Customer Reviews
Brilliant - and again.............. - By: T. M. Chaney, 04 Jan 2009 
Another tour-de-force by R J Ellory. It drives a bolt into your brain & holds you there, page after page for 600 pages. Like 'A Quiet Belief', like 'A Quiet Vendetta' it is a storming powerhouse of a story, written with intricate detail, emotion & skill.
A simple word of caution - By: Jeff, 01 Jan 2009 
At risk of making myself terribly unpopular, can I urge you [assuming you haven't read the book yet] not to get too carried away with the 'lovefest'in these glowing reviews? This isn't a bad book & yes, Ellory is basically a very fine writer but I don't find it quite as good as some of his other novels. Too long? Definitely! And I did begin to tire of it, I must admit. He attacks the CIA with menace [OK, fine, but there's nothing new there] & I'm beginning to wonder whether his next novel might be called 'The Grassy Knoll' or something. And to those who rate him so highly as a writer, consider this - "Miller's heart stopped beating. It did not start again for some time." How any editor allowed that is beyond me! So, OK, click on the 'Unhelpful' button if you want but you've been warned!
A simple of act of brilliance - By: Strong Cheddar, 07 Dec 2008 I first read Ellory with his previous book, 'A quiet beliefin angels' & thought it was stunning. This is as good if not better. Rarely are the charactersin thrillers very believable. I often find myself ignoring authors' attempts to create depth & backstoryin their characters' lives & just focus on the plot. I was trying to work out what makes this author different & came to the conclusion that it's the feeling of melancholy that he weaves through his stories that make the themes & the characters engrossing & so real. Wonderful stuff. It's only a matter of time before one is made into a film, though it won't be an easy adaptation.
A simple act of storytelling - By: J. H. Bretts, 27 Nov 2008 I'm clearlyin a minorityin not thinking that this is as good as Ellory's previous novel A Quiet Beliefin Angels. But I do think that at 500 pages it is too long & could have done with some editing. That said it is a good read, mixing police procedural with a story of murky covert action by the CIA, & the final pages provide some satisfying shocks.
Murder, Intrigue and Suspense in Washington - By: JT, 21 Nov 2008 This is the fourth RJ Ellory book that i have read & it is, by far, his best to date.
We are led to understand that a women is about to be murdered - but with her consent. The detective assigned to the case, Robert Miller, is then guided through several dead-end (no pun intended) leads by the mysterious John Robey. Throughout the book, the interplay between these two characters will have you guessing about who did what to whom & why.
A Simple Act of Violence is a real page-turner. RJ Ellory's style of writing is to provide the reader with characters that have real personality, flaws, imperfections & many reasons to care about what happens to them.
The book contains many shocks, including the brutality of some of the deaths, but is nevertheless a book that you will want to continue reading right up to the final sentence.
The volume of research that must have been done prior to the writing of the story is immense. So much detail, you feel you are walking the cold & windy streets of Washington, tacking all of Detective Miller's movements.
If you like murder mystery, suspense, thriller or conspiracy theory books, there'll definitely be somethingin A Simple Act of Violence to keep you wanting to read more. And you'll possibly never believe anything you hear coming out of the CIA ever again.
