Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Emotional rollercoaster!

Customer Rating:

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

Customer Rating:

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!

Stunning!!	Customer Rating:
How many superlatives do you want? stunning, haunting, genius, provocative, distressing, pacey, heartbreaking, taut, gripping, unputdownable.................read this book.

A Quiet Belief In Angels

Customer Rating:

This was a well written and moving book and yet I did not enjoy it. Obviously the subject matter is disturbing but more than that it was the unbelievable bad luck that Joseph seemed to endure. In the end I had to force myself to keep reading as I hate to give up on a book. Positive points are the description of small town America which makes you almost picture it and the evocation of the past, all hauntingly written.

Not a 5-star book

Customer Rating:

I tore through the first half of this tale in no time at all, lapping up the atmosphere of the American South and finding myself wanting to be there, despite all the dangers. The sign of a good read, no? Trouble is, the pace soon starts to drag. There's a big pinch of flab in the midsection where the writing style becomes Steinbeck like and experimental, and where characters are brought to life in adjective soaked descriptions only to fall off the radar minutes later and never be heard of again. It feels like a 300 page book fleshed out to please a publisher who really wanted 400. While the writing does pick up considerably towards the end, by this time the main character has undergone so much misery and torment that you no longer find yourself flinching at any of it. Not only that, but the serial killer's notoriety is never discussed, and criminal investigators take little interest, despite the death toll of a plane crash and an M.O. that makes Ted Bundy look like a saint. We are lead to believe that almost nobody's interested; no newspaper wants to follow the case, no police department has the manpower or brainpower to figure out what's going on. None of it feels very real. Anyway, this isn't a bad book by any account, it's just not a very good one, despite what Richard & Judy would have you believe. Who are they to recommend this sort of stuff anyway?