Product Description

Joseph Vaughan's life has been dogged by tragedy. Growing up in the 1950s, 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. Despite banding together with his friends as ' The 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, the killings finally ceased. But the past won't stay buried - 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...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4096 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 396 pages

My Weekly
"A meaty, involving drama which will catch you up in an emotional rollercoaster -- great reading"

Review
"A meaty, involving drama which will catch you up in an emotional rollercoaster -- great reading" (My Weekly )

"Very spine chilling... keeps you going right until the last page" (Amanda Ross )

"A mesmerizing tale. R.J. Ellory's remarkable talent for probing the unknown establishes him as the master of the mystery game." (Clive Cussler )

"R.J. Ellory is a uniquely gifted and powerful writer. The quality is his prose lifts A Quiet Belief in Angels far above genre." (Alan Furst )

"There aren't enough beautifully written novels, that are also great mysteries. Like 'Dragon Tattoo', 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' is one of them." (James Patterson )

"A riveting mystery; as compelling as it's moving. Beautifully written, with a bleak poetry that makes you yearn to read aloud. Think Salinger meets Chandler." (Ken Bruen )

"Original and complex; the book will stay with you long after you've closed the pages and stared into the darkness beyond your own bedroom window." (David Stone )

"What a discovery! Combining a poetic literary style with a stunning mystery story, R.J. Ellory will quickly rank with the best crime writers working today" (Otto Penzler )

"Roger Ellory is a class act. If you like James Lee Burke or James Sallis, he's a writer who speaks your language." (Val McDermid )

"No description can convey the spell he casts. His evocative prose sucks the reader into an odyssey. A novelist well worth knowing." (Barbara Peters The Poisoned Pen )

"A Quiet Belief in Angels is a rich, powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth." (Jonathan Kellerman )

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.

Customer Reviews

A very good read by a great storyteller, but not without its irritations!
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.

A Quiet Belief in Angels
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.

WOW!!
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.