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: #28 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-02
• 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 )

Synopsis
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...

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
Was I reading the same book as your other reviewers. I found this book incredibly slow and in the end I just turned to the back to find out whodunnit. It threw up no surprises and I really wished I hadn't wasted so much time trying to get in to it. Yes it is beautifuly written but it moves along at snail pace. My disappointment of the year.

Simply the best!!
A rollercoaster of a novel that leaves you not wanting to put it down and then speculating until you pick it up again. Many books you read and then move on with little or no lasting memory but this one stays with you. It has to be a film, hopefully along the lines of 'A Road to Perdition'. Quite simply it has all the attributes of a future classic and one of the few books that stays long in the memory and when you read it again you appreciate it all the more.

God bless Richard & Judy
If it weren't for the twin gods of modern day book publishing I may not have ever read this book - and what a tragedy that would have been. This is quite simply a book that transcends genre; writing of the highest order. The prose style is lyrical and the sense of time and place so well executed I was convinvced that the author was an American in his late fifties, not an Englishman a good twenty years younger. I can't ever remember being quite so emotionally involved in the life of a character in a book and once I was finished I just sat staring at the cover wondering what I was going to do with my life next. Then I remembered that RJ Ellory had written some other books...So go on, give yourself a treat and buy this book. Then tell all your friends to buy it.