Book number three and now we have real depth of character, a man who literally lives and breaths and jumps off the page. He is a Mafia hit-man and this is his story over four decades, again steeped in history, not just a book about the Mafia but one that outshines all others. You’ve got to read it.
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...
A QUIET VENDETTA is both the epic novel of one man's life in the Italian Mafia - a story that ranges from Cuba to Las Vegas and from L.A. to Chicago - and equally a powerful thriller of rage, love and loss.
R .J. Ellory is the author of nine previous novels including the bestselling A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS, which was a Richard & Judy Book Club selection and won the NOUVEL OBSERVATEUR CRIME FICTION PRIZE. Ellory's novels have been translated into 23 languages, and he has won the USA EXCELLENT AWARD FOR BEST MYSTERY, the STRAND MAGAZINE BEST THRILLER 2009, the THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR for A SIMPLE ACT OF VIOLENCE and the QUEBEC LAUREAT. He has been shortlisted for a further 13 awards including four Daggers from the UK Crime Writers' Association. Despite the American setting of his novels, Ellory is British and currently lives in England with his wife and son.
He has also written books under the name Roger Jon Ellory, which can be viewed by clicking here.
In 2011 R. J. Ellory was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library, awarded to an author for a body of work.
