Falling Angel

The night was as black as pitch, and there was no use in holding back. The anticipation gnawed at me because I just had to see if someone was watching me. In the mist, dark figures moved and twisted, blurring the line between reality and nightmare. Was all this for real, or was it just some kind of hell? 666, the number of the beast, and hell and fire seemed to be on the verge of being released. (cue face-melting guitar solo) “The Number Of The Beast” - Iron Maiden

That quote from the book made me chuckle. William Hjortsberg’s prose is filled with snarky comments like that, and his narrative style truly saves the book for me.

Falling Angel is set in the 50s and tells the story of Harry Angel, a private investigator. He is hired by an enigmatic gentleman named Louis Cyphre to track down a jazz singer called “Johnny Favorite” (they meet at the “666 Fifth Avenue” restaurant, no less). It seems like a straightforward enough job until voodoo cults and Satanists interfere.

Louis Cyphre, “You talkin' to me?”

Falling Angel is a bit of a slow burn. It is quite engaging and readable from beginning to end, but at the same time, I wasn't particularly riveted by it. I think your appreciation for a book like this depends on your preference for horror fiction. If your favorite books are The Shining, Dracula, The Exorcist, or anything by H.P. Lovecraft, then I suspect you might not find the weirdness level of Falling Angel quite up to par. There is almost nothing overtly supernatural in this book, except perhaps in the last chapter, and even that is a little vague. On the other hand, if you like mildly spooky reads, like The Turn of The Screw or “magical realism,” perhaps you will find this book quite satisfying. The crime noir styling blends well with the dark, satanic cult plotline, and there is also a significant amount of violence and gore.

I quite enjoyed the prose style and the dialog, which is reminiscent of hard-boiled crime fiction authors like Raymond Chandler. Harry Angel’s irreverent quips and first-person narration often made me chuckle. Harry is not exactly a sympathetic protagonist; he is more like an anti-hero who is only looking out for himself. Louis Cyphre is a very cool and intriguing antagonist. I haven't seen the Angel Heart, the 1987 movie adaptation of this book, but I can imagine De Niro is great in the role. Epiphany Proudfoot, the witchy love interest, is basically just a plot device with little in the way of nuances.

As a horror fan, I am mildly disappointed in Falling Angel. It is not fantastical enough for my taste, though it is not too bad. The next book I read for this Halloween fest will have monsters galore.

Quotes:
“I got them voodoo blues, Them evil hoo-doo blues. Petro Loa won’t leave me alone; Every night I hear the zombies moan. Lord, I got them mean ol’ voodoo blues.”
“When someone barges in without a word it’s either a cop or trouble. Sometimes both in the same package.”
“The ash from my cigarette dropped onto my tie and left a smudge next to the soup stain when I brushed it off.”
“The sudden whiteness of his smile split his dark face like the end of a lunar eclipse.”

  
This kicks off my Halloween Reads Fest 2017!

The tomb lies at the end of every path. Only the soul is immortal. Guard this treasure well. Your decaying husk is but a temporary vessel on an endless voyage.

Over the years, I've watched Angel Heart several times. It wasn't until last year that I learned it was based on a novel. I was so unobservant that I never noticed until it was mentioned in someone else's review. As a fan of the twisted supernatural story-line combined with a hard-boiled detective, I immediately purchased the book. The question then arose: did the book live up to the movie?

Detective Harry Angel is hired by an unusual and wealthy client to track down a long-missing man who was admitted to a treatment facility years ago for war injuries and complete memory loss. Following a cold trail is never easy, but he does his best, finding himself in the twisted world of backwater voodoo, tight-lipped musicians, carnival acts, and much worse.

I can't think of another novel quite like this one. Usually, the supernatural doesn't blend well with this genre, and if it does, it's not usually as daring. I already knew the ending of the book thanks to the movie, but up until a certain point, the script matched the page. I started to think there wouldn't be any deviations at all, but they eventually came.

The book has its strengths. It delves deeper into the story and details, includes longer interviews and other stops that were omitted from the film, and creates a sense of urgency. I also like how the relationship between Harry and a lady love is better explored in written form, with more scenes and better development. Hjortsberg's writing style is smooth and flowing, with a particular talent for stylish dialogue.

On the other hand, the movie has its own advantages. It manages to keep the big secret longer. There are more obvious clues in the book, and the producers probably thought it was better to remove them before the big screen adaptation to avoid making it too obvious and easily guessed.

There's brutality and violence, psychological mind games, hidden surprises, tension, and a big twist at the end to cap off a journey that was already deadly. Every reader should check this one out.

First published in 1978, this novel artfully combines a traditional hard-boiled detective story with supernatural horror elements.

In brief, I found the hard-boiled aspect of the story highly engaging, while the supernatural parts didn't quite resonate with me as much.

The story is set in 1959. New York City private investigator Harry Angel is hired by a mysterious man named Louis Cyphre to track down a former popular singer, Johnny Favorite. As World War II began, Favorite was on the verge of becoming a major star like Frank Sinatra a few years later. However, he was drafted and severely wounded overseas. He was then shipped home and hospitalized in upstate New York, essentially left to spend the rest of his life in a vegetative state.

Or so the story goes. Cypher tells Harry Angel that he had a contract with Favorite, stipulating that in the event of Favorite's death, Cypher would be entitled to a significant payment. Cypher wants to know if Favorite is indeed still alive and that he's not being cheated out of what's due to him. Harry takes the case and inevitably finds himself embroiled in a major mystery.

So far, it's all great. The setup is excellent, and Hjortsberg vividly describes the New York City of the late 1950s. One feels as if they're right there in the bars and jazz clubs, sitting beside Angel and walking down the streets with him. The author also crafts excellent phrases on almost every page. But halfway through the book, the story delves into the world of voodoo, black magic, carnival freaks, fevered dreams, and supernatural developments. If this is your kind of thing, then great.

But it isn't for me, which is无疑 my fault and not the author's. That is to say, this is not a bad book at all, just one that didn't quite suit my taste. As an added concern, I can usually tolerate almost any gruesome development in a crime novel, but in this case, there's a scene that completely disgusted me. I would argue that the scene wasn't even necessary for the plot, and it was so excessive that I was truly offended.

This book was ultimately made into a movie called "Angel Heart," featuring an excellent cast including Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke, Charlotte Rampling, and Lisa Bonet. I remember liking the movie and was disappointed that I didn't like the book as well. The movie relocates the story from New York to New Orleans, and in that regard, the black magic and other supernatural elements may make more sense.

I'm going to dig out the movie and watch it again to see if my impression changes. But as for the book, I have a really mixed impression. I would give it an easy four stars for the hard-boiled parts, the great writing, and the New York setting; and two stars for the supernatural parts that I couldn't get into and the gruesome scene that turned my stomach, averaging out to three stars.

I'm an absolute enthusiast of noir crime fiction. Recently, someone recommended a particular book to me, suggesting that it would be right up my alley within this genre. And indeed, upon reading it, I found that it truly stood as a remarkable noir novel.

There's the private detective, Harold Angel, operating out of a shabby little office. He's dressed haphazardly, with stains on his tie, which gives him a rather disheveled appearance. The story takes us to places that people would avoid after dark, like a secluded private hospital in the countryside. The characters are deeply involved in the mysterious and often menacing world of voodoo and black magic.

Angel has been engaged by someone to locate a missing singer who was last known to be in the aforementioned hospital but has now vanished without a trace. Armed with only a few meager leads, he sets off on his investigation. However, as I approached the end of the book, I began to sense that something was slightly amiss. And then, I was hit with a plot twist that completely took me by surprise. It was truly astonishing.

I won't divulge any more details here and risk spoiling the book for others. But I will say this: if you have a penchant for a hint of the supernatural in your fiction, then this book is an absolute must-add to your reading pile. It's very well crafted and will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.

This might very well be the very first instance where I wholeheartedly concur with a Stephen King blurb gracing the cover of a novel: 'Terrific... I've never read anything like it'. Indeed, this is a truly one-of-a-kind novel. It artfully combines a hard-boiled detective thriller set in the late 1950s with elements of black magic, voodoo, and goodness knows what else. What makes this such an outstanding read is the way Hjortsberg masterfully blends these two genres in a harmonious and complimentary fashion. It's like a pizza with precisely the right amount of hot peppers to enhance the flavor of the black olives and mushrooms, resulting in one deliciously scrummy pie (and mind you: no pineapple!).

Our protagonist, Harry Angel, resides and plies his trade as a private investigator in NYC. He is as tough as they come, with a penchant for hard drinking. The story kicks off when he receives a call for a job - to track down a famous singer from the early 1940s. This singer, Johnny Favorite, rose from rags to riches in a remarkably short span. After being drafted into WWII, he found a place in the military entertainment circuit but unfortunately got wounded when the Huns strafed the stage he was performing on. He was seemingly taken back to the States, lived in a VA hospital for a while, and then transferred to a private institute. The man offering the job simply states that he had a contract with Johnny and needs to sort it out. He wants Harry to track him down as he has 'gone missing' from the private institution.
It's a great setup, and of course, Harry quickly uncovers that Johnny left the private institution around 15 years ago with the complicity of a bribed doctor who covered it up. However, the more Harry delves into the case, the deeper the mystery becomes. Not only is this a cold case - tracking a missing person who has been out of the picture for 15 years - but it seems that whenever Harry tracks down a lead, the person providing it ends up cold in the morgue...
I own the Arrow Books version with a wonderful 'fold out' cover, and I can clearly understand why this novel has been reprinted time and time again. I simply cannot fathom how or why Hjortsberg decided to pen a sequel much later because the denouement (and what a denouement it is!) appears to wrap up the story with an explosive flourish. I'm awarding it 4.5 nifty stars, rounding down slightly as I sort of saw the ending coming.

I first read Falling Angel in 1983, right after the KEW list was published in the old Twilight Zone magazine. Naturally, I went to the public library in search of the books on the list. Wagner being the obscure literature fan, I didn’t find too much. The exception was Falling Angel, which I took home and read over a matter of days.

In preparation for this review, I read the book again. I don’t usually re-read books as there’s too much out there I haven’t read. But I felt the passage of 30 years would dull my memory to the point of writing a bad review. I gritted my teeth and went back to the book.

Astonishingly, I enjoyed the book more this time than on the first read. Hjortsberg, on his website, talks about why he set the novel in 1959: these were the most vivid years he could remember of his hometown of Manhattan, New York City. Manhattan in the 50′s comes alive in these pages. Coney Island, Harlem – all these places were written through the eyes of someone who was there. It makes for a very vivid background.

Harry Angel, a private investigator, is working the gumshoe trade in Manhattan in 1959. One day he’s contacted by a powerful lawyer on behalf of a mysterious client. The client, an eloquent gentleman named Louis Cyphre (pay attention to the name), wants Angel to find a missing crooner from the 1930′s: Johnny Fortune. It seems Mr. Cyphre sponsored Fortune’s musical career before WWII until the singer was wounded in the war. He’s been convalescing in a private sanitarium since the incident, barely conscious. Cyphre has discovered Fortune is missing from the place and wants him located.

In true hardboiled PI fiction, Harry Angel strolls down the mean streets of Manhattan looking for the missing Fortune. He runs into many people who knew Fortune, but few who remember anything about him. This was before the Net and massive data information on every particular subject. Angel is forced to visit reporters, libraries and consult things known as phone books. It was a different time.

The closer he gets to finding Fortune, the more the dead bodies start accumulating. First, it’s a doctor at the sanitarium, then more and more. Each know a little bit about why Fortune disappeared, but they won’t talk. And each have an upside down star or inverted pentagram on their person. Soon, Angel begins seeing Mr. Cyphre in his dreams.

The book is full of bizarre occult references to New York City. There’s a voodoo ceremony in Central Park. One of the witnesses he consults is a socialite astrologer. And there is the required black mass. I’m not sure what Hjortrsberg was trying to say about the forces of darkness, given the grim ending. My guess is a warning to stay away from things far more powerful and sinister than you can imagine.

Of course I saw the 1987 movie adaptation, Angel Heart, when it hit the screen. Having read the book before and after the movie was released, I can say that it is a good adaptation. Mickey Rourke made a good Harry Angel, but the personality of Angle in the book is too Ross MacDonald to get a good visual. On the second read, I kept visualizing Lisa Bonet as Epiphany Proudfoot, Angel’s love interest. I should mention the entire book takes place in Manhattan, unlike the movie which has a side trip to New Orleans.

The book isn’t difficult to find and has been reprinted many times. It’s easily the best merger of PI fiction and supernatural literature. It combines the gritty realism of the private eye genre with the mysterious and otherworldly elements of the supernatural. The characters are well-developed and the plot is full of twists and turns that keep the reader engaged from start to finish. Whether you’re a fan of PI fiction or supernatural literature, or both, Falling Angel is a must-read.

Hjortsberg has bestowed upon us readers an outstanding gift with this remarkable book.

It is a nineteen fifties style hardboiled detective novel, infused with elements of mysticism, madness, voodoo, and black magic. The novel is evenly paced, truly coming alive in the second half. It ingeniously combines themes from hardboiled pulp fiction with those of seventies-era horror movies.

It transports the reader back to the post-World War II era, to a land filled with jazz, women, and seedy haunts on Broadway, and then takes them through the funhouse carnival that was Coney Island. Hired by Louis Cipher (a thinly disguised client), Harry Angel must locate a jazz musician who vanished fifteen years ago, when everyone believed he was either dead or confined in a mental hospital upstate. However, to find him, Angel has to navigate through a plethora of seedy characters who want nothing to do with him and fall for a girl who dabbles in white magic. But, that is insignificant compared to the world of horror that he discovers once Angel delves deeper.

Although this was adapted into a hit movie starring Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet, the novel itself is highly worthwhile reading as it unlocks a world of dreams and madness as Angel gradually but surely peels away the layers of mystery surrounding the jazz player's disappearance.

If you have perused other books by Hjortsberg such as Mañana, do not approach this one with any preconceived expectations. It is completely different from Hjortsberg's other works.

Smoky, jazzy, hip, dark, strange, unearthly, and simply excellent reading.

**"Angel Heart": A Dark and Twisty Tale**

”’I know that you’re a natural actor,’ she said. ‘Playing roles comes easily. You switch identities with the instinctive facility of a chameleon changing color. Although you are deeply concerned with discovering the truth, lies flow from your lips without hesitation.’


Harry R. Angel, a private investigator from Brooklyn, is no ordinary man. When attorney Herman Winesap calls him with a job offer, Angel has no idea he's about to embark on the most terrifying case of his career. The client, Louis Cyphre, wants him to find a crooner from the 1940s named Johnny Favorite.

”A debt is owed.”


Favorite was severely injured in the war and checked into a mental institution, but the trail goes cold there. As Angel starts digging, people who knew Favorite begin turning up dead. He doesn't know what Cyphre's game is, but he senses he's in deep trouble.

Angel tracks down Epiphany Proudfoot, the daughter of one of Johnny's old flames. She's a voodoo priestess who runs an "herb" shop. Her assessment of Angel's situation is rather cryptic: ”Sounds to me like some boko’s put a powerful wanga on you.” Angel, who initially doesn't believe in voodoo, starts to have doubts as strange things keep happening.

”Sex is how we speak to the gods.”


Adding to the complexity, Angel finds himself attracted to Epiphany and her carefree attitude towards sex. With bodies piling up and the plot twisting and turning, Angel must keep investigating to find Favorite before it's too late.

The 1987 movie Angel Heart, based on this book, follows the story closely. Mickey Rourke, before his boxing days, gives a great performance as Angel, and Robert De Niro is suitably creepy as Cyphre. Lisa Bonet, fresh off the Cosby show, plays Epiphany. The movie's famous sex scene between Rourke and Bonet is still quite controversial.

The book, endorsed by many知名作家, has lean and mean prose with great hardboiled one-liners that harken back to Raymond Chandler. It's a must-read for fans of hardboiled noir. Whether you choose to read the book or watch the movie, you're in for a dark and thrilling ride.