12/05/2022
When Katie Shaw, the protagonist of this uneven thriller set in the U.K. from bestseller North (The Shadows), was 17, she made an innocent decision that proved calamitous; instead of looking after her younger brother, Chris, she spent an afternoon with her boyfriend. As a result, Katie wasn’t on hand when Chris was attacked by a stranger, Michael Hyde, who tried to cut off Chris’s face. Now in her 30s, she feels even more guilt when their mother reports that Chris, who became an addict and petty criminal, has gone missing. This news drives Katie to try to find Chris, despite having given up on their relationship years before when she turned him in to the police for theft. Chris is also the quarry of a police detective who met the siblings when Hyde assaulted Chris. Meanwhile, a philosophy professor, a fervent determinist, has his throat slit under circumstances that suggest he expected to be killed; Chris was caught at the scene by security video. That the professor’s murder is also linked to a serial killer known as the Angel Maker adds intrigue. Not every twist works, and the potential of the intersecting story lines isn’t realized. North has done better. Agent: Sandra Sawicka, Marjacq (U.K.). (Feb.)
**Named a Must Read by PopSugar and CrimeReads**
“A story that combines lofty philosophical inquiries about fate and free will with the grisly legacy of a sadistic serial killer. ... Deep down it explores an endlessly intriguing [question]: Is it possible to change the course of fate?”
–The New York Times
"Deeply complex and carefully crafted, this novel is a thrilling question mark all the way to the end, and it puts North’s storytelling skills on full display.… The Angel Maker, his best so far, is a superb addition to his already impressive oeuvre."
–npr
The Angel Maker weaves "an intriguing cast of characters across multiple time periods into a story rich with layers and plot twists and perfectly suspenseful pacing. A delightfully bone-chilling tale."
–Kirkus Reviews
"At [The Angel Maker's] center is a present-day murder, but embedded in its core are the paranormal, elements of cringeworthy horror, and a riveting study of the bonds and boundaries of sibling devotion, as well as a master study on determinism... Everything in this story is connected in ways the reader can’t begin to imagine until a series of stunning parallels and revelations are disclosed. Wait for it!"
—Booklist, starred review
"Told in multiple voices and with digressions into the past, The Angel Maker is disturbing, absorbing and, in the beginning, a crazy kaleidoscope of storytelling. Be patient, though...the big picture here does come together. And when it does, it’s not one you’re likely to forget."
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
This audiobook is especially for those who like healthy doses of the supernatural and time travel in their mysteries. Katie's beloved brother, Chris, has gone missing. His disappearance is tied to the investigation of a horrible crime many years ago. There's also a serial killer who can see the future. Narrator Rosalie Craig handles the characters well, especially the hardworking detective on the cold case, Laurence Page. Craig is especially adept at providing varying voices to assist the listener in identifying characters . With its sometimes puzzling parallel universes, this work isn't for everyone, but Craig is up to the challenge of delivering it. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
This audiobook is especially for those who like healthy doses of the supernatural and time travel in their mysteries. Katie's beloved brother, Chris, has gone missing. His disappearance is tied to the investigation of a horrible crime many years ago. There's also a serial killer who can see the future. Narrator Rosalie Craig handles the characters well, especially the hardworking detective on the cold case, Laurence Page. Craig is especially adept at providing varying voices to assist the listener in identifying characters . With its sometimes puzzling parallel universes, this work isn't for everyone, but Craig is up to the challenge of delivering it. M.B. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
2022-12-24
The aftereffects of a series of violent attacks reverberate through several families over multiple generations in this British thriller.
Katie Shaw lives with the guilt of not having walked home with her brother, Chris, after high school on the day he was attacked by a stranger with a knife. Chris has never fully recovered from the assault, which left him with multiple visible scars; he's turned to addiction and become homeless. Seventeen years after the attack on Chris, Alan Hobbes, a retired philosophy professor who'd had so much money he hadn't really needed to work, is found stabbed to death in his bed. While investigating the crime, Det. Laurence Page finds footage from a security camera that shows a man in Hobbes' apartment shortly before his death—and recognizes the man as Chris, whose assault Page had also investigated. Even as the police name her brother as a suspect in Hobbes' murder, Katie hears from her mother that Chris has disappeared after a period of stability, seemingly afraid that someone's following him. Given that Katie has also begun to fear that she’s being followed, she reluctantly believes her mother's story and starts her own search for her brother. Even as Det. Page pieces together Hobbes’ history, which included a horrific childhood, and revisits the attack on Chris, Katie is forced to confront the idea that what happened to her brother all those years ago might not have been a random act of violence after all. North's latest thriller does not disappoint, weaving an intriguing cast of characters across multiple time periods into a story rich with layers and plot twists and perfectly suspenseful pacing.
A delightfully bone-chilling tale.
