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A Quiet Belief in Angels

Author: R.j. Ellory
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

245 reviews
Sales Rank: 62

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 396
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3

ISBN: 0752882635
EAN: 9780752882635
ASIN: 0752882635

Publication Date: January 2, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A Brand new copy. Mailed the same working day.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 31-35 of 245

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Not for me............... June 17, 2008
4 out of 9 found this review helpful

I really just don't get it - was not moved at all!
Found it to be very slow and I really struggled to finish it - just did not care too much about the issues or the people.
Sorry - we all like different things but I think there are much better books out there!

5 out of 5 stars

A Haunting Tale, Masterfully Told June 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I've only just discovered R.J. Ellory, but will on the strength of A Quiet Belief In Angels be reading all of his previous titles, and watching for his new books as they appear. Inspired by the giants of American 20th century writing (Steinbeck, Capote, Fitzgerald), Ellory captures in A Quiet Belief a hauntingly accurate atmosphere of period and location (Georgia and New York in the thirties, forties and fifties), and writes with a voice that is direct, uncommonly moving, and wise. There is also more than a touch of the poet in his love for and use of language -- one finds oneself reading passages aloud just to hear the subtle music of his choice of words. I haven't been this excited about an author since I first discovered David Guterson (Snow Falling On Cedars), and cannot recommend him highly enough. Shades of Capote, Harper Lee, Davis Grubb (The Night Of The Hunter), and Carson McCullers. Go for it, and enjoy!!

5 out of 5 stars

a quiet belief in angels June 13, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

this book dipcts extreme beauty and sadness together with emotion which connects you to the main character with such empathy. This book is unforgettable.

5 out of 5 stars

Tragic yet beautiful June 12, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

A tragic tale of murder, love and loss of the most devastating kind. We live and breathe Joseph Vaughan's personal difficulties, as he struggles to cope with the destruction that surrounds him. No ordinary murder mystery, Ellory writes with great poetry and heart. I was spellbound by this story. A very special novel that tears the reader in all directions.

5 out of 5 stars

A thought-provoking masterpiece of suspense June 11, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful

We have just one life. Ellory's book tells the story of Joseph Calvin Vaughan's life which starts in a farming community in mid-west America. We meet Joseph in a hotel room in New York, the city where he spent the second half of his life. He is waiting for death who first came "as the collector of life's taxation" to take away his father where the story begins, "that day when everything changed". Joseph's life becomes a quest to find the killer of young girls brutally murdered one after the other in his childhood community. Joseph feels a responsibility for these deaths but he also senses an involvement. Ellory's clever narrative style holds the reader in a grip turning the pages to find out who it is, who is the man lying dead next to Joseph in the hotel room? The people Joseph suspects could have committed the murders are emotionally bound and kind to him, leaving the reader with the apprehension `Don't let it be him'. There are unexpected turns as the narrator assures that had he known what he knows now he wouldn't have done what he will tell next. The book is not over heavy on description but it is evocative with clear pictures of the community in which it is set, its prejudices and reactions. Joseph breaks free from this slow moving community to the contrasting metropolis of New York where he snatches pockets of happiness and relief from the tragedies of his childhood. But he is pulled back to search for the killer of the girls he swore as a child to protect. The humanity and force of reality in Ellory's writing style explain the compulsion that drives Joseph to consume his life in seeking out the killer. A Quiet Belief in Angels has many dimensions. I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone who wants to read more than a `who done it?' It's a clever book written by a brilliant storyteller, but it also leaves the reader wondering about a life spent.