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Roy Angel is singularly unprepared for his new job as a private investigator at Rudgard & Blugden Confidential Investigations. He is reading the works of Raymond Chandler as his training manual. He is unaccustomed to the whole concept of a full-time job and is astonished to find that means he must be occupied in business pursuits for major parts of his day. He's only come to this miserable state as a result of not exercising proper birth control precautions. His significant other, Amy, is pregnant. Up until now, she has paid the way; but with the birth of a child imminent, she needs Angel to assume some responsibility for taking care of their family. She is a noted fashion designer and well-to-do; in fact, she bought a stake in Rudgard & Blugden so that Angel would have a job. Angel's first client is a man named James Ellrington who, at the age of 65 and after the death of his wife, hires Angel to find his first true love, Margaret Anne Hayes. They were involved before James went off to university; the lures of college life proved fatal to their relationship. He's since realized that he gave up a good thing. Angel is very touched by this story and is intent on reuniting the erstwhile lovers. The other members of the agency aren't so sure; they are worried that Margaret may not want to be found, that Ellrington may be a dangerous stalker type. Much to everyone's surprise, Angel manages to do a pretty credible job at his new career and tracks down Margaret. What happens when the 'lovers' are reunited is completely different from anything that anyone has predicted. Ripley adds some very unexpected elements into the mix. I'm not sure that his approach was entirely successful, but I did appreciate that he didn't play to expectations. ANGEL'S SHARE is the 14th book in the Angel series, none of which I've read. I did wish that I had some background on the characters, as I didn't find the fact that Angel was living off of Amy to be a particularly attractive trait. However, this may have been explained satisfactorily in a previous work. It seemed odd to me that she was generous to the point of paying for Angel's father's medical care and that she hadn't insisted earlier that Angel be more of a contributing partner in their relationship. Ripley is a very witty author and has written extensively for several online and print publications. True to form, the book has some very humorous moments. Angel's views of working life are hilarious. I found, though, that the humor fell by the wayside a bit as the plot developed. Nonetheless, I enjoyed ANGEL'S SHARE and will happily be looking for the earlier books in the series.
Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, February 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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