A Quiet Belief in Angels

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Customer Reviews:

• 
  2008-09-01
  By M. I. R. Clarke, northern ireland
  I was gripped by the first quarter of this book - it is well written and original as it describes the effect on the hero Joseph and his community as young local girls are found brutally murdered. The contrast between the ordinariness of their everyday lives with the horror of the killings and their affect on the impressionable boy promises much.
  Sadly it loses its way. Some reviewers have compared it to Steinbeck, Harper Lee, even J D Salinger. I don't thinks so - those books resonate universality - they touch you and make you think about your own life. Ellory's story becomes swamped in Vaughan's self-obsessive fatalism but can't make up its mind whether to be great prose tragedy, an insightful coming of age novel about an "artist" or a serial killer mystery. Ultimately it fails on all counts - the metaphors start to become repetitive or obscure, the plot becomes unsatisfactorily compressed when Joseph goes to New York and the final denouement is sudden but anti-climactic. Where Ellory scores is his study on the effects of the girls' murders, the power of blood ties, small town xenophobia in wartime. I'd recommend Guterson's "Snow Falling on Cedars" as a much better attempt at a "serious" murder mystery. In terms of serial killer not even a master of the genre like Thomas Harris wouldn't attempt 29 victims !
  
  
• 
  2008-09-02
  By Mr. G. Child, UK
  I enjoyed reading this. I don't normally choose this type of fiction, but I found it most interesting. The descriptions are beautiful, parts read more like a poem, and the simple beauty in parts of this novel, lighten the mostly dark and disturbing storyline.
  I would definately recomend this book, as not only a good thriller, but a poetic, and almost philosiphical read.
  
  
• 
  2008-09-10
  By SRichardson,
  At last! Here is a writer who knows how to evoke the imagination, someone who doesn't write to formula, who describes situations and emotions that you can almost taste.
  A story about a serial killer told against the tale of a boy's rite of passage.A story of hope and despair,yet uplifting, a story of everyman!Engage your mind and read one of the best books to be published for a long time.
  
  
• 
  2008-09-14
  By S. Dale, Worcestershire UK
  Brilliant storyline, gets you guessing right till the end, (well I never...) but a little bit too "wordy" with descriptions etc, I had to skip through the long winded bits, but the story/plot... FANTASTIC
  
  
• 
  2008-09-21
  By Shaun Burnett, Edinburgh, Scotland
  After stumbling across positive reviews for this book and being intrigued by the title, I bought A Quiet Belief in Angels and after the first 3-4 chapters found I was gripped. Unlike some reviewers, I enjoyed the drawn out descriptions of characters and feelings and felt this helped bring a place and an era to life that I've never experienced.
  Whilst I enjoyed the book I felt it suffered in some key areas.
  Firstly, we are expected to believe that a murder spree of this magnatitude targetting little girls gets no more attention than a collection of the local small town law enforcement officers who seem to offer nothing in the book other than meeting up occasionally for a coffee and reviewing newspaper clippings. Secondly, character involvement - where childhood friends and adult friends / lovers seem to jump in and out of the lead character's life without the author really developing them to an extent you feel you know them in the way you know Joseph. Their motivations, emotions and background are missing to an extent they just become a series of names. The final criticism is that as a 'who dunnit' - it's very disappointing. With limited characters in the book, or alive by the second half, it's so obvious and after an entire book dedicated to building the horror of the murders, there's absolutely no reason or motive explained. This particularly left me disappointed more than the other criticisms and for a book that many felt was drawn out - I feel the final scene was worthy of dialogue between the characters. On the whole an enjoyable read despite the criticisms - but a really poor ending and therefore not good enough for me to consider following up with another Ellory book.