R.J. Ellory - A Quiet Vendetta

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 a minor functionary from a Washington-based organised crime task force. Quickly dragged down to the deep South, Ray Hartmann puzzles over why he has been summoned and why the mysterious kidnapper, an elderly Cuban named Ernesto Perez, 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. It confirms Roger Jon Ellory's place at the forefront of new thriller writing.

Reviews

Ellory’s entrancing tale weaves two storylines together, keeping you turning the pages until a surprising denouement that I guarantee you will not see coming. This is one of the best Mafia reads since Mario Puzo’s “Godfather”, and Cuban hitman Ernesto Perez one of the most compelling characters in crime fiction.
The Birmingham Post

This is a sprawling masterpiece covering 50 years of the American Dream gone sour. Real people and events are mixed in with fictional characters in this striking novel that brings to mind the best of James Ellroy.
The Good Book Guide

Beautifully written, this is a novel to get lost in and one that is a long ride into the darkness, and if you recall reading Mario Puzo’s The Godfather as a teenager (as I did), then this is a powerful book that will make you relive that memory – masterful, but beware of the brutality, because it comes out of the most literate prose I have read in many years.
Deadly Pleasures

What emerges is an epic history of the Italian Mafia in America which, as in the very best of thrillers, has the ring of truth and real research behind it all. With exquisite pace and perfect timing, Roger Jon Ellory has given us a piercing assessment of the nature of love, loyalty and obsessive revenge, not to mention a deep understanding of la cosa nostra.
The Guardian

As with his debut, Candlemoth, Ellory takes us on a breathtaking journey, mixing real life twentieth-century US history, events and characters with a compelling personal fictional story. He has the ability to make us feel compassion for even the most brutal characters and there are some shocking acts of violence in the narrative. There is a ticking clock pace to the narrative with regard to both Hartmann’s family obligation and the need to reach and rescue Catherine Ducane. Beautifully written with a knockout twist in the tale and an assured and completely believable depiction of Mafia life.
Tangled Web