This guy is good
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This is the second book of RJE that I have read. This one was not as dark as "A quiet belief in Angels", and so may be easier for others to get into. These books cannot be categorised as thrillers but they have the pace of one. The characters are extremely well thoughtout and the storyline is strong. For an englishman writing about crime in America this guy is brilliant.
There was one fault - the first two or three pages seemed heavy and made me wonder if the book would be good. If you find that the same when you pick it up - persist - it not only gets better it excels.
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66 Carmine
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Before finishing Ellory's beautiful A QUIET BELIEF IN ANGELS I decided to buy everything else he has written, and CITY OF LIES is the first I found, although it is actually his fourth novel. I much prefer the author's original title '66 Carmine' as it evokes thoughts of a more appropriately noir-ish atmosphere than the rather bland title the publishers preferred and more accurately reflects one of the key elements of the story, which is to say this house is where it all began some three decades earlier and where it ultimately ends. It has to be said that the writing style is so completely different from AQBIA that the reader might wonder if they were both penned by the same man, but there is one thread that both novels have in common: the central character in each case will become a writer, in fact the key man here has already had a book published in years past which is often referred to in dialogue. That man is 36-year-old John Harper, who has lived an unassuming life in Miami unaware that the father he thought had died when he was a boy is in reality one of the most powerful financiers of organised crime in New York. It's only when the elderly boss-of-bosses is shot and critically injured that Harper is brought in to act on behalf of the father he never knew so as to bring about the big deal that is designed to hand over power and territory to another leading underworld kingpin. This is a riveting, powerful character-driven tale of life-long deception and power pursuits. Spread over just ten days or so the bulk of the story is built upon the lead up to a climax on a specific date, Christmas Eve, and much of the final 100 pages are dedicated to a minute-by-minute account of several simultaneous bank heists on that day. If this was to be turned into a film, I would suggest that Michael Mann would be the right man to direct it. Despite intense and intimate debate about what went on all those years ago and what will happen when everything comes to a head in a few days' time, I could not think what the outcome would be as it seemed, in its specific detail, to be utterly unpredictable. The confusion and distraction that Harper and others suffer is felt by the reader too, I for one feeling totally engrossed in the people, the history and the events, and sensing real tension and danger in the concluding stages. This is a crime thriller with genuine depth and breadth and one that on several occasions manages to move, excite and surprise the reader. The bank heists are pure theatre, vividly cinematic and thoroughly gripping. Once you're in, you won't want to put it down until the very end. Strongly recommended - RJ Ellory has to be one of Britain's best and yet still most promising literary talents.
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Ellory delivers again.
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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.
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Compelling
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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.
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Lies and Deceit
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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.
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