Customer Reviews: Read 260 more reviews...
 Brilliant book! November 26, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Brilliant book! The best book I've read in a very long time. If you liked reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, and The Grapes of Wrath, you'll like reading A Quiet Belief in Angels.
It's written from the perspective of Joseph Vaughan who lives in a small town in Georgia that is experiencing a series of child murders. The narrative begins when Joseph is 12 years old, when one of his school friends is the first to be murdered.
The book is more about the affect these murders have on the lives of the people in the town, especially the main character.
It is a gripping, very well written book, and I enjoyed every page from beginning to end. I didn't know who the murderer was until the last chapter!
Read this book! You won't be able to put it down. Then you'll want to read more by RJ Ellory.
Heartbreakingly good November 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the best books I've read in a long time. Sad, and depressing at times,you wonder just how the boy manages to live through all his heartbreak. I liked the style of writing, as many reviewers have already mentioned, it reminded me of To Kill a Mockingbird, my favourite book of all times. I didn't really think of it as a crime novel, which I don't normally like, but it was a good thriller and had my heart racing at times in anticipation of what was going to happen to Joseph next. I will now be reading all of R.J.Ellory's books,can't wait.
 A rollercoaster in more ways than one November 21, 2008
Where to start. First the positive. It's a page turner, at times gripping, emotive and enthralling. I raced through it to find out how it would end.
Now the bad, by turns it had me in tears of emotion and others tears of laughter at the cliched, stereotypical and clunky characterisation. At the beginning it reminded me of the great Cormac McCarthy but later more a Mills and Boon bodice ripper! Being seduced and taken to bed by his teacher, who then becomes his lover. PLEASE! I could almost hear Bobby Goldsboro singing "Summer" The First Time!
I have to agree with another reviewer, that the killer was obvious about 200 pages before "Joseph Calvin Vaughan" worked it out.
Also the central core of the book, the child killings, is nonsense. The killing of all these children even in the 1950's would have been a huge national and international story. To suggest that no-one outside these small towns would have heard of them is just ludicrous. The FBI, national guard, and CIA! would have been mobilised to find the killer.
But hey, it's just a book right and it got me hooked to the end, which I suppose is the point.
 A rollercoaster of losing interest and being gripped! November 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I would say I am 50/50 on this book whilst I wouldn't rave about it to a friend I would say its good for a holiday read.
I kept going through parts where I couldn't wait to read it and parts where I thought come on, I'm bored!
Its very well written but it could be half as long.
 I gave up after 90 pages November 15, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I enjoy a literary thriller,but I felt this had pretensions way beyond it's abilities.Like another reviewer,I found the endless similes and metaphors overwhelming.I strongly believe that if you're going to write a first person narrative you have to stay absolutely true to the character and I don't think Ellory manages this at all, but falls prey to the temptation to write beautiful sentences at the expense of veracity. I absolutely did not believe the short story supposedly written by the narrator at the age of twelve.I don't think Tennesee Williams or Truman Capote were capable of such elegant prose at the age of 12, let alone some farm boy from the backwoods of Georgia.I tried to get past that, but the writing style left me cold and in the end I could not be bothered to continue,because this was neither good enough as a literary novel or as a whodunnit.
Having said that, I've no doubt I'll be lambasted by fans of the author for not liking this, as I was when I gave a bad review to Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind.But to those fans already sharpening their quills I'd just like to say that the way to show how sensitive and caring you are is not to call someone heartless because they don't share your taste.I don't care if you loved this book or think this author is brilliant - I don't,so please feel free to keep your comments to yourself.
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