stars doesn't do it justice.It starts during the late 1930's in the deep south of America and continues for three more decades. The story is based on a young boy, Joseph Vaughan, and a series of murders that desolates a town in Georgia. The raw emotion, fear and tension of the residents of Augusta Falls is almost life like and you have genuine sympathy for the nightmare that they are going through.Its extremely well written and you will more than likely end up flying through it. If its a happy story you're looking for then I would advise you to go elsewhere but if you are after a thrilling emotional rollercoaster with heart wrenching content, then this is the book for you.Brilliant!

Major New British Talent (2008-08-28)

Actually "New" probably doesn't do the author justice as this is his fifth novel but AQBIA seems to have made a real breakthrough after being highlighted by Richard and Judy. Having loved two of his previous novels, this book fully meets the high standards set by Candlemoth and A Quiet Vendetta (which is my personal favourite!).It's very hard to categorise Mr Ellory's books; I know they tend to be labelled as crime novels and whilst they certainly work at that level, they're a world away from the formula "hook and twist" releases that you find in this genre which are often structured to simply deliver a 'whodunnit' moment in the last chapter. And for me, that's what makes RJ Ellory's books so refreshing; they are studies of character and emotion first which in turn, makes the crime element far more believable. Beautiful atmospheric writing, engaging underlying historical themes and situations, I can't recommend RJ Ellory's books enough. If you haven't read any of his previous work, this is a great place to start!

Look for similar items by category

• Subjects > Fiction
• Subjects > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Mystery
• Subjects > Crime, Thrillers & Mystery > Thrillers

Related Link