Angel Wings

by Howard Kaminsky

As a veteran member of the Providence police department's elite homicide squad, Detective Danny Martell has seen his fair share of dead bodies. But he’s never seen anything quite like this. Women around the city are being brutally murdered, their dead faces elaborately made up and fabric angel wings attached to their lifeless bodies. The attacks are immediately dubbed "the Angel Murders"—yet it doesn’t take long for the deadly crime wave to drag Danny into his own personal hell… Because soon after the killings begin, Danny’s wife, Linda, abruptly disappears. And when his worst fears are realized, a grief-stricken Danny redoubles his efforts to hunt down the deranged serial killer. But is Linda just another random "angel"? Or is she the victim of a copycat killer with a vendetta against Danny?Gritty, suspenseful, and fiendishly fascinating, this chilling whodunit will keep readers guessing right alongside Danny—and on the very edge of their seats until the final page is turned.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller

254 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2013

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

The premise of a serial killer in Providence certainly sounds intriguing, but despite past luck with Amazon’s Thomas & Mercer publishing house, this novel falls flat. From the very first sentences in the very first chapter, an inconsistent verb tense immediately becomes distracting. Sudden shifts from present to past tense, especially with the first-person perspective of Detective Danny Martell set the tone for sloppy editing throughout. I wish that the editors would take a stronger stance on these types of errors because it really lowers the professional feel of a book and lowers the standards for the publishing house as a whole. In addition, the reader is frequently addressed (“you see”) which adds another distracting dimension to the text.

As for the narrator and “hero” of the novel, Danny Martell, he quickly becomes completely unsympathetic and unrealistic with the speed in which he pursues a young actress after his wife’s death. Marital problems or not, his wife is barely in the ground before he starts pursuing and then introducing around his new young girl.

And the author’s obsession with food! I can’t remember the last time I read a book where each meal has been given this level of detail! And for such an Italian family, it seems strange that Martell’s slang is not Italian, but instead uses words like “schmuck” and “schtupping”... Added to the complete disregard for legitimate police procedure (a retired cop is working from the police station, Martell is officially assigned his own wife’s murder), the book lacks the realism that needs to be present in a successful thriller. The length of the book is bulked up with extraneous killings and police matters unrelated to the larger plot. This gives the whole storyline a muddied feel. There are glimmers of a good story here, but they are buried beneath weighty descriptions of food, inconsequential and poorly researched other police cases and a flat romance. The book ends on a sort of cliffhanger-ish note, but I certainly have no interest in seeing where a predictable plot with unlikable characters will go from this point.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angel Wings
By
Howard Kaminsky

My"in a nutshell" summary...

OMG...what a great little book. Exciting, fun and filled with food descriptions of the Italian kind. This book took me by surprise...quite delightfully.

Two detectives...Alex and Danny...wrapped up in a series of murders that make the victims appear to have wings. There are lots of other crimes occurring but the big one is this angel one.

Also...Harry assumes he is happily married...but is he really? After his wife disappears and is found in a tragic way...the hunt for the killer gets even more intense.

Short chapters, love interests, and this dark brooding killer all make this book a fun and intense reading experience.

What I loved about this book...

I loved the relationships with all of the characters...Captain Kitty and her beloved cats in the office...Danny and his food loving Italian family...the food descriptions...all made this book fun to read.

I also knew from the start that something was just not right about Danny and Linda's relationship...hmmm...who did what to Linda will shock you...it did me!

What I did not love...

Unless I didn't get it...Danny fell in love with someone new awfully quickly.
I hated that one of the Captain's kitties died.

Final thoughts...

If you want a fun quick mystery...I am thinking beach or pool...this is one to delight in! Plus it ended in a surprising way...a way that will have me searching for book 2!

[Cheryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw ads for this book all over the web. I mean unless you lived under a rock than you have not seen or heard about this book. I am all about murder mysteries, so I knew I had to check this book out. Um so what can I say other than this book was probably one of my biggest let downs of this year. I barely got to even a third of the way and I put the book down without a second glance.

I could not get into the characters. Even the serial killer was boring for me. There was not enough detail spent on the killer and his motivation for killing the women and putting angel wings on them. Maybe more detail was spent in this area later in the book but by than I was done with the book that I did not want to open it again to find out. It was only after taking a break from reading this book that I looked up and said to myself “What did I just read?” Nothing stuck in my head and I could not have quoted you anything as I was just going through the motions. Such a disappointment.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little better than ok, but not a lot. I would probably try Kaminsky again but not urgently...

[Janice Workman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked the read. Did have the person pegged who 'did it', but won't go into detail and wreak it for any one.

[jennifer armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was interesting. not the way I thought it would go. I loved it and couldn't put it down but I think at points there was just too much going on

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a part of me that wants to give this three stars, for its galloping pace and colorful details of police and criminal life in Providence, but I was so put off by one of the solutions to a loose end in the book (no spoiler alert needed) that I couldn't.

Danny Martell, an Italian-American cop with a loud extended family, a love of cooking and good wine, and a wife who makes a lot more than he does, is involved in trying to solve a series of gruesome killings of young women who are laid out in the woods with heavily made-up faces and fabric angel wings beneath their bodies.

That case, and some other subplots, like one in which he and his partner work to set up a brutal slumlord, are galloping along when Danny's wife suddenly disappears, and even though they've been fighting, he feels something worse is afoot. He is unfortunately right.

So, along with still trying to solve the "angel wing" killings, and dealing with a (much too sudden for my taste) love interest, Danny is also grieving and deciding whether he wants to work on his own wife's murder case.

Eventually he does, and that leads to the ending I found hard to swallow.

[Kiki · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was really a completely nondescript waste of time. The only positive point (is this really a "positive"?) was how quick it was to read. The writing style was (I kid you not) like a homework piece written by a twelve year old. There was no tension, no character build-up or plot development. Alex and Danny seem to spend their days stopping for "good Italian coffee" and long lunches and in between manage to stumble about starting and (suspiciously quickly with no effort) closing one case after another within the space of a few chapters. The murder of Danny's wife is barely mentioned, barely investigated and then rapidly suddenly all sorted out in the final chapter. Bah! Rubbish book!

[sayuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually liked it

I got the book the same way I always get my books. On kindle suggestion and I really didn't mind it. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad. I love the ending a lot. Not a bad read when you want a good detective book to read.

[Rosie Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average mystery

This was an average read. The narration was dry with little color and the plot was predictable. I kept feeling I had read it before but it was rather that it was like many books I have read.

[Madeleine Morel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page turner -- kept me up until the wee, small hours. Great pacing; ghoulish story with a lot of wit. Ends on a cliff hanger -- do hope there will be a sequel.

[Debi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good quick read.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of food porn in this book. Not really a bad piece if fiction but had the misfortune of figuring out the ending twist way too early.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, fast paced plot, nice characters and very entertaining storyline, the twist at the end was totally unexpected.

[Angela Kitchen · Rating 2 out of 5]

a loose set of occurrences that didn't fit into a good storyline. characters didn't have enough depth