Falling Angel (Dead Letter Mystery)

Falling Angel is one of the best Horror novels I have ever read, so fast paced I'm amazed there aren't scorch marks on the pages of my copy. At first you think you are reading a detective novel, and then a Horror novel, and then decidedly, the demented offspring of both genres.
Low rent private eye, Harry Angel is recruited to find a pre-war crooner by the name of Johnny Favorite, a singer indebted to Angel's client. A client by the name of Louis Cyphre. Angel's pursuit of Johnny Favorite takes him to the seediest of locales in mid 1950's New York and enlightens him on the city's darker side. A world of witchcraft and voodoo and unspeakable rituals. All the while Harry Angel is trying to deal with his own amnesia. As the mystery unfolds so does the terror and slowly as each piece is revealed Harry Angel walks the tightrope of madness. Not only is Falling Angel an intelligently crafted Horror novel it is incredibly vicious as well. Yet strangely it seems to be more of a cult favorite than a Horror novel that everybody knows. All I can say is that it is one of the most original Horror tales I have ever read, impossible not to read in one sitting. It was made into a movie called Angel Heart that follows the basic outline of the story and the plot but does some shifting of locales not seen in the book. The movie was good, the book a thousand times better. A must read for Horror fans.

It is difficult to review FALLING ANGEL without giving too much away, but here goes:

Basically I bought this book on a whim, having seen the film which it inspired. In short, the book greatly exceeded my expectations, being both more entertaining and more literary than I ever would have expected from a novel of the mystery or suspense genre. Hjortsberg's writing is the epitome of unpretentious intelligence. Each chapter advances the plot in some way, with the precision of a well-written short story. Often, seemingly casual details of the setting or a character turn out to be subtle and wryly-humorous bits of foreshadowing. Another reviewer has praised the evocative descriptions of post-war New York. I was simply compelled at every point in this novel to keep reading, not because of some cheap cliff-hanger ending to a chapter, but because the plot was always getting thicker, juicier, and definitely creepier.

Of all the books I have bought in the last few years this is the one that was the best reward for taking chances on unknown books or authors (and the consolation for all the ones that were disappointments). Whether you call it horror, mystery, suspense or just simply literature, FALLING ANGEL is a great read.

It is difficult to review FALLING ANGEL without giving too much away, but here goes:

Basically I bought this book on a whim, having seen the film which it inspired. In short, the book greatly exceeded my expectations, being both more entertaining and more literary than I ever would have expected from a novel of the mystery or suspense genre. Hjortsberg's writing is the epitome of unpretentious intelligence. Each chapter advances the plot in some way, with the precision of a well-written short story. Often, seemingly casual details of the setting or a character turn out to be subtle and wryly-humorous bits of foreshadowing. Another reviewer has praised the evocative descriptions of post-war New York. I was simply compelled at every point in this novel to keep reading, not because of some cheap cliff-hanger ending to a chapter, but because the plot was always getting thicker, juicier, and definitely creepier.

Of all the books I have bought in the last few years this is the one that was the best reward for taking chances on unknown books or authors (and the consolation for all the ones that were disappointments). Whether you call it horror, mystery, suspense or just simply literature, FALLING ANGEL is a great read.

While you read this, take what you know about the late fifties in New York City, and compare it here. This story immerses the reader superbly into the atmosphere of the setting. I swore I could almost smell cigarettes and hear the perfect, New York accents. The dialog was written well enough to do just that, make you think it is authentic New York. The storyline is fantastic. Basically, a detective is hired to find a person who has been missing for over fifteen years. Along the way, he must go through a bog of voodoo mysticism and black mass rituals until at the very end, the truth is revealed. The ending is extremely clever and there is no way I am going to spoil that. If you are into the crime - or horror - genre then there is absolutely no way you can miss this one.

Like some of the other reviewers, I tracked this book down after I had seen Angel Heart. Angel Heart was such a thrilling, frightening movie (I'm not easily scared, either) that I had to read the book. The book was even better than the movie, which is saying a lot because I believe the movie was top-rate as well.

I won't give away the absolutely shocking ending to the story because I hope that potential readers will enjoy the surprise as much as I did. However, I will say that if you loved the movie you will not be disappointed by the book. The book's gripping plot is the same as the movie's, however, as might be expected, there is more character development in the book.

Namely, and most importantly, the character Epiphany Proudfoot, played in the movie by Lisa Bonet (better known as Denise Huxtable, and after growing up watching her play that role it was strange to see her in such a drastically different one) is far more interesting in the book. In both versions she is a beautiful teenage girl of mixed ancestry, but in the book she is brilliant, kind, funny, and surprisingly wise for her years. Her book character is more emotionally present and has more invested in her relationship with the main character, Harry Angel.

She has been educated in Latin and religion at a Catholic School and helps Private Detective Harry to unravel the mystery of the missing person he is looking for.

In the movie, however, her dialogue is somewhat vapid and we don't care that much about her character. Also, they gave her a child of uncertain parentage in the film, which I found an odd decision, especially since the author of the book worked on the screenplay. I understand of course that there is less time to establish character in screenplays, but there was enough time to make the Lisa Bonet character more interesting. She is an intelligent actress and would have been good at conveying the sophisticated Epiphany.

For some reason, the film decided to make Epiphany a native of New Orleans. Presumably this was to have the aura of both Louisiana and Harlem, NY in the 1950s. The effect was cool, but I wish something else had brought Harry to Louisiana, because Epiphany seemed so New York in the book. No one even goes to Louisiana in the book. Everything happens in New York.

Another thing about the book was that the character Cypher, played very well by De Niro in the film, was more developed, if that's the right word, in the book. He said more revealing things. I wonder if I would have guessed his nature earlier if I'd read the book first?

Definitely pick up this fascinating read-truly a chilling book and perfectly written horror tale!

Set in late 1950's New York City, FALLING ANGEL is the story about a private detective named Harry Angel who is recruited by mysterious client Louis Cyphre to find a long lost big-band crooner named Johnny Favorite. Angel's search for Favorite leads him through a bloody trail that involves jazz musicians, sideshow performers, and Satanic voodoo cults. To further complicate matters, the closer Angel thinks he gets toward finding Favorite, the more dead bodies turn up that appear to have Angel written all over them. And closer to a truth that Angel won't want to know.
I'm not going to spoil the plot for you, even if some reviewers already did. What I can tell you is that this is a splendid atmospheric novel. Hjortsberg does such a good job bringing about the feel of 1950's New York City that you can almost hear jazz playing somewhere in the background. The plot is intricate without being confusing as well.
If you haven't read this masterpiece yet, I suggest you do so PDQ. But before you read it don't let anyone tell you how it ends. If they persist, RUN!!! Discover this fine book for yourself.

Detective stories are a mine field. Given the amazing numbers of this kind of books, every now and then you surely are going to step in a bomb and regret the time and money you spent in some terrible story. Fortunately, this is not the case in "Falling Angel".
Harry Angel is a private detective in the New York in the end of the fifties, hired by a misterious character to find a very famous crooner who disppeared in the middle of the WW2. During his investigation, he discovers some terrifying truths, envolving voodoo worship, satanism, black massess, and yet Johnny Favorite, the crooner, is nowhere to be found. In the end, the truth is really amazing, and Harry could never escape it.
For those who saw "Angel heart" before reading this book, I must say the surprise was completely lost. However, Hjortsberg is a fine and talented writer, the book is told in the fast-paced rhythm of New York, and the sucession of scenes is very well programed and easy to follow, and fast to read as well. This is a classic detective story, with lots of sarcasm, murders, twists, and something that you don't find in every down-to-earth detective book: supernatural elements. As strange as it seems, it doesn't spoil the story, in fact these supernaturals combine to enhance the thrilling of the plot. The final two or three chapters are amazing, and the ending is surprising and powerful.
Grade 9.5/10

At one point in William Hjortsberg's masterful horror novel, Epiphany Proudfoot, 17-year-old voodoo priestess, tells our detective hero Harry Angel "you sure know a lot about the city." The city in question is the New York of 1959, and if Angel knows a lot about this crazy burg, then Hjortsberg, in the course of this tale, demonstrates that he knows even more. While much has been said of this book's scary elements--its voodoo ceremonies and Black Mass meeting and horrible murders--what impressed me most about this tale is the incredible attention to realistic detail that the author invests it with. I don't know if the author grew up in this town in the '50s or just did a remarkable research job, but the reader really does get the impression that this book (which came out in 1978) was written a few decades earlier. Roosevelt Island is called Welfare Island, quite correctly; street names are given the names they had 45 years ago; subway ads are described that I can dimly recall from my youth at the time; one-cent peanut-vending machines are in the subways (boy, does that bring me back!); and on and on. This is the type of book in which if something is described, you can bet your bottom buck that it really existed. For example, at one point our hero walks into a 42nd St. theatre called Hubert's Museum and Flea Circus. I checked it out; it was really there in the late '50s! You can really learn a lot about the city as it was by reading this fast-moving tale; it's almost like a history lesson wrapped up in a hardboiled voodoo thriller.
And what a thriller this is! Even without the incredible attention to detail, this book would be a winner. In it, Harry Angel is hired by Lou Cyphre (get it?) to track down '40s crooner Johnny Favorite, and by the time Angel is through with his quest, we have been treated to all sorts of oddball NYC characters and grisly doings. Many scenes impress, most notably the late-night Central Park voodoo ceremony, the Black Mass in the abandoned subway station, and an off-season walk through the Coney Island midway. The book is justifiably included in Jones' and Newman's excellent overview volume, "Horror: The Hundred Best Books." It works on many levels--as a thriller, as a scarifier, as a Faustian object lesson--and succeeds on all of them. I haven't seen the "Angel Heart" movie that was made from this wonderful book, but can't imagine it being any better. This volume deserves all the praise that's been heaped on it. Fortunately, it's still in print, as it well should be. I highly recommend it.

If you liked atmospheric texture, decadence, and plot twists of Polanski's classic movie "Chinatown," you'll love this novel. Besides playing with the conventions of Chandleresque hard-boiled fiction, film-noire doomedness, and Magical Realism turned horrific, William Hjortsberg crafts a novel that folds in upon itself to illustrate that the observer is the observed. A parable of non-dualism that raises the hair on the back of your neck. P.S.: This novel was the subject of an interesting academic analysis in Stefano Tani's "The Doomed Detective" published by Southern Illinois University Press (now out-of-print).

stephen king read it
i couldnt