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Allison and Busby, this edition 2008
Reviewed by Sunnie Gill
Roy Angel is a private investigator. He is the token male at an all-female
agency. His wife, a successful fashion designer, has recently given birth
to their first child. But there’s a fly in Angel’s blissful ointment. The
Agency is insisting he is not entitled to extended paternity leave and his
mother has descended upon them to “help” with the baby. Angel’s mum is a
bit eccentric. She’s a hippy with a penchant for trouble and has the
maternal instincts of a doorknob.
Angel takes on the job of searching for a missing script writer. The bank
financing the film is getting jumpy because the final draft of the script
is past due and the writer hasn’t been seen in nearly two weeks. The
investigation takes Angel out of his comfort zone of London into the wilds
of Yorkshire. He is aided by fellow PI Ossie Oesterlein, a very large man
with an even larger appetite, who lives at home with his mum and is into
line dancing in a big way.
So just how does a search for a missing man end in a murder hunt with
Angel staring down the barrel of a loaded gun contemplating his own death?
And what does a Polish porn star have to do with it? The story is told
from Angel’s perspective. As the narrator, Angel’s voice is highly
amusing, particularly the banter between himself and Ossie. These two are
about an unlikely a pair as you’ll ever come across. His wife’s increasing
exasperation and annoyance at Angel’s extended absence from the martial
home is also very entertaining, as is his mother’s antics.
The author, Mike Ripley, deftly changes both the tempo and mood of the
plot as what begins as a routine missing person case and a jaunt to the
north becomes a matter of life and death for Angel. ANGELS UNAWARE is a
light-hearted detective yarn with a somewhat dark centre.
I was surprised to learn that ANGELS UNAWARE is the fifteenth in the
Angel series. I must look out for more. Mike Ripley’s Roy Angel has
slipped under my radar until now. Don’t let it slip under yours.
Nov 2008 review originally published on Murder and Mayhem
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