Books : A Quiet Belief in Angels

Rating: - A Quiet Belief In Angels
I'm sorry to say after so many glowing reviews that 'A Quiet Belief in Angels' is a huge disappointment. After a promising start I soon found the writing to be pretty slow paced and it feels very forced and laboured at times. It plods along and then a phrase or sentence jumps out at you where you think 'that actually describes that quite well' but then you realise that you've been brought crashing out of the story and that it actually feels a touch cliched. It only stands out as good compared to the rest of this plodding and basic work. It seems to me that Ellory desperately wants to write as well as Steinbeck (as he alludes to him a great deal and the style and period is very reminiscent of Steinbecks work) and as a result this book feels derivative and never comes close to living up to Steinbeck's greatness. I'd suggest you forget this book and go straight to Steinbeck's masterly and beautiful books (The Grapes of Wrath can not be recommended highly enough). I found the storyline to be pretty formulaic and the ending predictable and nowhere near as shocking as the author may have wanted it to be. There are many flaws, such as being written in the first person and the main character working out who the murderer is and then seeming surprised at the end when it is revealed, as well as numerous chronological and historical inaccuracies that should have been picked up in editing. It is a shame that this book was chosen by Richard and Judy for their book club, as other better written and coherent books are out there that could be read by a huge amount of people to get turned on to great writing, rather than this book which I personally felt to be uninspiring and flawed pulp fiction. I can only apologise to those who loved this._

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Rating: - A Total Belief in Storytelling
Do you know that feeling, the one you get when you wonder whether you'll ever find another book that can hold your attention from the first page until the last? For me this was the book that renewed my love of novels. The characters and locations are beautifully drawn, the plot is intriguing and absorbing. Most of all the honesty of the writing left me feeling that I had visited those places and met those people.

I needed to keep reading but as the number of remaining pages dwindled I knew that I was finishing a book that would remain in my collection and earn its place in my all time top ten.

Alison Bruce

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Rating: - A Quiet Belief It's A Masterpiece
Read it and WEEP!!!!!!!!
Maybe or maybe not physically, but sure enough you'll weep inside at Joseph Vaughan's life in Augusta Falls and beyond.

Such a damaging life, as fear and outrageous violence takes away a normal upbringing, surrounding him with the ghosts of lost children, forever haunting his nightmares, as this beautifully crafted novel progresses.

You find yourself not so much identifying with the various characters in Augusta Falls, as becoming one of the townsfolk yourself, sharing their fears, understanding their bigotry, living their dramas, the despair, and the ignorance.

After reading a hundred pages or so I felt like I'd read a complete book already, such was the skills of Ellory's decription and character building.

Not so much a book, more a total experience.
Not so much a murder story, more a journey through one man's tormented soul.
Not so much a great book, more a memory that can never be eradicated.
It left me utterly gobsmacked.
I put the book down and just sat there stunned.

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Rating: - Another winner
Roger is really progressing as an author, since reading CANDLEMOTH, I have become a big fan. This book does not disappoint. The style of writing is one I fully enjoy. There is suspense, highly charged emotion and the usual surprise and shock values expected with each read. Looking forward to October when the new release A Simple Act of Violence is out. Excellent

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Rating: - Genius
R. J. Ellory is, in my opinion, a modern genius. Whether it is his style of writing, or his plot that makes his stories so brilliant I don't know, perhaps a mixture of the two. I read Ghostheart, and then A Quiet Belief in Angels and both stories shocked me, made me cry, made me laugh, disturbed me beyond all measure, made me want to put them down but compelled me to keep reading at the same time. I haven't read a modern book for a very long time that made me feel like that. He is a master of suspense - while you want to know desperately what happens next his beautiful language forces you to keep reading, rather than skip passages to find out what happens. Always an unexpected twist at the end, always shocking, always brilliant. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, and would have to say that until you've read R. J. Ellory you haven't READ. To be thrust right into a story and taken on a journey from small American towns to big New York whilst sitting in your living room, to breathe the air, feel the stickiness, the suspense, the anguish, pain and understand the character is a remarkable achievement, and I only hope that, as Ellory says in this book, I'll write the one book I have in me.