A Quiet Vendetta

Description

When Catherine Ducane disappears in the heart of New Orleans, the local cops react rapidly - she is the daughter of the Governor of Louisiana after all. But the case gets very strange, very quickly. Her bodyguard turns up horribly mutilated in the trunk of a beautiful vintage car and when her kidnapper calls he doesn't want money: he wants time alone with Ray Hartmann, who works for a Washington-based organised crime task force. All Ray wants to do is get this over with quickly and go home to try and repair his broken marriage. Instead he must listen to the mysterious kidnapper, an elderly Cuban named Ernesto Perez, who wants to tell him his life story. It's only when he realises that Ernesto has been a brutal hitman for the Mob since the 1950s that things start to come together. But by the time the pieces fall into place, it's already too late...

R.J. Ellory studied graphics and photography, intending to pursue a career in photojournalism. He started writing more than ten years ago. His books have been translated into Italian, German and Dutch, and two of his novels have been shortlisted for CWA Daggers. He divides his time between his work as a novelist and voluntary programmes in the areas of drug rehabilitation and youth literacy. He is married with one son, and currently resides in The Midlands.

May well be the best Mafia novel since The Godfather, it's one damn fine book and should be highly recommended to all but the coziest of crime-fiction fans. -- Elliott Swanson * Booklist USA * Beautifully written, this is a novel to get lost in, a novel to savor and one that is a long ride into the darkness, and if you recall reading Mario Puzo's The Godfather as a teenager [as I did], then this powerful book will make you relive that memory - Masterful but beware of the brutality, because it comes out of the most literate prose I have read for many years. -- Ali Karim * SHOTS * Ellory got his thriller writing off to a good start with Candlemoth and followed up tidily with Ghostheart. This book, though, should propel him right up there to battle it out with the big boys ... a satisfying puzzler, and you'll be turning the pages at a brisk rate. * LADSMAG * With exquisite pace and perfect timing, Ellory has given us a piercing assessment of the nature of love, loyalty and obsessive revenge, not to mention a deep understanding of la cosa nostra. -- Matthew Lewin * GUARDIAN * Ellory's entrancing tale weaves the two storylines together, keeping you turning the pages ... this is one of the best mafia reads since Mario Puzo's Godfather * BIRMINGHAM SUNDAY MERCURY * This is a beautifully written, atmospheric novel that warps effectively between a hugely enjoyable thriller and an authentic recreation of the claustrophobic Mob world of brutality and paranoia * TRIBUNE *