Growing up in rural Georgia during the 1940's, Joseph Vaughan finds himself at the center of a series of mutilations and killings of young girls. Just a teenager, Joseph becomes determined to protect his community from the killer, but he is powerless in preventing more murders-and no one is ever caught. Ten years later one of his neighbors is found hanging from a rope, surrounded by belongings of the dead girls; the killings cease, and the nightmare appears to be over.
Desperate and plagued by everything he has witnessed, Joseph sets out to forge a new life in New York. But even there the past won't leave him alone-for it seems that the murderer still lives and is killing again, and that the secret to his identity lies in Joseph's own history.
"A Quiet Belief in Angels is a beautiful and haunting book. This is a tour de force from R.J. Ellory."
-Michael Connelly
"A Quiet Belief in Angels is a rich, powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth."
-Jonathan Kellerman
"R.J. Ellory is a uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer, and the quality of his prose-every word, every sentence-lifts A Quiet Belief in Angels far above genre."
-Alan Furst
"There aren't nearly enough beautifully written novels, that are also great mysteries. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Smila's Sense of Snow, A Quiet Belief in Angels is one of them." -James Patterson
"A mesmerizing tale whose intrigue will pull you from one page to the next without pause, casting you into the gloom of dread and the shadow of grief until you reach the climactic end. R.J. Ellory's remarkable talent for probing the unknown establishes him as the master of the genre. The perfect author to read late into the night."
-Clive Cussler
"It is 1939 in a tiny Georgia farming town. Joseph Vaughan, a bright, thoughtful 12-year-old boy, loses his father. That death is followed by a series of horrific murders of very young girls that casts a pall of fear over the town. Joseph organizes his friends into the Guardians, but the murders continue, and Joseph comes to believe-presciently-that they will haunt his entire life. Already a best-seller in England with editions in many foreign languages, this is an unlikely and, in many ways, admirable book. Author Ellory is English, but his evocation of life in the deep South is richly drawn and deeply detailed. His characters are well-developed, and portions of the books ably mimic great southern writers, allowing readers to savor both the words and the images they offer. When Joseph flees home and moves to Brooklyn to be a writer, the author changes voice to portray an edgy, exciting, clamorous new world. Although it occasionally drifts into over-the-top melodrama, the novel presents an appealing mix of murder, madness, conscience, lost love, and redemption."
-Thomas Gaughan, Booklist
|
