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Angel's Head
The New England island community of Angel's Head is shaken by two murders, which may be connected to the plans of a developer--and murder victim--to build a bridge connecting the town to the mainland
221 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1994
10 people want to read
About the author
John Smolens
21 books42 followersAccording to Northern Michigan University's website, John Smolens "...has published five novels Cold, The Invisible World, Fire Point, Angel’s Head, and Winter by Degrees, and one collection of short stories (My One and Only Bomb Shelter.) Cold was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and the Detroit Free Press selected Fire Point as the best book by a Michigan author in 2004... His short stories and essays have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including: the Virginia Quarterly, the William and Mary Review, the Massachusetts Review, Yankee, Redbook, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. His work has been translated into Dutch, Greek, Italian, and Turkish, and has been published the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton, London."
His most recent publication is The Anarchist and has been well received.
His most recent publication is The Anarchist and has been well received.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 2, 2012
Man, can this guy Smolens write! I'm not your typical mystery-thriller kind of reader. I know that because I've tried a couple of times to read Grisham and just couldn't stand his writing; too simple and formulaic. And I tried very hard to read The DaVinci Code because so many people urged me to, telling me what a "terrific book" it was. I struggled through maybe 60 or 70 pages before giving up on Dan Brown. The reason? Characters. In both writers' work the characters are simply too flat, cardboard, unrealized. I just couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. Action and plot are not enough to carry a novel. Not for me, anyway. For me, characters and their development are the most absolutely essential element in a work of fiction. And John Smolens characters always ring true. They are always fully human, three-, no, FOUR-dimensional people that the reader can immediately feel a kinship with.
Angel's Head is the fifth Smolens novel I have read. It was his second, following his debut novel, Winter by Degrees, which was also excellent. Like that first work, Angel's Head again gives us a Massachusetts setting (and again in The Invisible World). And in all three books, it is immediately evident that Smolens knows New England, its cities, villages, and coastline - that he is writing about an area where he grew up and has spent a lot of time; has studied his landscape with the eye of an artist. This is evident from the first page, as an omniscient narrator describes the look of the bay and the island of Angel's Head -
"From the steep bluffs above the beaches it's easy to read the bay water by its changing colors - in sunlight the jade green shallows fan out to foaming rip currents, which mark the sudden drop to an ink blue channel."
An eye for colors, an ear for the natural rhythm and sounds of language - this is vintage John Smolens, and is typical of everything he writes.
But make no mistake, Smolens also knows his genre of choice, which has always been mystery, and especially Suspense - with that capital 'S.' Because there are murders here and they are not easily solved, not even by the discerning student of mysteries. Red herrings crop up everywhere throughout the story, making nearly everyone suspect in the gruesome murders - one victim gutted like a fish, heart cut out; the other bled dry, his throat cruelly cut.
But once again, characters are at the heart of this book. From Mark Emmons, the disillusioned newspaper man, drawn back to the island from his years-long exile in the Midwest by a cryptic newspaper clipping and Anne Flood, a woman from his past he's been unable to put out of his mind to her father, Emerson Flood, keeper of the island's history, hopelessly entangled with that of his own family, and who still mourns the loss of his wife, dead by her own hand. And there is the brain-damaged Randall Flood, Mark's boyhood friend. There are others here. But my point is, as a reader I cared about all of these major characters. If there is one "hero" - or antihero - it is Emmons, of course. But the island's inkeeper family of Floods are key to the plot, right down to Anne's illegitmate fifteen year-old daughter, Rachel, who is struggling with her own pangs of developing womanhood.
Does this sound like a typical murder mystery thriller? Hell, no, it doesn't. Because there's nothing "typical" about the writing of John Smolens. I hate to "brand" his books with the label of "literary" fiction, because it tends to scare away the more casual reader. But Smolens knows his literature, has studied it; you can tell.
One of the recurring devices Smolens employs here is that of internal dialogue between a living character and one who has died. It happens in the mind of Emerson Flood, as he carries on a running conversation with his deceased wife. And later on, in the closing pages, inside the head of Mark Emmons. I recognize the validity of such things. I still have such conversations with my father, who died over twenty years ago. And I know my mother does too. I believe these continuing dialogues - conversations with the dead - are universal. We all have them. Smolens uses them well. They further develop the characters and even serve to move the story forward
There is one line in Angel's Head which is particularly telling. Emerson Flood asks Mark Emmons what he believes in. Emmons replies: "I think I believe in the story. Telling the story."
If there is one thing John Smolens believes in, it is the story. It is a kind of religion with him. He is a devout believer and his devotion is nearly palpable in everything he writes. He has made me a believer too.
Angel's Head is the fifth Smolens novel I have read. It was his second, following his debut novel, Winter by Degrees, which was also excellent. Like that first work, Angel's Head again gives us a Massachusetts setting (and again in The Invisible World). And in all three books, it is immediately evident that Smolens knows New England, its cities, villages, and coastline - that he is writing about an area where he grew up and has spent a lot of time; has studied his landscape with the eye of an artist. This is evident from the first page, as an omniscient narrator describes the look of the bay and the island of Angel's Head -
"From the steep bluffs above the beaches it's easy to read the bay water by its changing colors - in sunlight the jade green shallows fan out to foaming rip currents, which mark the sudden drop to an ink blue channel."
An eye for colors, an ear for the natural rhythm and sounds of language - this is vintage John Smolens, and is typical of everything he writes.
But make no mistake, Smolens also knows his genre of choice, which has always been mystery, and especially Suspense - with that capital 'S.' Because there are murders here and they are not easily solved, not even by the discerning student of mysteries. Red herrings crop up everywhere throughout the story, making nearly everyone suspect in the gruesome murders - one victim gutted like a fish, heart cut out; the other bled dry, his throat cruelly cut.
But once again, characters are at the heart of this book. From Mark Emmons, the disillusioned newspaper man, drawn back to the island from his years-long exile in the Midwest by a cryptic newspaper clipping and Anne Flood, a woman from his past he's been unable to put out of his mind to her father, Emerson Flood, keeper of the island's history, hopelessly entangled with that of his own family, and who still mourns the loss of his wife, dead by her own hand. And there is the brain-damaged Randall Flood, Mark's boyhood friend. There are others here. But my point is, as a reader I cared about all of these major characters. If there is one "hero" - or antihero - it is Emmons, of course. But the island's inkeeper family of Floods are key to the plot, right down to Anne's illegitmate fifteen year-old daughter, Rachel, who is struggling with her own pangs of developing womanhood.
Does this sound like a typical murder mystery thriller? Hell, no, it doesn't. Because there's nothing "typical" about the writing of John Smolens. I hate to "brand" his books with the label of "literary" fiction, because it tends to scare away the more casual reader. But Smolens knows his literature, has studied it; you can tell.
One of the recurring devices Smolens employs here is that of internal dialogue between a living character and one who has died. It happens in the mind of Emerson Flood, as he carries on a running conversation with his deceased wife. And later on, in the closing pages, inside the head of Mark Emmons. I recognize the validity of such things. I still have such conversations with my father, who died over twenty years ago. And I know my mother does too. I believe these continuing dialogues - conversations with the dead - are universal. We all have them. Smolens uses them well. They further develop the characters and even serve to move the story forward
There is one line in Angel's Head which is particularly telling. Emerson Flood asks Mark Emmons what he believes in. Emmons replies: "I think I believe in the story. Telling the story."
If there is one thing John Smolens believes in, it is the story. It is a kind of religion with him. He is a devout believer and his devotion is nearly palpable in everything he writes. He has made me a believer too.
Displaying 1 of 1 review