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Set in Victorian England, The ANGEL OF HIGHGATE explores the mysteries of love and life-after-death more than it solves criminal mysteries, but it still has much to recommend it, and it is not without crimes. Part of what makes the novel interesting is the variety of the crimes and the perpetrators. In the opening scenes, Geoffrey Thraxton, a lord and the main protagonist, seems bent on proving just how depraved he is and how money and aristocracy can absolve fairly heinous acts. Meanwhile, Mordecai Fowler, a low-life mobster, is equally adept at getting away with horrifying crimes but for very different reasons. In other words, life in Victorian England has its dark side, no matter where you are - or aren't - on the social register, and while Thraxton may pride himself on being the "wickedest man in London," he and his friend Algernon soon discover that true wickedness is much darker than they ever imagined.
From the shocking opening scene to despicable behavior at a duel, Thraxton seeks thrills at the expense of others, and his cavalier attitude soon offends a dangerous opponent. Vaughn Entwistle does a remarkable job of rattling the reader and making Thraxton unlikeable but doesn't stretch it to the point of making Thraxton uninteresting. In fact, as the story progresses and Thraxton falls in love with a mysterious woman, he is eventually shown to be fairly complex, neither all good nor all bad but entirely human - and vulnerable. But the wheels are already in motion, and his vulnerability makes him the perfect victim for the despicable criminal Fowler, a character who seems to embody the worst ills of humanity with no redeeming qualities. It is Fowler who kidnaps, murders, robs, and generally provides the crimes that Thraxton and his friend Algernon must solve in order to save both themselves and Aurelia, the woman Thraxton loves. As awful as the crimes are that Fowler and his thugs commit, they are not the only bad things that happen. The chloroform-addicted Doctor Garrette provides a further level of depravity and some intricate subplots that weave through and affect the main storyline. All in all, Entwistle tells a frightening tale where, for the most part, the reader feels the characters are believably in real danger (although some of it is, admittedly, a bit over the top), and the reader cares enough about the characters to keep the pages turning in hopes of reaching a happy outcome.
While the well-paced plot is interestingly complicated and thoroughly engaging, much of the appeal of the novel comes through Entwistle's poetic evocations of place and time. He beautifully captures opium and chloroform trips and the choking reality of a pea-souper, as well as touching on the interests of the day such as spiritualism and the social concerns of unimaginable poverty and unspeakable living conditions. In the end, there's never any real question of who the perpetrators of the various crimes are, but there is a question of who will prevail, and that, together with the lovely descriptions and the well-drawn characters, provides the reader with lots to enjoy in spite of this being in no way a whodunnit.
§ Meredith Frazier, a writer with a background in English literature, lives in Dallas, Texas
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier, December 2015
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