CandleMoth by
Roger Jon Ellory
hbk out July 03
Published by Orion
at £7.99
Death row thriller which charts the life story of convicted murderer Daniel Ford who has thirty six days to live and who meets regularly to talk with Father John Rousseau, visiting prison chaplain. In 1952, six year old Daniel meets Nathan Vernay and the two boys forge a friendship which lasts until Nathan’s savage murder in 1970. Living together through the America of the 1960’s, through the time of the civil right’s struggle, Kennedy’s assassination and that of Martin Luther King, the space race and the Vietnam War, Daniel and Nathan eventually go on the run together to evade the draft. As the time of his death draws ever nearer, Daniel’s account circles closer and closer to the bitter truth behind the murder, his trial and conviction. This is a breathtaking book. Ellroy’s artless prose takes the story of Daniel’s coming of age and fall from grace and uses it as a metaphor for the destruction of the American dream and the corruption of the American administration. A stunning indictment of the death penalty but a story that also bears testament to love and friendship and bravery. With lyrical descriptions of the lost innocence of childhood, vivid characterisation and the horrendous prospect of the electric chair creating acute suspense, Ellroy’s book, his debut, will surely win awards as well as please readers.
M.E.N. 2.8.03
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries set on the mean streets of Manchester)
CandleMoth by
Roger Jon Ellory
