Customer Reviews
A Gem - By: J. Bird, 29 Oct 2008 
For the whole of Candlemoth - the first of Roger Ellory's novels I've read - I lost entirely the sense of "reading", I wasin the novel with the characters, watching them from a distance. It's a measure of the authenticity of the writing that sometimes - during the prison scenes especially - that became distinctly uncomfortable & unsettling. I wanted to look away, & couldn't. Meet Mr West. I haven't forgotten him yet. He'll probably haunt the next three novels I read.
And sometimes too, I felt like an intruder. Young Danny's fleeting love affair with Caroline is one highlight of the book for me, there's a delicacy & fragility about the writing which reflects perfectly an adult's reminiscence of first love. Everything was perfect, every detail is stillin Danny's mind, like the pattern on the candlemoth's wings. He remembers the sound of icein the lemonade glass, & that she smelt of "juniper & toothpaste & a sweet sense of beauty". Another highlight is a beautifully observed friendship between Danny & the widow Eve Chantry, who has her own tragic story to tell, one that shapes Danny's life & haunts his memory. And that gifts the novel its title.
Candlemoth drew mein from the first page. I stayed up very late to finish it, because I couldn't bear to leave Danny where he was, not knowing. Sometimes when I'm near to finishing a book, I "save the end" to postpone finishing it for one more day. Not this one. Doing that to Danny would have felt like a betrayal. I had to stay with him. When I start to feel protective of the characters, I know that's when a book has hooked me.
Ellory fan. - By: Simon Haigh, 18 Sep 2008 If you have been hooked by Ellory, thisin my opinion, is his best.
I thought it was very well written & the main character's story absorbing.
Oooh...this guy's good... - By: N. Bailey, 02 Sep 2008 
Just finished this & I can't believe this guy's work isn't more widely known. R J Ellory is a quality act. It's great to see "A Quiet Beliefin Angels"in the bestsellers & anyone who enjoyed that isn't going to be disappointed with his back catalogue either. "Candle Moth" was his first published novel (there are apparently 22 unpublished sitting around) & I can't for the life of me see how it took so long for him to make the big time.
The prose here isn't as refined as his new novels & at times the historical exposition is a little obvious, but this is a great read. The only reason I dock it a star is that he's subsequently proven he can write even better.
Dead Man Talking - By: one-eyed Jack, 14 Aug 2008 Roger Jon Ellory made his big breakthroughin 2007 with A Quiet Beliefin Angels which has gone on to become one of the best-selling booksin the nation. There's a lot more to this Brummie lad than just that one novel though, & most people going through his back-catalogue as a response to his blockbuster success are finding that his outstanding writing skills are evident herein his debut, which again spans most of the lifetime of a single manin the south-eastern USA through the 1950s, 1960s & beyond. It is altogether differentin its style, however, &in the emotions it engendersin its readers.
Most stories have a beginning, a middle, & an end. This one is a curiosity becausein effect the reader knows the end before opening the first page; 36-year-old Daniel Ford is on death rowin a South Carolina prison, having been tried & found guilty of the murder of his best friend some twelve years earlier. For most of the tale, then, the key questions are how, where, & above all why did he kill Nathan Verney? A singular oddity for me was that the story is told from a first-person perspective, making me constantly wonder how a dead man could be recounting the events of his life between 1952 - when at 6 years old he met Nathan - & 1982, with just a few hours to go before going to the electric chair. It turns out that although the end appears to be almost a foregone conclusion, the telling of that end is vivid, powerful & consummately makes up for the relatively genteel nature of most that had gone before, prior to Daniel's arrest around Christmas of 1969. Ellory succeedsin making you feel what it must be like to be weeks, days & finally just hours away from death.
While some of the political backdrops are too long drawn outin detail, there is no question that politics & racial prejudice lie right at the heart of the tale. Most relevant of all is the Vietnam conflict, & how Daniel & Nathan face up to the probability of being drafted into a war they both have no desire to be involved in. The other key issue is that Nathan is black, &in a part of the country with strong associations with the Ku Klux Klan, he faces harmful consequences when he simply goes out to a bar with his white friend, & takes even higher risks by having a white girlfriend - especially one with a father reputed to be a Klan king-pin. Yet another political topic central to all that goes on is the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, & when all is said & done at the conclusion, it becomes apparent that all of the main characters, including Daniel's girlfriends, & most if not all of the political narrative are absolutely relevant to the story as a whole, even if some of the people & background events seem to have no bearing at the time of their mention.
The prose will be regarded as merely average by anyone who has read Ellory's most recent work, but the imagery of both the tranquillity of Greenleaf South Carolina, & the intimidating inmates & warders on death row make for gripping reading. There are, throughout this tale, emotive portrayals of love, lust, envy, betrayal, guilt, fear, joy, anger & utter hopelessness. For those familiar with Ellory's other novels this one does take a while before it really takes hold, & patience might be needed at times, but the pay-off is absolute & uncompromising, with an ending that few others can hope to match. Ultimately an intense, moving & memorable story.
Dead Man Talking - By: one-eyed Jack, 14 Aug 2008 Roger Jon Ellory made his big breakthroughin 2007 with A Quiet Beliefin Angels which has gone on to become one of the best-selling booksin the nation. There's a lot more to this Brummie lad than just that one novel though, & most people going through his back-catalogue as a response to his blockbuster success are finding that his outstanding writing skills are evident herein his debut, which again spans most of the lifetime of a single manin the south-eastern USA through the 1950s, 1960s & beyond. It is altogether differentin its style, however, &in the emotions it engendersin its readers.
Most stories have a beginning, a middle, & an end. This one is a curiosity becausein effect the reader knows the end before opening the first page; 36-year-old Daniel Ford is on death rowin a South Carolina prison, having been tried & found guilty of the murder of his best friend some twelve years earlier. For most of the tale, then, the key questions are how, where, & above all why did he kill Nathan Verney? A singular oddity for me was that the story is told from a first-person perspective, making me constantly wonder how a dead man could be recounting the events of his life between 1952 - when at 6 years old he met Nathan - & 1982, with just a few hours to go before going to the electric chair. It turns out that although the end appears to be almost a foregone conclusion, the telling of that end is vivid, powerful & consummately makes up for the relatively genteel nature of most that had gone before, prior to Daniel's arrest around Christmas of 1969. Ellory succeedsin making you feel what it must be like to be weeks, days & finally just hours away from death.
While some of the political backdrops are too long drawn outin detail, there is no question that politics & racial prejudice lie right at the heart of the tale. Most relevant of all is the Vietnam conflict, & how Daniel & Nathan face up to the probability of being drafted into a war they both have no desire to be involved in. The other key issue is that Nathan is black, &in a part of the country with strong associations with the Ku Klux Klan, he faces harmful consequences when he simply goes out to a bar with his white friend, & takes even higher risks by having a white girlfriend - especially one with a father reputed to be a Klan king-pin. Yet another political topic central to all that goes on is the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, & when all is said & done at the conclusion, it becomes apparent that all of the main characters, including Daniel's girlfriends, & most if not all of the political narrative are absolutely relevant to the story as a whole, even if some of the people & background events seem to have no bearing at the time of their mention.
The prose will be regarded as merely average by anyone who has read Ellory's most recent work, but the imagery of both the tranquillity of Greenleaf South Carolina, & the intimidating inmates & warders on death row make for gripping reading. There are, throughout this tale, emotive portrayals of love, lust, envy, betrayal, guilt, fear, joy, anger & utter hopelessness. For those familiar with Ellory's other novels this one does take a while before it really takes hold, & patience might be needed at times, but the pay-off is absolute & uncompromising, with an ending that few others can hope to match. Ultimately an intense, moving & memorable story.
