Reviews

City of Fallen Angels by Howard Engel

ashleyjapan's review

3.0

I was really looking forward to reading this book since it came so highly acclaimed, but I found myself getting lost in the slang of the times. A lot of times Ward's conversations were pretty indiscernible to me but he would go off about how he had a lot to think about and what to do next. Was the problem that nothing was really said in these conversations, or was the problem that I am so far out of 1940s lingo that I didn't get the key clues dropped in conversation? Either way, I wouldn't recommend this book as the starting point of an adventure into noir crime fiction. I ended up feeling lost for a good portion of the story - not in that I couldn't tell what was coming, but in that I couldn't understand how Ward was figuring everything out. The ending was, therefore, a twist which I only half expected - but I guess that's the point! Besides that, I did like the overall story.

Spoiler

At one point I think almost everyone Ward meets wants to kill him - I love that. Very rise of the underdog! But why did Zavitz change his mind so suddenly? I feel like I missed that part. The explanations came fast and light when I wanted more character development of side characters. But I guess that would be a genre problem, not a story problem.

Was it me, or was it the book? Read it yourself and see what you think!