Angel's Share

Fitzroy Maclean Angel #14

by Mike Ripley

At the insistence of his fashionista wife, the currently heavily pregnant Amy May, streetwise chancer Fitzroy Maclean Angel has joined Rudgard & Blugden Confidential Investigations, a previously all-female private detective agency - although the vintage crime paperbacks he refers to as 'training manuals' still haven't sold him on the idea of having to go to work every day. His latest assignment is seemingly simple - to track down an elderly client's long-lost first love - but before long he is up to his eyes in problems, including dealing with a teenage internet scammer, being kidnapped on a motor-cruiser and getting caught up in a shoot-out between two deranged OAPs ... Telos Publishing is proud to present another of its reissues of Mike Ripley's acclaimed series of comic crime novels - complete with a new, specially-written introduction by the author. 'England's funniest crime writer' - Marcel Berlins, The Times . 'Street wisdom, weird and wonderful information and very, very funny' - Michael Dibdin.

Genres: Crime, Mystery

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 29, 2006

About the author

Mike Ripley is the author of the award-winning 'Angel' series of comedy thrillers which have twice won the CWA Last Laugh Award. It has been said that he 'paints a picture of London Dickens would recognise' and that 'he writes like the young Len Deighton, wierd and wonderful information and very, very funny'. Described as 'England's funniest crime writer' (The Times), he is also a respected critic of crime fiction, writing for the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times and the Birmingham Post among others.

Reviews

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Roy Angel, reluctant PI
SETTING: UK
SERIES: #14 of 14
RATING: 3.5

Roy Angel is singularly unprepared for his new job as a private investigator at Rudgard & Blugden Confidential Investigations. He is reading the works of Raymond Chandler as his training manual. He is unaccustomed to the whole concept of a full-time job and is astonished to find that means he must be occupied in business pursuits for major parts of his day. He's only come to this miserable state as a result of not exercising proper birth control precautions. His significant other, Amy, is pregnant. Up until now, she has paid the way; but with the birth of a child imminent, she needs Angel to assume some responsibility for taking care of their family. She is a noted fashion designer and well-to-do; in fact, she bought a stake in Rudgard & Blugden so that Angel would have a job.

Angel's first client is a man named James Ellrington who, at the age of sixty-five and after the death of his wife, hires Angel to find his first true love, Margaret Anne Hayes. They were involved before James went off to university; the lures of college life proved fatal to their relationship. He's since realized that he gave up a good thing. Angel is very touched by this story and intent on reuniting the erstwhile lovers. The other members of the agency aren't so sure; they are worried that Margaret may not want to be found, that Ellrington may be a dangerous stalker type.

Much to everyone's surprise, Angel manages to do a pretty credible job at his new career and tracks down Margaret. What happens when the "lovers" are reunited is completely different from anything that anyone has predicted. Ripley adds some very unexpected elements into the mix; I'm not sure that his approach was entirely successful, but I did appreciate that he didn't play to expectations.

ANGEL'S SHARE is the 14th book in the Angel series, none of which I've read previously. I did wish that I had some background on the characters, as I didn't find the fact that Angel was living off of Amy to be a particularly attractive trait. However, this may have been explained satisfactorily in a previous work. It seemed odd to me that she was generous to the point of paying for Angel's father's medical care and that she hadn't insisted earlier that Angel be more of a contributing partner in their relationship.

Ripley is a very witty author and has written extensively for several online and print publications. True to form, the book has some very humorous moments. Angel's views of working life are hilarious. I found, though, that the humor fell by the wayside a bit as the plot developed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed ANGEL'S SHARE and will happily be looking for the earlier books in the series.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've discovered a new detective to enjoy (well, private eye actually)! Angel is an engaging character, annoyingly lazy on the surface but intelligent and knowledgeable underneath. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. I was a bit disappointed that the clever one-liners in the first few chapters weren't quite sustained all the way through, but it was fun anyway.

I gave it three stars rather than five for one reason only: the ending. You could see the expected ending early on - that the client would turn out to have ulterior motives for his quest. No doubt the author thought he couldn't let the obvious happen, and felt obliged to think up an alternative ending: but I think he should've either thought a bit harder or settled for the obvious! As it was, the characters' motivations and reactions simply didn't ring true. He also seemed to feel obliged to introduce some action for Our Hero - again, it seemed manufactured and unconvincing (was it really necessary to kidnap him?). But I'll certainly be seeking out more in the series.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book was simply dreadful.

[Readelf · Rating 2 out of 5]

massive Angel fan, but beginning to feel that the series is going off the boil a little.