The Angel Maker
Ratings9
Average rating2.7
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Whisper Man and The Shadows comes a dark, suspenseful new thriller about the mysteries of fate, the unbreakable bond of siblings, and a notorious serial killer who was said to know the future. Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever. Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once more. Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly gruesome crime. A distinguished professor of fate and free will has been brutally murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the leads point back to two old cases: the gruesome attack on teenager Christopher Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who, legend had it, could see the future.
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Eerie Reading Experience
I wanted to love this as I love anything all spook and fast paced. I read the author's debut novel, The Whisper Man, a few years ago and thought it was a pretty good read. The Angel Maker once again shows off his unique storytelling ability but unfortunately, I didn't hit a nice reading groove until about 2/3 of the way into the book. The main issue is not all of the characters are clearly defined so I had a hard time keeping track of everyone. My interest level was high but it was a disjointed reading experience.
When Katie Shaw was a teenager something horrible happened to her brother, Chris. Feel free to check out the publisher synopsis if you want more details about the plot, but part of the appeal of the story for me going in blind was just watching everything unfold naturally. I will mention the action picks up with Katie as an adult and lots of different characters are followed throughout the story.
Normally, I'm a big fan of stories that bounce around between different characters but it didn't work well in this case. When certain characters aren't standing out in your mind it's like a snowball effect because then it becomes difficult to follow the backstory. I was intrigued by the content but it was also a jumbled mess. Thankfully, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment with about 1/3 of the story left to go and everything started to make more sense and it was a much more enjoyable ride to the finish.
As far as endings go, I'm just going to shrug my shoulders. Nothing horrible about it, but nothing knocked my socks off either. All and all I will be happily reading the next novel because I know the greatness that can be Alex North. For now all I can do is suggest that you click the link below to try your luck with this one.
Even though the execution was a bit off at times, it was a decent thriller. Knowing this author is capable of going in so many directions with a story is fun when you are a fan of this genre.
I was super stoked when I was approved for the audiobook from NetGalley. I am a huge fan of The Shadows and The Whisper Man, so I couldn't wait to get to this one. I love how the audio mixes crime with horror elements.
Sadly, I'm not much of a fan of this one. I feel like the book lost me within the first 20 minutes of audio. This book features like Goosebumps-level short chapters but from different perspectives. Not to mention also time periods? It jumps so fast and so often that you aren't really spending significant time with anyone, which wasn't allowing me to settle into any one perspective. It was incredibly confusing.
The hooks and twists of the story were lacking for me, they read as kind of unbelievable. I'm not sure if it was because they were too simple, too coincidental, or because they actually didn't make sense. This read like a book that got published 2 or 3 drafts before it was finished. There's interesting stuff here, but it's not collected well. The Angel Maker? It's like oddly referenced two or three times, sounds super creepy and weird, but literally has no pay out. Did they forget? It kind of sets up its horror elements, but then forgets to add them in.
Personally a 2/5* for me. Oddly disappointed!
