Angel: Hollywood Noir

Buffyverse Novels #51

by Jeffrey J. Mariotte

Private eye Mike Slade reappears, determined to get the gangster--now city water commissioner--who killed him in the 1960s, while Doyle's vision leads Angel Investigations to the same case from a different direction.

Genres: Fantasy, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires, Urban Fantasy, Media Tie In, Horror, Paranormal

292 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Also writes as Jeff Mariotte

Jeffrey J. Mariotte is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than 70 novels, including the Cody Cavanaugh western series, historical western epic Blood and Gold: The Legend of Joaquin Murrieta (with Peter Murrieta), thrillers Empty Rooms and The Devil's Bait, supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, Missing White Girl, River Runs Red, and Cold Black Hearts, horror epic The Slab, and the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet. With wife and writing partner Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell, he wrote the sf/horror/thriller 7 SYKOS and Mafia III: Plain of Jars, the authorized prequel to the bestselling video game. His most recent release is the short story collection Byrd's Luck & Other Stories, comprising five "traditional" Western tales and five horror-Western stories, two of them brand-new for this edition.

He also writes occasional nonfiction, short fiction (some of which is collected in Nine Frights), and comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes and graphic novels Fade to Black and Zombie Cop. With Marsheila Rockwell, he has published several short stories and is working on more. He has worked in virtually every aspect of the book business, as a writer, editor, marketing executive, and bookseller.

Learn more at www.jeffmariotte.com, and follow him at https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMari... and @JeffMariotte on Twitter.

Also writes as Jeff Mariotte

Reviews

[Bobby Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I don’t have time to review everything I read, I’ve sort of pegged this series as a rate-only in the past. However, the consistency of how good they are for a series based on a TV show leads me to write a few words about the ones I’ve read.

Hollywood Noir is, as you’d expect, a merging of old-school hardboiled detective noir with the world of Angel and Cordy and Doyle, and also Kate. I thought it was a bit too heavy on the Slade aspect initially, as he was in danger of becoming a caricature for a while; and an unlikable violent one at that. But the story evolved, and by the end it was not only a great story, but a perfect blend of past and present, of human and not human worlds. Hollywood Noir had action, emotion, mystery, and a tremendously satisfying ending involving lost love, a daughter of sorts, and bringing peace and closure.

This was terrific, with all the characters being true to the show. I’m pretty selective with these, realizing as with any series (Star Trek of any kind especially) the quality of writing and story can wildly vary from pretty great to pretty bad. By being selective I’ve found some real winners that are keepers in the Angel world; stories I’ll read again at some point. Jeffrey J. Mariotte can always be counted on for a good story and enjoyable read in the Angel world from my experience, but a few other writers have penned enjoyable entries as well.

Since I’m using my review for Hollywood Noir also as a review for the entries I’ve read and previously only rated, I’ll recommend not only Hollywood Noir, which was terrific, but the others I’ve found very enjoyable.

Hollywood Noir — Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Sanctuary — Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Haunted — Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Image — Mel Odom
Bruja — Mel Odom
Soul Trade — Thomas E. Sniegoski

I highly recommend Hollywood Noir and all the titles listed above if you’re a fan. Since I have Endangered Species by Nancy Holder in hardcover, that will be my next one when I’m in the mood for it. Hollywood Noir is a really good one!

[Jim C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book based on the television series. It takes place early in the first season. In this one Mike Slade who was a private detective during the 1950's was murdered. He comes back to "life" in the present to finish the case he was working on. This ties in directly with Angel Investigations and their current case.

I enjoyed this one so much more than I thought I would. Basically this is a crossover event containing Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer with Angel. I had no idea I needed that. I am a fan of both so I enjoyed this crossover. It isn't a direct crossover but there is no doubt in my mind that the author was using the new characters as stand ins for the Mike Hammer characters. This book is a film noir book where we follow along with the characters and their investigation into the case. Throw in tidbits of humor especially with Mike Spade and being a man out of time and the result is a fun book. The only flaw with this media tie novel is one could argue that this was more of a Mike Spade book than it was a Angel book. It did not matter as I was absorbed by the story the whole time I was reading it.

This was fun but that is not much of a surprise since it had a bunch of elements that I enjoy. This is one of the better media tie in books from this universe. Honestly I wish we could have had this as an episode of the television show. It could have been a fun one time filler episode.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better Angel novels; it's set early in the first season of the television series that was spun-off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and features the original trio of Angel, Cordelia, and Doyle. It's a very well-conceived hard-boiled private-eye story from the golden age of Hollywood, with a tough shamus named Mike Slade and a cigarette girl named Betty McCoy. Mariotte does a good job in blending the black-and-white past with the demon-ridden present and captures all of the characters very well. Good for classic mystery buffs as well as Whedonverse fans.

[Courtney Gruenholz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great deal of these Angel tie-in novels of original stories feel as if they could have been actual episodes of the show.

Another first season setting where it was the original trio of Angel, Cordelia and Doyle with some assistance from Detective Kate Lockley. It starts out very mundane with a building being torn down and the foreman and his crew finding a walled-up room where there is a thirty/forty-year-old corpse.

A chilly presence scares them into calling the police.

Doyle is hit with a vision where all he gets is the name Betty McCoy and an address. Angel follows it to find that the lady in question has been dead since 1964. In doing research, Cordelia finds that Betty use to work as a cigarette girl at the Rialto Lounge before her death and it is all they have to go on.

Paying a visit, Angel finds out from the bartender that a man came in asking about a cigarette girl and gave him attitude. The man was dressed up in the style of the early 1960s reminiscent of The Rat Pack and left behind his card: Mike Slade, Private Eye.

Mike Slade is looking for the man that killed him, Hal Wechsler, and he goes to find the only link from his past who might be able to help him. Instead of finding his old secretary, Veronica Chatsworth, he finds her daughter instead. Barbara Morris knows all about Mike Slade and for a minute doesn't believe she could be talking to a dead man.

When convinced, Barbara points Mike in the direction of Hal, who has just been promoted to the head of the water and electricity departments for the city of Los Angeles. Hal's worked his way to the top and Mike knows it doesn't mean anything good for the City of Angels.

When Detective Kate Lockley is given the case, she consults Angel to find out how Mike Slade could be around when he was killed as his trek to find Wechsler starts catching the public eye. Cordelia goes into research mode about Mike Slade at Angel's urging while Doyle keeps an eye on the cemetery where Betty McCoy is buried.

Doyle is unnerved when he discovers that people who have been buried here aren't people at all but demons...

All of the paths cross together with Angel and his team helping Mike with his unfinished business to stop Hal Wechsler from raising some hell.

Hollywood Noir is the perfect combination of a film noir, horror film, police drama and even a comedic fish out of water tone. Doyle's slapdash vision of just a name ties in with the last case in Mike Slade's career where his professional life had him miss out on helping a client and developing a life.

A similarity that he and Angel bond over as well as the connection Mike makes with Barbara, the daughter of the woman he loved. Chaos is averted but all to the tone of a very bleak ending yet not completely bitter.

[Terese · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really terrific Angel book, I’m not a ”noir” kind of girl usually, but I thought the concept of bringing back an old school PI was really fun. He can call himself lucky this was written at a time when phone booths still existed.

Basically, a PI (Slade) was murdered while on the case and his corpse hidden in the wall of a house thst 40 years later is about to be torn down. As the body is discovered, the spirit is liberated, so to speak, only as a fully corporeal man. To solve the case he was working on/get revenge on his murderer, he then goes on to wreck havoc on a modern day LA that’s not used to the old-school gumshoe tactics. It is a lot of fun, really.


That said, I didn’t really like Slade and the fact that he did hurt people. The explanation that his ”ghost gun” could hurt people who saw him use it because they believe themselves to be hurt was… ok. It works of you go with it.

Also, be still my shipper heart. This book ends with Angel putting a hand on Kate’s and as usual they have a great rapport in the books. Oh what could’ve been. If only we could’ve had more Kate (instead of the tragic attempt to make Angel/Cordy happen, ugh, season 3 remains the worst season of the series)

Anyway, great installment in the series.

Pet peeve, really minor, but come on

”… dit Doyle en glissant une main dans ses cheveux noirs.” P.14

”…ajouta Doyle en glissant ses doigts dans ses cheveux bruns. » p.71

Not sure about the original, but pick a color!

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hollywood Noir is the sixth book in the tie-in series to the television of show, 'Angel'. Written by Jeff Mariotte, who is an established writer in the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' tie-in novels, this book is everything a mystery fan, and fan of the show wants in a book. Action, romance, horror, sadness; the emotions throughout this book are constantly changing.

Set in the way beginning of series one of the show, this book starts off right into the action, and doesn't stop. For those of you unfamiliar with the TV show 'Angel', the show is basically about a vampire with a soul, who was once one of the worst vampires in history, but due to a gypsy curse, he gained his soul back, and has since been making amends. Set as a spin-off of the show, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'Angel' brings back the old school noir from past Hollywood films (no pun intended to the book itself). With the help of his friends Cordelia Chase, and Doyle, a half-demon who ends up with a direct link to the 'Powers that Be', who in turn send him visions of people in trouble, Angel and his team fight, and protect the innocent via their PI firm, 'Angel Investigations'.

The book starts off with Doyle having a vision, just a name and a few numbers, Betty McCoy, 20047 Sunset, number 819. With just though few things, Angel and his team go to work, trying to find out who this mysterious Betty McCoy really is. One top of that, they also have to deal with Mike Slade, a man claiming to be a PI who dresses like he's in the 50's, and who is also looking for Betty McCoy.

The whole tone of the book is dark, and it's a nice set up to the ending. Where most TV-tie in books tend to skim out on characterization of the characters, simply because they probably feel like those reading the books already know the characters from the show, Jeff Mariotte has a special ability to write these books for people who have not even seen the show itself.

One thing that bugged me during the book though was actually the character of Mike Slade. While the author gave us a full background of him later on in the book, when he was introduced to us, he was sort of just there, and his obsession with a certain thing (telling you would give the whole plot away), was almost grating. His quick handedness was also another thing that tended to get out of hand. Though later in the book, I felt as if the author knew that his character was a little outrageous, and toned it down.

I recommend this book for people who are not just fans of vampires, or fans of the show to read this one, especially if you like a good old fashioned mystery. It really leads to a great ending, which in turn will make you either want to watch the show, or pick up the next book in the series.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found myself shocked at how much I LOVED the opening of this book. Genuinely intriguing and different mystery from the usual Buffy/Angel books - a pretty solid detective story, but without a recently reanimated corpse at the centre.

Unfortunately, it just didn't stick the landing at all; the explanation for the return to life is basically handwaved away, and it culminates in much more if a generic, average demon battle at the finale.

Oh well, at least it started strong for the first 200 pages or so.

[Kaotic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Angel books, the writting is a bit simple, and there are a few mistakes. But the book is still enjoyable.

I'd recommend this not only to Angel fans, but to fans of murder mysteries. A private eye come back from the grave to finish the case he started.

All in all it was a fun read.

[Ceejay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff Mariotte has written an excellent entry in the Angel series. He has captured the film noir flavor and incorporated it into this largely "private eye" story with Angel, Cordelia, and Doyle. Due to a vision from Doyle, Angel finds he must help a woman dead since the early sixties. At the same time, a private investigator who was killed at the same time seems to have reappeared! Mariotte does an excellent job bringing these two tales together. And,like all good film noir, there is an exciting ending. This is one of the best efforts I've read of combining the ability of Angel, the private eye, and his connection with the world of the supernatural. A must read novel.

[Maggie Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no problem with the validity of reanimated private investigators from the sixties. I have every problem with the validity of detective kate lockley using the word “mustn’t.”

[M.J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angel, what can I say it was love at first bite for me and the love remains...undying. Back in the year of 1997, I was 9 or something, I found love for the first time. He was older than me but I didn't care, he had an allergy to the sun but that didn't bother me, he bit and killed people but I thought they deserved to die, why, for the simple reason that their blood allowed him to survive, what can I say I was a messed up 9 yr old. He was tall, pale and sexy as hell and he was my un-dead husband-to-be. I cannot out of love for him say anything bad about anything that he is involved in.

[X_stephen_x · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read, one of the better ANGEL novels!

This book really draws on the initial private investigator set-up of the series, it has a strong mystery with plenty of twists and turns that keeps you interested, and all the little clues lead to an epic conclusion.

[Noah Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pile of remains is disturbed at a construction site. Meanwhile Angel Investigations runs into a new private eye, Mike Slade.

[Shima]

it's athriller story

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeff Marotte did a great job capturing the characters. although I did feel that the story's end could have been better, it just kinds ended

[MarylineD · Rating 4 out of 5]

good Angel story

[Lonely Panda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written and it did not met the series rank.

[♡ Jeri's Book Attic ♡ Jeri the Romance Bibiliophile ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Mandee]

It was like revisiting old friends.

[Alison Tala]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14829943