Peter H. Green

As author of a recent haunted house novel, I was especially eager to read Death Is A Hungry Angel, by an author whose career I have followed since its inception. While my main character, architect sleuth Patric

As author of a recent haunted house novel, I was especially eager to read Death Is A Hungry Angel, by an author whose career I have followed since its inception. While my main character, architect sleuth Patrick MacKenna, retains his scoffing disbelief that his prospective family home may be haunted, his business partner is not so sure. This author also presents us with a plausible, well-grounded story, spanning three generations from 1922 to 2023 about one family’s funeral business in a remote, isolated house next to their own rural cemetery. As the pace of their business increases, first in a 1920 flu epidemic and later plagues, female characters of several generations, in despair over their losses of family and friends attach themselves to a sympathetic spirit, variously named Samael or Sam, who offers to grant their wishes to contact their deceased loved ones in exchange for their souls. When Anna, a present day occupant of this ill-fated house, loses her younger sister Abby in a highway accident, she is drawn into this Angel of Death’s deceptive bargain, in the desperate hope of contacting her and apologizing for past mistreatment while they were alive.

With flawless pacing and succinct choice of words, author Leah Holbrook Sackett skillfully draws us from credible situations into breathtaking conflicts with spirits. Her realism convincing and her economy of expression stunning, she conveys her character’s utter horror. In a brief moment worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, in which she alludes to and then evokes the unforgettable scene in his film, “The Birds,” Anna narrates:

The flapping wings, beating the wind overhead in a flurry of feathered hysteria, issues a rushing, ominous noise that makes me crumple. I turn back to the yew tree. It is filled with a murder of crows where there had been just one.
Where did these birds come from? I really hate birds. —P.154

In this must-read thriller, even the most disbelieving reader is transported into her paranormal world, rooting for these characters to assert their better instincts and survive their life-and-death struggle. This seasoned writer displays consummate skill, leading us to trust and follow her into the unknown with confidence
—Peter H Green, author of Haunted Design a Patrick MacKenna mystery