Fallen Angel
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4.5 • 19 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'Gloriously dark, deliciously twisty' CLARE MACKINTOSH
ONE FAMILY, TWO HOLIDAYS, ONE DEVASTATING SECRET
To new nanny Amanda, the Temple family seem to have it all: the former actress; the famous professor; their three successful grown-up children. But like any family, beneath the smiles and hugs there lurks far darker emotions.
Sixteen years earlier, little Niamh Temple died while they were on holiday in Portugal. Now, as Amanda joins the family for a reunion at their seaside villa, she begins to suspect one of them might be hiding something terrible...
And suspicion is a dangerous thing.
From Chris Brookmyre, winner of the Theakstons and McIllvanney awards for Black Widow, comes a standalone psychological thriller full of twists, lies and betrayal.
PRAISE FOR CHRIS BROOKMYRE
'Guaranteed to keep you guessing'
Ian Rankin
'Extremely sophisticated crime'
Sunday Times
'Exceptionally good'
Guardian
'In the pantheon of great crime writers'
Elly Griffiths
'Scales new heights of invention'
Times Literary Supplement
'Brookmyre writes beautifully . . . I was hooked'
Literary Review
Customer Reviews
What happens in Portugal...
4.5 stars
Author
Fifty-something Scottish crime novelist with 25 or 26 books to his credit. Eight or possibly nine centre on investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, although he and several other characters make cameo appearances in other books as well. Mr B’s work has been described as “tartan noir,” withsocial and political commentary thrown in, and plenty of biting, and amusing, satire in the early ones. His wife is an anaesthetist and they’ve jointly written a couple of historical medical crime novels under the pseudonym Ambrose Palmer.
Plot
Respectable Scottish academic turned celebrity debunker of conspiracy theorists croaks. His wife, a one time actress and screen siren turned “family values” columnist, gathers the tribe for a last hurrah at the old family holiday villa in the Algarve—everyone’s got one of those, right?—where metaphorical skeletons abound. The long-standing vacation neighbours front up as well, the ones that are still alive anyway, and there’s a Madeline McCann scenario involved. Stuff happens to compound all the stuff that came before. Resolution occurs.
Characters
Keenly drawn as usual by Mr Brookmyre. Some are stylised, although never to the point of caricature.
Narrative
Third person, several points of view, alternating between 2002 and 2018, but clearly identified as such.
Bottom line
Plotting is Mr Brookmyre’s forte. He proves it here. Everything ties up at the end, not a loose end in sight, without feeling forced.