Thursday, December 02, 2010
A Simple Act of Violence by R. J. Ellory .
When the fourth murder is discovered in Washington the newspapers give the serial killer a name - the ribbon killer. Detective Robert Miller is assigned to the case and things get complicated. This novel has 562 pages and was written in 2008. The story drags along as all the police leads come to dead ends. This tale lacks realism and I did not warm to the central character of Robert Miller. Nothing radical happened in this story and it has poor entertainment value. This novel fails as a thriller, it fails as a conspiracy and it fails as a social commentary. I did not like the structure of this book with it's brief chapters written in italics by the killer , and all the flashbacks that tell the tale of the killer's background.
R. J. Ellory has the skills of a good writer but A Simple Act of Violence is a poor story. There were a few bright spots scattered throughout this story but there were no big surprises. I took nothing away from this book. This novel is a tired story, a collection of not original themes strung together like a made-for-tv movie. It is a poor conspiracy involving an old favourite, the CIA. As you progress through this book your hopes drop, you feel as though it starts off good, then it drops to okay and then to poor. A steady decline that shows how poor the basic idea for this novel was indeed. The ending of this novel stretches it's lack of realism further still.
A Simple Act of Violence is a novel that I think you should let pass and I will vote it only 2 stars on book army . It is a poor crime thriller and is nowhere near as good as Ghostheart or A Quiet Belief in Angels . This is a shame as I enjoyed those 2 other R. J. Ellory books.
When the fourth murder is discovered in Washington the newspapers give the serial killer a name - the ribbon killer. Detective Robert Miller is assigned to the case and things get complicated. This novel has 562 pages and was written in 2008. The story drags along as all the police leads come to dead ends. This tale lacks realism and I did not warm to the central character of Robert Miller. Nothing radical happened in this story and it has poor entertainment value. This novel fails as a thriller, it fails as a conspiracy and it fails as a social commentary. I did not like the structure of this book with it's brief chapters written in italics by the killer , and all the flashbacks that tell the tale of the killer's background.
R. J. Ellory has the skills of a good writer but A Simple Act of Violence is a poor story. There were a few bright spots scattered throughout this story but there were no big surprises. I took nothing away from this book. This novel is a tired story, a collection of not original themes strung together like a made-for-tv movie. It is a poor conspiracy involving an old favourite, the CIA. As you progress through this book your hopes drop, you feel as though it starts off good, then it drops to okay and then to poor. A steady decline that shows how poor the basic idea for this novel was indeed. The ending of this novel stretches it's lack of realism further still.
A Simple Act of Violence is a novel that I think you should let pass and I will vote it only 2 stars on book army . It is a poor crime thriller and is nowhere near as good as Ghostheart or A Quiet Belief in Angels . This is a shame as I enjoyed those 2 other R. J. Ellory books.
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