Candlemoth - Softcover

Roger John Ellory's Candlemoth makes a decent but not entirely successful stab at being several novels. It is a protest against the death penalty and about inhuman treatment of prisoners that dramatises both issues by showing us Daniel, who has been railroaded to the electric chair over the brutal murder of his best friend. Inevitably though, Daniel is so passive and battered by his situation that the book can show us little except his pain. Offstage, it is a thriller about the process whereby he was framed and might be acquitted, but Ellory de-emphasises this aspect of the plot in favour of Daniel's suffering.

Much of the book is taken up in a memoir of the 60s, when Daniel and his best friend Nathan had a relationship that crossed racial boundaries in a south torn by conflict and when they went on the run to avoid being drafted into an unjust war. The book is vivid in its sense of the time, but again there is a sense of Daniel as someone who never really lives his own life--even in love and friendship he is the person to whom emotions and events happen. --Roz Kaveney

CONFIRMED INTERVIEW: Roger was interviewed by PUBLISHING NEWS for the Debut feature which appeared on 23rd May. Candlemoth was a ONE TO WATCH in THE BOOKSELLER star ratings on 11th April. Roger will be interviewed about the book on BBC RADIO WM on 29 July on the Fiona Dye evening programme. A full page interview with Roger was in the SUNDAY MERCURY newspaper in Birmingham on 3rd August. CONFIRMED REVIEWS: THE TIMES PLAY 26 JulyBIRMINGHAM EVENING MAIL 30 AugustNEW BOOK.MAG Summer issue out on 29 July EVENTS: Roger is attending BODIESIN THE BOOKSHOP at Heffers in Cambridge on 9th July. Roger will be spending a day with local rep Jon Small (either 15th or 22nd August), visiting Birmingham bookshops, meeting key buyers and signing stock.