Whistler's Angel

by John R. Maxim

Government agent Adam Whistler's sudden unauthorized exit from public service finds the defector's boss, the ruthless Felix Aubrey, scrambling to recover a stolen ledger book that could destroy his career. By the author of Time Out of Mind. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Adventure

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

John R. Maxim was born in Greenwich Village, NYC, educated at NY Jesuit Schools (Xavier and Fordham) played all the street sports and most team sports.
Comes from a family of cops and a few Feds. After school, took up flying, skydiving and dirt-track stock car racing until the Military decided it could do without him. Then went into marketing and advertising. Several awards. Rose to Senior VP at major New York Advertising agencies. Work involved a great deal of international travel. Major hobby back then was sailing.
Always wanted to write, however, and, one night on the bar car, decided to give it a year, succeed or fail. Sold first novel at age 41. Wrote 12 more plus one non-fiction, averaging a year and a half each. Translated into ten languages. Several were optioned for film or TV. Still waiting.
Took up skiing. Many trips to Switzerland and Colorado. With the kids gone, sold our Connecticut house and moved to Hilton Head Island with his beautiful wife, Christine, herself a champion sailor.

Reviews

[Chuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which came as a complete surprise. The author has been a resident of Hilton Head Island and one of the characters in the book is a real live resident and friend that gave me a copy to read. Local author, a friends recommendation..........generally the ingredients of a long dull trudge through a book to please others. But to my surprise there was never a dull moment in this clever mystery which takes place on and in streets and stores and restaurants that are my everyday turf. That along with finding out that the author's works have nade regular visits to the New York Times bestseller lists added credibilty. Simply an above average mystery that was superior to much of the current mystery genre that I have been reading.

[The W · Rating 4 out of 5]

W Rating : B


Maxim is good. Read him fools.

Whistler’s Angel is a great novel. One must read the Bannerman series before reading this one. Well, you don’t have to, but if you want to catch the “jokes” and understand the other characters that are brought in you might consider. But, hey, do whatever you want. I have already read it.

Maxim this time brings up another spy-type character that has “gotten out” of the darker side of the game. Adam Whistler is a 34 year old with military background, and has a father who is involved with the “keeping the game honest” branch of society. Ish. The father is actually one of the more interesting characters for the entire story just due to his understated development. Anyways, the background of the plot revolves around Adam taking a piece of evidence to protect himself from issues in the future stemming from some powerful government employees. The “angel” part of the title is in the form of Whistler’s love interest who had an accident due to this piece of evidence. Her character is pretty neat and you really don’t get a whole lot of the mystical side of this. It exist but it isn’t as much as I would have liked but you have be careful not to stain the boundaries of the genre people are used to. Maxim pushes slightly but doesn’t break. I would have been fine with more, but that is my style of reading.

The story is good and fast paced. The characters are good and defined enough knowing that they will be used in the future if only slightly. The Bannerman aspects are great. Read Bannerman then read this. Whistler’s Angel is easily a good story to read. I have little time to continue to write, so I am cutting this quite short.

Read Maxim.

[Chuck · Rating 1 out of 5]

This storyline was a bit strange for my taste. Our hero is a likeable individual with a shadowy past who finds himself on the run while trying to acclimate himself into the real world. He falls in love with a beautiful young woman who has experienced an out of body death experience and anoints herself his guardian angel. While the two of them are meandering around the world on a sail boat
the author is preaching sermons demonizing federal laws regarding the confiscation of real property owned by drug traffickers and in favor of the legalization of drug use, particularly cannabis. It was a pretty good story line but it just moved too slowly for me with all the proselytizing. I didn't finish it.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm wondering about the connection between this plot and the Republican Presidential Nomination Campaign extreme fanatical leanings...

[Will Kuhl · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY FUNNY

Great book really. Thoroughly enjoyed portrayal of inept thugs and all the trouble they caused!! Will read all of these books

[Linda Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Whistler is a dangerous man. Originally trained in special ops in an elite military unit, his work lately has been under the supervision of a corrupt government official. But his increasing reluctance to plant drugs on innocent Americans so that local enforcement can seize their assets has worried his superiors. They decide to teach him a lesson by threatening his girlfriend, Claudia, and her mother. But that operation does not go as planned. Claudia is shot in the throat. She is brought back from the brink of death twice. Claudia informs Adam that she has been sent back to be his guardian angel. And she does display some unusual abilities. Adam and Claudia need to keep a low profile to hide from their enemies. They decide to spend a year sailing on a yacht. But there are still some renegade agents who seek revenge. Bannerman and his crew don't really make an announced appearance until the second half of the book when things come to a head on Hilton Head Island. The bad guys are often so ridiculously inept that I had to laugh out loud. But the violence is still real. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would have given it a five star rating if not for the terrible proof-reading. Errors appeared on most pages. John R. Maxim and his characters deserved better treatment by this publisher.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

This book has a great plot, a wonderful set of characters and plenty of twists and turns with lots of action. Read it!