|
City of Lies | 
 enlarge | Author: R.j. Ellory
Publisher: Orion
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.60
You Save: £4.39 (55%)
New (26) Used (9) from £2.95
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 8559
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 464
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0752880896
EAN: 9780752880891
ASIN: 0752880896
Publication Date: July 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Ellory delivers again. June 2, 2008
Hardeep (wolverhampton)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My review for this novel is well overdue, it is a truly fantastic read, and although this short comment may not do it justice, I felt it necessary to voice just how much I enjoyed this work.
For those of you that like this authors unique style, I think you might agree that he is a master at characterisation. That was what I loved about this book, what kept me hooked and thinking about the characters within it even when I wasn't reading. Characters like Walt Freiberg, Ben Marcus and Cathy Hollander, however shadowy bring the story to life and emphasise everything that is good and great in Ellory's writing.
John Harper, the protagonist, pulled along in the inexorable grip of fate finds he has a father after years of believing he was an orphan. That this father, is near death in a hospital in New York and unbeknown to him, he his moving into a 12 day period that feels like a lifetime and will fundamentally change who he is, if he survives it.
A great story, beautifully structured with a fitting denouement. Another great Ellory book, another work to be prized and complimented, another great journey.
Compelling May 29, 2008
AJ (South Wales)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Along with "A Quiet Vendetta," this is the closest RJ Ellory gets to a conventional crime novel. The writing is atmospheric; you're drawn into the characters' lives; there's a strong sense of place; and no shortage of action. The only slight criticism is that I think it could have worked even better if written in the first person narrative.
Lies and Deceit May 21, 2008
Mr. Peter Steward (Norwich, England)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The great thing about Roger Ellory's books is I can't help dissecting them and that to me is the mark of a master storyteller. This was my fourth Ellory book and in many ways another tour de force. This one moves more like a movie than the others and I know that is what the author was trying to achieve.
You can imagine the end chapters which involve a series of bank robberies as a shoot-em-up ending to a film and in many ways City of Lies would lend itself to the big screen better than some of his slower moving books where the plots unravel at a relatively leisurely pace.
I didn't quiet connect with the central character in the same way I have done in his other novels, but there is no denying the power once again of his description of the lawless side of New York life. Ellory deals with seamy subjects and once again conjures up the ghost of William Styron in his hard-hitting Big Apple descriptive pieces.
The action of this book covers just 12 days, rather than years, and because of that it has to be tight in its construction. John Harper is thrust into a world of hoodlums when he discovers that a father he thought had been dead for 30 years is still alive - albeit in a coma after being shot in a New York robbery.
Harper travels to New York against his better judgement and gets drawn into a world of violence and intrigue with rival gangs posturing over territorial rights. Once again superbly researched, Ellory conjures up the nether-world of urban New York where nothing is as it seems. Strangely the power of the book comes not so much in the violence of New York but in the Epilogue where the peace and tranquility of rural Florida acts as a foil to the violence of the rest of the book. This is not a comfortable read - but the author never meant his books to be comfortbale.
As good as it gets. April 25, 2008
Jelly Bean (Stafford)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Brilliantly constructed and multi-layered - a real tour-de-force of crime writing. This is a book about people who lie to each other, in the midst of which is a seemingly naive and uneducated character called John Harper, but nothing is ever as it seems. Great characters, from Harper himself, to his father's old gangster cronies, to an OCD-suffering New York cop who's trying desperately to get everything to make sense. The book ends with four armed bank heists going off simultaneously in Manhattan on Christmas Eve. Genius, and I loved it!
 Not his Best April 16, 2008
Simon Haigh (Yorkshire, England)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the third Ellory book I have read and although I found it a good read, I don't agree with the other reviewers decision to give it 5 stars.
It started well and was fast paced, then went very ordinary. 200 pages could have been taken out in the last third without spoiling the story at all (infact it may have improved it)!! If you haven't read any Ellory, I suggest 'A Quiet Vendetta' or ' A quiet Belief in Angels'. I am going to read Candlemoth and Ghostheart now. Fingers crossed I am not disappointed...
|
|
|
www.pcprotech.co.uk | |
