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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Ellory, R. 2012 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
When Catherine Ducane disappears in New Orleans, the cops react fast--she is the governor's daughter, after all. But the case quickly grows strange. Her bodyguard turns up horribly mutilated, and when the kidnapper calls, he doesn't want money: he wants time alone with a minor government functionary. By the time the pieces fall into place, it's already too late . . . A Quiet Vendetta is both the epic story of one mobster's life-- ranging from Cuba to Chicago-- and equally a powerful thriller of rage, love, and loss. With tension to match the best of Cussler, Patterson, and his own best-selling work, A Quiet Vendetta confirms R.J. Ellory's place at the forefront of the genre.
Author Notes
Roger Jon Ellory was born in Birmingham, England, June 20th 1965. He was orphaned at age seven when his mother, Carole - an actress and dancer - died of pneumonia.
Between August 2001 and January 2002 Ellory wrote three books, the second of which was called Candlemoth which was published by Orion in 2003. Candlemoth was translated into German, Dutch and Italian, and has now also been purchased for translation in numerous other languages. The book was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Steel Dagger for Best Thriller in2003.
Roger's third book, A Quiet Vendetta, was released in August 2005 and went on to win the Quebec Laureat 2010 and the Villeneuve Prix Des Lecteurs 2010 in its French translation.
In 2006 Ellory published City of Lies which again was nominated for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of that year. His fifth book - A Quiet Belief In Angels - was published in August 2006 and was selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club. The book has since been translated into twenty-five languages. A Quiet Belief In Angels went on to be shortlisted for the Barry Award for Best British Crime Fiction, the 813 Trophy, the Quebec Booksellers' Prize, The Europeen Du Point Crime Fiction Prize, and was winner of the Inaugural Prix Roman Noir Nouvel Observateur, The Strand Magazine Best Thriller of the Year, the Livre De Poche Award 2010, and the US Indie Excellence Award for Best Mystery.
Ellory's subsequent book, A Simple Act of Violence, received a Barry Award nomination for Best British Crime Fiction of 2008. A Simple Act of Violence went on to win the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award.
In late 2009 R. J. released The Anniversary Man and then Saints of New York in early 2010. He has now completed Bad Signs for a June 2011 release.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
The kidnapping of 19-year-old Catherine Ducane, daughter of Louisiana governor Charles Ducane, and the brutal murder of her driver set the stage for this absorbing crime novel from Ellory (A Simple Act of Violence) covering more than 50 years of mob violence and American history. When the FBI agrees to Ernesto Perez's request to bring Ray Hartmann of the New York district attorney's office to New Orleans, Perez turns himself in. Perez promises to reveal Catherine's whereabouts, but first he must tell his life story as a Mafia hit man to Hartmann. Perez recounts a journey that includes his involvement in at least 19 murders and the mob's links to such figures as the Kennedys, Richard Nixon, and Marilyn Monroe. Perez's goal remains a mystery, as does his selection of Hartmann as his audience, up to the end of this brilliantly conceived tale of greed, politics, family loyalties, and vengeance. Only the occasional passage of florid prose spoils the performance. Agent: Euan Thorneycroft. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
The Anniversary Man, 2010, etc.) latest--literally. It's not so easy in the Big Easy, not in summer, when "the storm drains backed up in the last week of July, and...spilled God-only-knew-what out into the gutters." One of the things they cough up is bodies. As Ellory's tale opens, medical examiner Jim Emerson and a cop with the poetic name of Verlaine are puzzling out one brutal specimen, an investigation instantly complicated by the kidnapping of the governor's daughter. It being Louisiana, the governor is, of course, hopelessly corrupt. Even so, justice is justice, and Ellory conjures up a worthy squad of cops to chase down the bad guy. This being an Ellory tale, though, it's the bad guy who does the chasing--or at least the talking, for more than anything else the kidnapper seems to want only a forum to get a few things off his mind about a decidedly checkered past. He talks--"I was Ernesto Cabrera Perez, a man capable of killing other men, a gifted man, a dangerous man"--and he talks, though the occasionally dorm-room-philosophical gab is pleasingly punctuated by lots of carnage. One wonders whether Ellory has been keeping company with mob assassins himself, to judge by some of the details he presents; suffice it to say that an attentive student could carve out an independent-study curriculum in dealing death from Perez's leisurely account of his adventures, so elegantly delivered that one might imagine the lines having been written for, say, Javier Bardem ("I am here of my own volition, and I assure you I am quite unarmed"). The tale-spinning goes on a little long, and the tale itself untightens in the telling, but Ellory delivers a neat conclusion that's not exactly instant karma, but close enough. It even approaches happy, if you don't mind your happiness--and a lesson in family values--soaked in blood and brains. A satisfying effort in a franchise devoted to double-digit mayhem.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Pre-Katrina New Orleans, with all its passion and decadence intact, provides an ideal backdrop for the intimate revelations of Ernesto Perez, a career hit man. (This book was originally released in the UK in August 2005, literally days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.) In what may well be the best Mafia novel since The Godfather, Ellory explores the dark intimacies of people bound by a complex relationship with violence, ranging from the mean streets to the highest strata of society. The story is built around a dialogue between Perez and Special Investigator Ray Hartmann, with Hartmann attempting to get Perez to reveal the location of a kidnapping victim. And not just any kidnapping victim but the daughter of the Louisiana governor. The mutilated corpse of the girl's bodyguard casts an ominous pall over the case, and the political pressure on alcoholic Hartmann and a small army of FBI agents is intense. This is the fourth of Ellory's powerful, literate thrillers to be published in the U.S. (the last was A Simple Act of Violence, 2011). It's one damn fine book and should be highly recommended to all but the coziest of crime-fiction fans.--Swanson, Elliott Copyright 2010 Booklist