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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
This was so much better than the last one of RJ Ellory's that I tried. Wow. I can see why this one was being raved about. Now I'm going to have to try another one ...
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I fouhd this little gem of a book in the discount bin at a charity store and picked it up sooner than planned so I could pass it to my aunt whonloves a good crime story. It was far more descriptive and poetic than I thought it would be, the author managing to evoke that precious pre war time and simplicity, the intrusion of external events of the world and the consequneces of the decisions we make. Whilst I have no idea of how Georgia, USA was in the pre war years, it wasn't so relevant as the feel of the town the author created. It felt believeable, which is important in a story like this one.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved this book and will look out for the other books by Ellory.
Great story taking the reader through the WWII from another angle - from a view of a teenage boy whose world is turned up side down - first by the death of his father and then murders of little girls he knew....
His life becomes a hunt for the child-killer taking us from rural Georgia to New York and it seems that Joseph Waughan cannot escape his past by simply leaving it thousands of miles away.
It soon catches up with him in New York and he must go back to his roots and find the man who is still out there killing the girls...
Very well written book that keeps you going - even when you know who the killer is you still keep going till it's right there in front of you!!!
Brilliant book and highly recommended.
10/10
Great story taking the reader through the WWII from another angle - from a view of a teenage boy whose world is turned up side down - first by the death of his father and then murders of little girls he knew....
His life becomes a hunt for the child-killer taking us from rural Georgia to New York and it seems that Joseph Waughan cannot escape his past by simply leaving it thousands of miles away.
It soon catches up with him in New York and he must go back to his roots and find the man who is still out there killing the girls...
Very well written book that keeps you going - even when you know who the killer is you still keep going till it's right there in front of you!!!
Brilliant book and highly recommended.
10/10
There's a lot of ambition in this book. The narrator character wants to write the Great American Novel and I think Ellory does as well. Unfortunately this is not that novel.
Ellory is a master wordsmith. He evokes people and especially places very well. The small town Georgia he evokes is gorgeous Southern Gothic but sometimes his descriptions are a bit clunky, verging in cringy. And he describes women the way male writers often are mocked for describing women.
But the biggest fault of this novel is the storytelling. It's slow and sludgy, moving along at a glacial pace, could really have benefitted from being tighter. Then, after dragging things out for nearly 400 pages, the ending feels rushed. There is also far too much plot crammed in. There's very little resolution to anything. The reader is continually bludgeoned by the next part of the story.
Ellory is a master wordsmith. He evokes people and especially places very well. The small town Georgia he evokes is gorgeous Southern Gothic but sometimes his descriptions are a bit clunky, verging in cringy. And he describes women the way male writers often are mocked for describing women.
But the biggest fault of this novel is the storytelling. It's slow and sludgy, moving along at a glacial pace, could really have benefitted from being tighter. Then, after dragging things out for nearly 400 pages, the ending feels rushed. There is also far too much plot crammed in. There's very little resolution to anything. The reader is continually bludgeoned by the next part of the story.
This book tells the story of Joseph Vaughn, who lost his father in when he was twelve, living on a farm near a small town in Georgia at the very beginning of the Second World War. Later that year, the first girl is murdered. A Quiet Belief in Angels spans over three decades, some in more detail than others, telling the story of Joseph's difficult life and the way the murders haunt him. R.J. Ellory writes in an elaborate style that suits the time period and the narrator's own complex and confused view of events. This is an event-packed novel, including a monstrous serial killer, a coming of age story, a vivid description of a place and time, madness, false imprisonment, fame, love and retribution, it nonetheless loses its forward momentum a few times along the way.
This book definitely was a tear-jerker but worth it in the end. Pretty good overall.
One of the better books I have read in awhile; slow but beautifully written