A Quiet Vendetta
*Starred Review* Pre-Katrina New Orleans, with all its passion and decadence intact, provides an ideal backdrop for the intimate revelations of Ernesto Perez, a career hit man. (This book was originally released in the UK in August 2005, literally days before Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.) In what may well be the best Mafia novel since The Godfather, Ellory explores the dark intimacies of people bound by a complex relationship with violence, ranging from the mean streets to the highest strata of society. The story is built around a dialogue between Perez and Special Investigator Ray Hartmann, with Hartmann attempting to get Perez to reveal the location of a kidnapping victim. And not just any kidnapping victim but the daughter of the Louisiana governor. The mutilated corpse of the girl’s bodyguard casts an ominous pall over the case, and the political pressure on alcoholic Hartmann and a small army of FBI agents is intense. This is the fourth of Ellory’s powerful, literate thrillers to be published in the U.S. (the last was A Simple Act of Violence, 2011). It’s one damn fine book and should be highly recommended to all but the coziest of crime-fiction fans. --Elliott Swanson--This text refers to an alternateHardcoveredition.