A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS

TITLE: A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS
AUTHOR: R.J. ELLORY
Pages: 396
Date: 14/07/2010
Grade: 4.5
Library

It is hard to categorize this book. Yes, it is a murder mystery with a lot of horrific murders. It is also a spine chilling thriller in which the reader is constantly waiting for the next violent act or shock. However, this is a literary novel too, slow moving, descriptive and wordy.
This is the first book I've read by Ellory so I don't know if all his work is literary like this one or if this book is so literary because the main character is an author. What I do know is that this book hooked me from the first page, chilled me to the bone and compelled me to keep on turning the pages, although there were points in the story where I wished the author would just move on with the story and stop reflecting.
This is the story of Joseph Vaughan who is only eleven when his father dies and he's left behind with his mother in rural Georgia.
Only a year later a young local girl is found murdered and the killer is not found. Nine months later a second girl is found and those two girls are only the start. And with every subsequent girl, the murders get more horrific.
Joseph and his friends form a group, The Guardians, hoping to prevent further slaughter, but they're kids up against an unknown, dangerous adult and more girls die, leaving Joseph with a deep sense of guilt.
By the time Joseph is 21 the combination of the murders and personal tragedy force him to leave Georgia for New York where he starts a new life.
But a past like Joseph has can't be left behind. In fact the past follows him to New York leading him into a nightmare he could never have imagined.

"So let the past be what it was, the present what it is, the future the best it can be."