Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg

Author : William Hjortsberg
Title : Falling Angel
Published : 1978
Publisher : Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Pages : 264
Gerne :  Horror / Thriller

     Big-band frontman Johnny Favorite was singing for the troops when a Luftwaffe fighter squadron strafed the bandstand, killing the crowd and leaving the singer near death. The army returned him to a private hospital in upstate New York, leaving him to live out his days as a vegetable while the world forgot him. But Louis Cyphre never forgets. Cyphre had a contract with the singer, stipulating payment upon Johnny's death-payment that will be denied as long as Johnny clings to life. When Cyphre hires private investigator Harry Angel to find Johnny at the hospital, Angel learns that the singer has disappeared. 

     Coming to Falling Angel is by no mean an accident, A long time ago a film Called Angel Heart came out in the cinema. And a long time after that I happened upon it late one night. It was a film I watched and could not look away from such was the story. No picking up a book or staring at my phone. It was a while after this that I came to learn it was based on a book. So being the glint for punishment I am I had to search out a copy. Now we all know that in an ideal world you would do one or the other too often we are let down by the film having read the book. Things get lost along the way and more often than not it's our favorite parts. But what can I say time and again I find my self doing both and I can't see it stopping anytime soon. 

     Falling Angel is one of those books that's style comes from a time before it was published. It owes a great deal to the noir detective books of the forties. Harry Angel breaks of those booze-soaked P.I's That did there best to try and solve a case but just seemed to end up making there lives a whole lot harder than if they had just sat back in there swivel chairs and drunk another scotch.  So, in other words, he is just what you were looking for when you first pick up the book.  And as expect Harry was never going to turn down the money, he will follow the clues to the bitter end. Even if Cypher is the strangest client he has ever had. But the untrustworthy client is only to be expected. When it comes to stories like this one everyone is playing an angle, it's just a matter of who knows who's. We also get to know a few more strange ones along the way. For me, it brings up this swirl of too hot summer days and looking in places that are best left dead and buried. 

     So back to the matter at hand, the plot. Yes, it does vera off from that of the film. But it was only to be expected. Locations change and we get some different characters to come into play. For some in a much bigger way than I had been expecting. But I can also see how the film took its bones from this book. For me, I had a very different experience with the book. Youn can see a greater influence of the nineteen seventies washing over it. I know big surprise seeing as that's when it was written. For me, Horror is not really a genre I immediately go for when I look for a new book. So I'm sure there are some staples in here that there's have read time and again. Ther is also the fact that I would already know how it was going to end having seen the film. So for me, it was more about enjoying the ride. Which I have to say to does rather well. We get a good dose of mystery and there is plenty of blood splattered back story to keep you happy. I'm not really sure this is one of those horror books that will give you chills and keep you up at night. But what it does it does very well.

     I think for me I enjoyed this book in a very different way to the film. It feels a lot more claustrophobic and for me, it seemed Harry toyed with more here. Usually, you would say that we get a lot more story in the book, but at two hundred and sixty for pages, it's not all that long. But that is no fault in the writing. We get exactly what we need from such a story. So, in conclusion, I can truly recommend both. But if you choose like I did to have a go at both you will see some bis shine just a little bit brighter in both.