Book Review: If Angels Fall, by Rick Mofina
A predator is kidnapping children in late 90s San Francisco.
Pinnacle, 2000, 477 pages
Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed's life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.
Reed's friend on the case is legendary San Francisco homicide inspector Walt Sydowski, who has one of California's highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death. Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.
This book gets a lot of local flavor right for the time period. San Francisco in the late 90s was a city where middle class homeowners were still possible, newspapers were still a going concern, and tech hadn't absolutely taken over everything.
Other than a bit of 90s Bay Area nostalgia, though, If Angels Fall is a strictly mediocre police procedural full of very static archetypes. There's the borderline-alcoholic reporter whose obsession with "The Story" is estranging him from his family. There's the grizzled old cop who's seen too much. And there's the Bible-quoting loon who's kidnapping children to atone for the loss of his own kids.
This novel, the first in a series featuring reporter Tom Reed and police Detective Walt Sydowski, is not much of a mystery. We're given the culprit very early on, although the characters are thrown one red herring after another. Reed is a reporter for the San Francisco Star. He's trying to recover from the disgrace of accusing the wrong man of the abduction and murder of a little girl several years ago. That man committed suicide, and though Reed's leads were solid, he's barely hanging onto his career. He's also barely hanging onto his marriage. He drinks too much, and he constantly says stuff like "My son is everything to me!" and "I'll do anything to make this work!" before he promptly forgets about them while pursuing a lead.
PD Walt Sydowski is investigating a child abduction case which bears disturbing similarities to the abduction and murder case of a few years ago. Then there is another abduction. Reed and Sydowski don't really work together so much as in parallel, as their two storylines converge and eventually Reed becomes part of the story.
There's a lot of gritty noir action in this book, but the dialog was flat and the characters were wooden. Improbable coincidences and characters being stupid or careless at the most convenient times drives much of the story forward.
The villain is the sort of Christian nut written by an atheist who hates Christians. He lost his children in a boating accident, so he starts kidnapping children who were the same age as his children when they died, who have "angel" names like "Michael" and "Gabriel." Because these are signs from God. He was a wealthy businessman before his tragic accident and break with reality. I don't know if the author is an atheist, or if he hates Christians, but as an atheist myself, I just felt like all the Christians in the book, but especially the villain, read like caricatures to be mocked.
The story was an okay potboiler, but the book felt like it had two main characters only loosely connected, and none of them, nor the writing, really engaged me.
My complete list of book reviews.
Pinnacle, 2000, 477 pages
Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed's life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.
Reed's friend on the case is legendary San Francisco homicide inspector Walt Sydowski, who has one of California's highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death. Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.
This book gets a lot of local flavor right for the time period. San Francisco in the late 90s was a city where middle class homeowners were still possible, newspapers were still a going concern, and tech hadn't absolutely taken over everything.
Other than a bit of 90s Bay Area nostalgia, though, If Angels Fall is a strictly mediocre police procedural full of very static archetypes. There's the borderline-alcoholic reporter whose obsession with "The Story" is estranging him from his family. There's the grizzled old cop who's seen too much. And there's the Bible-quoting loon who's kidnapping children to atone for the loss of his own kids.
This novel, the first in a series featuring reporter Tom Reed and police Detective Walt Sydowski, is not much of a mystery. We're given the culprit very early on, although the characters are thrown one red herring after another. Reed is a reporter for the San Francisco Star. He's trying to recover from the disgrace of accusing the wrong man of the abduction and murder of a little girl several years ago. That man committed suicide, and though Reed's leads were solid, he's barely hanging onto his career. He's also barely hanging onto his marriage. He drinks too much, and he constantly says stuff like "My son is everything to me!" and "I'll do anything to make this work!" before he promptly forgets about them while pursuing a lead.
PD Walt Sydowski is investigating a child abduction case which bears disturbing similarities to the abduction and murder case of a few years ago. Then there is another abduction. Reed and Sydowski don't really work together so much as in parallel, as their two storylines converge and eventually Reed becomes part of the story.
There's a lot of gritty noir action in this book, but the dialog was flat and the characters were wooden. Improbable coincidences and characters being stupid or careless at the most convenient times drives much of the story forward.
The villain is the sort of Christian nut written by an atheist who hates Christians. He lost his children in a boating accident, so he starts kidnapping children who were the same age as his children when they died, who have "angel" names like "Michael" and "Gabriel." Because these are signs from God. He was a wealthy businessman before his tragic accident and break with reality. I don't know if the author is an atheist, or if he hates Christians, but as an atheist myself, I just felt like all the Christians in the book, but especially the villain, read like caricatures to be mocked.
The story was an okay potboiler, but the book felt like it had two main characters only loosely connected, and none of them, nor the writing, really engaged me.
My complete list of book reviews.