WILLIAM HJORTSBERG – Falling Angel. PI Harry Angel #1. Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, hardcover, 1978. Fawcett, paperback, 1982. Warner Books, paperback, 1986. St. Martin’s, paperback, 1996. Film: Released as Angel Heart (Tri-Star, 1987) with Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet).

   It’s the late 1950’s, NYC. A wealthy, corrupt seeming, seamy yet seemly man, Louis Cipher, hires a private dick, Harry Angel, to find a missing person. That missing person is Johnny Favorite, a dime store Sinatra who got big suddenly in the thirties, between the wars.

   Harry Angel is your typical middle aged, hardboiled, drinking smoking detective, who prefers headbutts to subtle inquiry.

   He attacks headlong on the trail, a hefty retainer under his belt.

   Turns out Favorite was catatonic after the war, put in a home, then disappeared. His face was blown to smithereens, with reconstruction to make him presentable, if unrecognizable.

   But every time Angel gets a lead, the lead ends up with a load of lead. The trail gets bloodier and bloodier until Angel finally cracks the case.

   Imagine his surprise.

   Loads of weird satanic rituals abound, as Johnny Favorite seems to have descended into that voodoo that he do so well.

   I liked it. But having seen the ill-aging (and aren’t they all) Alan Parker film in the 80’s, I knew the twist, which kind of messed the impact up for me. It’s the kind of book that if you could avoid the film, first time you read it, would probably blow your socks off. But only the first time. And then afterwards you can appreciate it for what it was and will never be again for you, like a one nite stand you were happy you got away with. You’re slightly embarrassed for getting taken, you smirk at the wit, you envy the idea and the millions of bucks it earned Hjortsberg. Then you salute him and move on to something else.

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NOTE: A second book in the series, entitled Angel’s Inferno, was published in 2020.