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A Quiet Belief In Angels (Hardcover)

by R.J. Ellory (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (315 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Orion (22 Aug 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0752873687
  • ISBN-13: 978-0752873688
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.4 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (315 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 110,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

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 )
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Customer Reviews

315 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (315 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A very good read by a great storyteller, but not without its irritations!, 22 Jan 2008
By H. Eaton "Helena Eaton" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Quiet Belief in Angels (Paperback)
This is a book with a terrific plot ... in a small town in Georgia young girls start to disappear and then are found brutally raped and murdered. No one knows who the killer is and the authorities seem to have no suspects.

Jospeh Vaughan is a young man growing up in the midst of these killings. His father has just died and the first world war has broken out in Europe. He is struggling to come to terms with death as he sees it all around him. The murders of the girls affect him deeply and he is encouraged by his school teacher to write about his experiences. He calls together a group of friends to become 'Guardians' who vow to look out for and protect all the little girls in the area.

The murders remain unsolved, although we know from the beginning of the novel that at some stage - many years after the first killings occurred - Joseph realises who is responsible for the killings. Interspersing the main story chapters are mini-chapters which gradually outline Joseph's eventual confrontation with the killer.

Ellory is a great storyteller. He sets the scene for this novel perfectly - you're there in Georgia at the outbreak of the first world war, you can see the schoolroom where Joseph learns his lessons, you feel the anguish of the people of the town as little girls are taken and killed and no one knows who is doing it. For the first 200 pages I could hardly bear to put the book down.

HOWEVER ... [I'm keeping details vague here so I don't spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read the book yet ...]

After the first half of the book, you start feeling it's never going to end. There's so much repetition that you begin to skim over lines. I didn't get the whole 'Guardians' thing ... it seemed to me like a contrived attempt to make the novel into a 'Stand by Me' kind of story. I don't think that the 'Guardians' group was ever sufficiently established to justify why Joseph kept returning to it in his head years later.

One of the plot twists - what happens in New York - seemed bizarre to me. Why would the killer have done that? It wasn't in keeping with the rest of the story at all and in my opinion was a real weak point.

Although I did enjoy this novel it's never good to find yourself thinking 'get on with it now ... I'm getting bored' and I found myself thinking that a few too many times. Ellory just tries to keep you hanging on and guessing and it irritated me.

I've given this book a rating of 3 stars, but I think 3.5 would be fairer. It's better than an average read, but in my view the story is just too contrived to make it worth a 4.
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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Quiet Belief in Angels, 25 Jun 2008
By Susan Jane Bussey "susie" (derby) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: A Quiet Belief in Angels (Paperback)
Not a traditional thriller, this book is in a category of its own. The sense of place and social commentary create a background of small town living that makes the horror to come even worse.
Did I want to know who the murderer was? It certainly did not seem the most important part of this novel. Although I was glad that there was a resolution for the main character. His journey is a very bumpy one and he and the killer seem to almost be as one.
I particularly liked the whole innocent idea that as a small boy he could keep his community safe with the help of his friends. His own personal need to safeguard his next door neighbour makes the inevitable events even more shocking.
The delicacy of the writing and the way that you can see into the thoughts and feelings of the characters as they are slowly revealed makes this a very compulsive read. I highly recommend this.
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246 of 296 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!!, 31 Dec 2007
This review is from: A Quiet Belief in Angels (Paperback)
Well, I sat up until somewhere past 4.00 this morning, and I finished this book in one sitting. About halfway through I went and made some tea, and I sat quietly for a moment and wondered whether this was in fact the best book I'd ever read. It made me feel how I felt when I read 'To Kill A Mockingbird' for the first time. It made me feel like I'd learned the whereabouts of an old, old friend who I thought I'd lost. It made me feel a lot of things, and now I'm done I want to leave it a little while and then read it again. I don't want to read anything else in between, because at this point I think that anything else would be a disappointment and an anticlimax. I don't know how many emotions I've gone through while reading 'A Quiet Belief In Angels', but even though the book was heartbreaking in places it feels like experiencing all those emotions was necessary. This is just an extraordinarily beautiful and moving book, sometimes violent, sometimes a little disturbing, but overall a magnificent read. It comes with the very highest recommendation.
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What is it about Ellorys writing that makes him so uniique? 13 May 2008
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