Book Review | A Quiet Belief in Angels by R.J. Ellory

A Quiet Belief in Angels – Buy this book

Rating

3 stars – a fantastic start but a disappointing middle

Description – from lovereading.co.uk

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.

Why did you choose to read this book?

A Quiet Belief in Angels features on Richard & Judy’s Book Club list for 2008 and each year I select a few of their chosen books to read – I don’t recall seeing their review of this one – but I liked the cover and was intrigued by the description.

The book review

Having just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird I was intrigued to see that this novel starts out in the same era – and some similar issues are actually covered.

The novel starts at the end of the story – but Ellory does a good job of not giving away too many revealing clues.

As I started reading I was enthralled by the descriptive prose – and found myself attaching little red stickers to a fair few pages so I could share some of it with you in this review. The story revolves around Joseph Vaughan, and the impact on his life and the lives of those around him as he finds himself at the centre of a series of killings.

For the first third of the novel I found myself swept up with the story and was really enjoying it… then it seemed to tail off. The middle of the novel has more *descriptive prose* than story line and I found myself becoming annoyed with Ellory and slightly bored. I think that the main points need to be made – but not in quite so many words! I’d pretty much figured out whodunnit by this point and stuck with it in the hope Ellory would come through in the end. The last quarter of the book, like the early parts, is well written and the story flows at quite a pace – the descriptive prose abandoned to make room for the important details of the story.

Lose ends are tied up neatly in the last few pages – and overall I was satisfied with the ending – and appreciated it as a good read – but the over descriptive mid points have resulted in a 3 star rating instead of a 5 – and turned this from a keeper to one for the swap list!

Book exploration

Share a quote from the book

As I have suggested I highlighted quite a few passages to share with you – I’ll try and select the best ones here.

Death came that day. Workmanlike, methodical, indifferent to fashion and favour; disrespectful of Passover, Christmas, all observance of any tradition. He came along the High Road I think, came all the way along the border between my father’s land and that of the Krugers’. I believe He waled, because later, when I looked, there were no horse tracks, nor those of a bicycle, and unless Death could move without touching the ground I assumed He came on foot. (p6)

Ellory describes Death’s visitations throughout the book – this is the earliest – and reminded me some what of The Book Thief.

‘Such a viewpoint is unjust, Mrs Vaughan… not all Germans-’

‘And not all Negroes, Mr Kruger.’

‘And such talk I will not permit in my house,’ my mother said. ‘We’re not in the Dark Ages. We’re not ignorant people. Adolf Hitler is a white man, just as Genghis Khan was a Mongol and Caligula was a Roman. It is not the nationality, nor the colour, nor the religion… it is always just the man.’

After the first body is discovered one of the characters suggests that it must have been a Negro – to which Joseph’s mother highlights the monstrosities that are occurring in Germany – pointing out the hypocrisy of such a statement. I appreciated Mrs Vaughan’s intelligence here, and wished to send her to help Atticus defend Tom Robinson.

A story is like a message that means something different to everyone who receives it.

I liked this – it sums up why we read and then share our thoughts with others – different people pick up on different themes depending on their mood, life experiences and values and beliefs – and we can all learn from these differences.

Perhaps that was the moment that ill-will and hearsay became the fuel for some violent fire of accusation, at first nothing more than a spark, an ember, but after two days of searching fields and gullies for any small indication, the talk that was spreading became incendiary.

An example of Ellory’s descriptive prose.

Blame is a bitter and indigestible thing, even when the blame is a coat you cut for yourself, even when you stood right there and got yourself measured so you could wear it right.

Some advice that Joseph’s mother offered him.

And there you have it – A Quiet Belief in Angels – a book that starts and ends well but gets a little lost in the middle – but still one I would recommend.

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