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 enlarge | Author: R.j. Ellory
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £0.50
You Save: £7.49 (94%)
New (59) Used (87) from £0.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  250 reviews
Sales Rank: 198
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 396
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0752882635
EAN: 9780752882635
ASIN: 0752882635
Publication Date: January 2, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: UK dispatch from UK seller. Mailed same or next day (airmail outside UK) - Clean pages in very good condition and tightly bound. Creasing to spine. No creasing to covers. Covers in very good condition with light bumping to corners.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Stunning!! August 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
How many superlatives do you want? stunning, haunting, genius, provocative, distressing, pacey, heartbreaking, taut, gripping, unputdownable.................read this book.
 A Quiet Belief In Angels August 23, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a well written and moving book and yet I did not enjoy it. Obviously the subject matter is disturbing but more than that it was the unbelievable bad luck that Joseph seemed to endure. In the end I had to force myself to keep reading as I hate to give up on a book. Positive points are the description of small town America which makes you almost picture it and the evocation of the past, all hauntingly written.
Not a 5-star book August 16, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I tore through the first half of this tale in no time at all, lapping up the atmosphere of the American South and finding myself wanting to be there, despite all the dangers. The sign of a good read, no? Trouble is, the pace soon starts to drag. There's a big pinch of flab in the midsection where the writing style becomes Steinbeck like and experimental, and where characters are brought to life in adjective soaked descriptions only to fall off the radar minutes later and never be heard of again. It feels like a 300 page book fleshed out to please a publisher who really wanted 400.
While the writing does pick up considerably towards the end, by this time the main character has undergone so much misery and torment that you no longer find yourself flinching at any of it. Not only that, but the serial killer's notoriety is never discussed, and criminal investigators take little interest, despite the death toll of a plane crash and an M.O. that makes Ted Bundy look like a saint. We are lead to believe that almost nobody's interested; no newspaper wants to follow the case, no police department has the manpower or brainpower to figure out what's going on. None of it feels very real.
Anyway, this isn't a bad book by any account, it's just not a very good one, despite what Richard & Judy would have you believe. Who are they to recommend this sort of stuff anyway?
The best book I've read all year August 12, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I let this book sit around for months thinking I was not in the mood for a thriller. I was missing out. This is a beautifully written, almost lyrical novel that kept me enthralled. The murders and mayhem were incidental for me I was much more interested in the narrator's story. Ultimately I'm not sure it all stacks up and there is a lot of bad luck for one lifetime but I enjoyed every page. Don't let this book sit around for you!
 A slow burning thriller with character. August 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Finding the right book to take on holiday can go along way towards the success of the vacation. Though I had not read this author before, he turned out to be an ideal companion for the long hours on the beach.
While essentially the book is a thriller, outlining the long search for a serial killer, the narrative takes in more than just this, capturing the life story of the main protagonist (the narrator), and the various people who come and go in his life. Thus the focus is wider than the quest for the killer -which is not handled as a police investigation- and the description of characters and their backgrounds provides a broad canvas within which the essential story unfolds.
While the book proved a resounding success as my holiday reading, it is not perfect either. Although the ending satisfys the usual necessity of identifying the villain, there are some questions left unanswered. However this somehow seems to fit with the perspective from which the story is told.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and am happy to recommend it.
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