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Ireland #2
The Angel
On a remote stretch of the rugged coast of Ireland, folklorist and illustrator Keira Sullivan pursues the mysterious Irish legend of an ancient Celtic stone angel. As she searches an isolated ruin, she's certain she's discovered the mythic angel, but before she can examine her find, she senses a malevolent presence.... Is someone in there with her? Then the ruin collapses, trapping her.
Keira's uncle, a Boston homicide detective, enlists the help of Simon Cahill to find his missing niece. Simon, an expert with Fast Rescue, a rapid-response search-and-rescue organization, is trying to keep a low profile after secretly assisting in the takedown of a major criminal network, but he rushes to Ireland, pulling Keira out of the rubble just as she's about to free herself.
Simon isn't interested in myths or magic, nor is he surprised when Keira can't find a trace of her stone angel. He doesn't believe it exists. But the gruesome evidence of a startling act of violence convinces him that whatever she found in the ruin, the danger she faces is real.
When the violence follows them to Boston--and escalates--Simon and Keira realize that the long-forgotten story that has captivated her has also aroused a killer...a calculating predator who will certainly kill again.
Keira's uncle, a Boston homicide detective, enlists the help of Simon Cahill to find his missing niece. Simon, an expert with Fast Rescue, a rapid-response search-and-rescue organization, is trying to keep a low profile after secretly assisting in the takedown of a major criminal network, but he rushes to Ireland, pulling Keira out of the rubble just as she's about to free herself.
Simon isn't interested in myths or magic, nor is he surprised when Keira can't find a trace of her stone angel. He doesn't believe it exists. But the gruesome evidence of a startling act of violence convinces him that whatever she found in the ruin, the danger she faces is real.
When the violence follows them to Boston--and escalates--Simon and Keira realize that the long-forgotten story that has captivated her has also aroused a killer...a calculating predator who will certainly kill again.
345 pages, Hardcover
First published April 29, 2008
228 people are currently reading
1022 people want to read
About the author
Carla Neggers
143 books1,604 followersCarla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of the Sharpe & Donovan series featuring Boston-based FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan, and the popular Swift River Valley series set in the small, fictional New England town of Knights Bridge. With many bestsellers to her credit, Carla loves to write now as much as she did when she climbed a tree at age eleven with a pad and pen and spun stories perched on her favorite branch.
A native New Englander, Carla and her husband divide their time between their hilltop home in Vermont, a sofa bed at their kids' places in Boston and various inns, hotels and hideaways on their travels, frequently to Ireland.
Find out more and sign up for Carla's newsletter at CarlaNeggers.com.
A native New Englander, Carla and her husband divide their time between their hilltop home in Vermont, a sofa bed at their kids' places in Boston and various inns, hotels and hideaways on their travels, frequently to Ireland.
Find out more and sign up for Carla's newsletter at CarlaNeggers.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews
August 14, 2020
It was a rather average book. A bit boring, a bit predictable, with a suspense part that lacked innovation and an unmemorable romantic part. Plus this strange magic(?) theme.
This is not my first Carla Neggers book. I have already read the first book in this series and quite enjoyed it. I even gave 4 stars. The second book was definitely worse.
I was unlucky with the last few books, most of them contained either love at first sight or instant love. I really don't like both. Unfortunately, The Angel was also one of those books.
The only thing I can say about the suspense part is that it was weird. I must admit that I didn't really focus on reading, and that may be the reason why it all seemed blurry and a little chaotic to me. The motives of some of the actions remained unclear.
I'm a bit disappointed, I guess I was expecting something more.
This is not my first Carla Neggers book. I have already read the first book in this series and quite enjoyed it. I even gave 4 stars. The second book was definitely worse.
I was unlucky with the last few books, most of them contained either love at first sight or instant love. I really don't like both. Unfortunately, The Angel was also one of those books.
The only thing I can say about the suspense part is that it was weird. I must admit that I didn't really focus on reading, and that may be the reason why it all seemed blurry and a little chaotic to me. The motives of some of the actions remained unclear.
I'm a bit disappointed, I guess I was expecting something more.
August 10, 2018
Fue entretenido, mantiene el suspenso hasta el final. Y tiene personajes carismáticos, como Keira y Simon, incluso Bob y Abigail. Cada uno con un pasado y con la misma motivación para atrapar a los criminales.
February 17, 2022
Rereading old novels. Carla Neggers books are some of my favs.
July 22, 2009
Many reader reviews on Amazon are saying that this is her best book yet. I guess that means that I don't have to read any of her others.
This book was interesting and had potential but many of the main issues in the book never got connected and the characters were very transparent. Unless you're a fan of hers, skip it.
This book was interesting and had potential but many of the main issues in the book never got connected and the characters were very transparent. Unless you're a fan of hers, skip it.
June 28, 2009
The Angel by Carla Neggers is the latest in a loosely connected series of romantic suspense novels, which I would venture to say are mostly twisty murder mysteries and very little romance. Themes of The Angel revolve around the existence of evil, deliberate mischief and an elusive Celtic stone angel. This is a story of good and evil, love and anguish knotted together with secrets and lies.
Detective Abigail Browning from The Widow is a main character in the story. The other main character is Keira Sullivan, a folklorist who tells stories and paints the mythical...and finds a man mysteriously drowned in a few inches of water in a public garden near where her art opening is in Boston. Abigail and Keira's uncle Detective Bob O'Reilly investigate the death of the man, Victor Sarakis. Keira has rented a cottage in Ireland for six weeks and has promised her friend Patsy McCarthy to delve more into her tale of three Irish brothers, a stone angel and the summer solstice while in Ireland. During her investigation of a ruined stone cottage she thinks she sees the stone angel but is then trapped among its collapse. Not hearing from his niece at the planned time Detective O'Reilly becomes concerned and calls upon FBI agent and FastRescue volunteer Simon Cahill to investigate. Simon rescues Keira and they return to Boston only to discover the gruesome murder of Patsy McCarthy.
Carla Neggers expands upon the eccentricities of each character. They all have secrets and reasons for withholding those secrets. There is the perplexing fable of the stone angel and three brothers...which was used as a major plot element but did not make much sense to me as the discovery of the stone angel was too simplistic, its disappearances and re-appearances too convenient. The book does convey a sense of hidden meanings and supernatural events but then most were given explanations. The Angel ends with many plot lines and questions unanswered, paving the way for the next book in the series called The Mist featuring Will Davenport and Lizzie Rush released in hardcover June 30, 2009.
My Rating: 3.5
Detective Abigail Browning from The Widow is a main character in the story. The other main character is Keira Sullivan, a folklorist who tells stories and paints the mythical...and finds a man mysteriously drowned in a few inches of water in a public garden near where her art opening is in Boston. Abigail and Keira's uncle Detective Bob O'Reilly investigate the death of the man, Victor Sarakis. Keira has rented a cottage in Ireland for six weeks and has promised her friend Patsy McCarthy to delve more into her tale of three Irish brothers, a stone angel and the summer solstice while in Ireland. During her investigation of a ruined stone cottage she thinks she sees the stone angel but is then trapped among its collapse. Not hearing from his niece at the planned time Detective O'Reilly becomes concerned and calls upon FBI agent and FastRescue volunteer Simon Cahill to investigate. Simon rescues Keira and they return to Boston only to discover the gruesome murder of Patsy McCarthy.
Carla Neggers expands upon the eccentricities of each character. They all have secrets and reasons for withholding those secrets. There is the perplexing fable of the stone angel and three brothers...which was used as a major plot element but did not make much sense to me as the discovery of the stone angel was too simplistic, its disappearances and re-appearances too convenient. The book does convey a sense of hidden meanings and supernatural events but then most were given explanations. The Angel ends with many plot lines and questions unanswered, paving the way for the next book in the series called The Mist featuring Will Davenport and Lizzie Rush released in hardcover June 30, 2009.
My Rating: 3.5
July 24, 2008
This was my first book by Neggers and I was completely underwhelmed, so unless someone writes to tell me her other books are much better I doubt I'll try her again. The plot never really came together and the implicit supernatural element was neither present nor needed. The characters weren't quite 2-dimensional, but they were pretty derivitive and unconvincing. They repeatedly acted as if things that seemed normal to me were outrageous ("You went for a walk by yourself in the Irish countryside! You must be a crazy flake who believes in fairies!" and "How dare my 19-year-old daughter not explicitly inform me that she visited an elderly family friend on her way home from church!" are prime examples); this happened enough to really bother me, especially as the accused characters (all women) never grew backbones and responded with the appropriate "Look, I'm thirty and can go outside alone/with a male friend if I want to!" It just seemed weird. I also did not find the villain and plot reveal atall convincing. The whole book seemed forced and lazy to me.
October 9, 2010
nice premise. Fairy tale/story origins investigated. Good mystery and compelling read.
July 9, 2017
I liked :)
January 2, 2014
As a suspense novel, it's not bad. The romance was just unnecessary, dull and I'm sorry, I don't find insta-love convincing. Yes I know it can be real but this just was flat.
I did like Keira, since at least she was smart and able. She's an illustrator, mostly Irish folklore. Her mother has moved into the woods to live as a religious hermit. Her uncle Bob is a Boston detective along with Abigail Browning. Keira finds a body of a man drowned in a campus pond. Abigail thinks it's more, Bob's an ass about it. Frankly he's an ass about everything, overprotective even about Keira doing the stupidest things, like going on a trip to Ireland alone. She is a grown woman after all.
While Bob and Abigail investigate the death of the man, a collector, most recently of devil related things, Keira goes to Ireland to investigate the story her mother did years ago, the story of the beautiful stone angel. Keira is almost hurt in a cave in of the hut she was investigating and is rescued (though she nearly rescued herself) by Simon Cahill, an FBI operative and a friend of people close to Keira.
And here comes the boring romance and the story goes a little sideways. Keira decides to leave Ireland early just to talk to the person who told her the story in the first place and come back. Um, she's an illustrator. Her family doesn't seem to be swimming in cash. How is she affording this? Even months in advance these tickets are over a grand. I can't even imagine at the last minute. And why do it? Why not just place a phone call. That made no sense other than the plot demanded she be back in Boston. I found that weak.
Over all it wasn't bad but it was hardly memorable. It felt like I was missing something (turns out this was book 2) but i don't see me rushing out to find the others in the series.
I did like Keira, since at least she was smart and able. She's an illustrator, mostly Irish folklore. Her mother has moved into the woods to live as a religious hermit. Her uncle Bob is a Boston detective along with Abigail Browning. Keira finds a body of a man drowned in a campus pond. Abigail thinks it's more, Bob's an ass about it. Frankly he's an ass about everything, overprotective even about Keira doing the stupidest things, like going on a trip to Ireland alone. She is a grown woman after all.
While Bob and Abigail investigate the death of the man, a collector, most recently of devil related things, Keira goes to Ireland to investigate the story her mother did years ago, the story of the beautiful stone angel. Keira is almost hurt in a cave in of the hut she was investigating and is rescued (though she nearly rescued herself) by Simon Cahill, an FBI operative and a friend of people close to Keira.
And here comes the boring romance and the story goes a little sideways. Keira decides to leave Ireland early just to talk to the person who told her the story in the first place and come back. Um, she's an illustrator. Her family doesn't seem to be swimming in cash. How is she affording this? Even months in advance these tickets are over a grand. I can't even imagine at the last minute. And why do it? Why not just place a phone call. That made no sense other than the plot demanded she be back in Boston. I found that weak.
Over all it wasn't bad but it was hardly memorable. It felt like I was missing something (turns out this was book 2) but i don't see me rushing out to find the others in the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2015
THE ANGEL wasn't really that good of a read. The characters just weren't that interesting, and Bob really got on my nerves. Also, there was a lot of overreacting to things that just weren't a big deal. Not to mention the fact that the storyline didn't seem to come together very well, and there were some things that were not really explained well or were not explained at all. Plus, the reveal of the killer was anticlimactic.
May 5, 2009
This is book was ok. I liked the story. I liked the characters. But it was too all over the place for me. I couldn't remember the characters names. I couldn't remember who was connected to who or why it mattered.
August 18, 2009
I thought would be a really good story but it was draggy and I found the switching from one location to another to be most annoying. I also do not care for the way she writes. I couldn't wait to finish it!
April 8, 2010
Just not very believable, I struggled to get through the entire thing. The characters were shallow and there were too many instances of overreaction for it to be a compelling read.
April 15, 2011
This really had one of the most convoluted and ridiculous mystery plots I've read in a long time. (sigh) Plus, the characters were really not that interesting. Just Ok.
December 12, 2011
Sort of a boring book. Not much plot and the characters were just very uninteresting.
March 10, 2012
I really like Ms. Neggers books. However, the guy in this one is such a total jerk, I could hardly get through it. Ended up skipping large chunks.
June 7, 2018
Boring!
March 3, 2024
2,5 🌟 This one wasn't for me.
I know some people really enjoy Carla's books, but this was my first and most probably the last one too.
It was painfully slow, specially in the beginning. The romance was lukewarm. The suspense was okay, but the story didn't flow smoothly, it was more like several, jugged, interconnected pieces that not always made sense. The contradiction between the Christian religious characters that also believed in the esoteric was also weird. It's like the author couldn't decided on what to focus and just chucked everything in and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it didn't work very well. At least that is my opinion.
I know some people really enjoy Carla's books, but this was my first and most probably the last one too.
It was painfully slow, specially in the beginning. The romance was lukewarm. The suspense was okay, but the story didn't flow smoothly, it was more like several, jugged, interconnected pieces that not always made sense. The contradiction between the Christian religious characters that also believed in the esoteric was also weird. It's like the author couldn't decided on what to focus and just chucked everything in and hoped for the best. Unfortunately it didn't work very well. At least that is my opinion.
September 24, 2019
This novel will appeal to everyone that delights in suspense novels by Carla Neggers and particularly sharing her own love of Ireland through this tale where the key to the suspense is an Irish storyteller.
There are a few scenes in the description of sheep killed which may be too graphic in description for the comfort of some readers.
I am disappointed as I've mentioned in before in review of novels by Carla Neggers that my joy as a reader is interrupted by copy editing errors. Otherwise, I would have given 4 stars.
There are a few scenes in the description of sheep killed which may be too graphic in description for the comfort of some readers.
I am disappointed as I've mentioned in before in review of novels by Carla Neggers that my joy as a reader is interrupted by copy editing errors. Otherwise, I would have given 4 stars.
November 2, 2024
Intense and gripping story - very appropriate for Halloween week. A story about angels and evil; Irish stories and a long ago murder that incites another evil man. Keira Sullivan is a folklorist and artist attempting to research old Irish stories, when she hears about one from an older lady in Boston. Thirty years prior, her mother journeyed to Ireland in search of the roots to the same story and came back changed. Keira’s own trip is marred by a collapsed old stone hut, a black dog, the appearance of a stone angel like in the story and blood,
August 14, 2018
I struggled a bit with this one. There is so much to like. Some characters that I really enjoyed in The Widow appear in this book, Keira and Simon are an engaging new couple, and much of the story takes place in Ireland. I found it difficult to stay interested in the stone angel, though, and other parts of the plot seemed a little scattered. By no means was this book a total loss for me, it just wasn't as riveting a read as we usually get from this author.
September 22, 2025
As a lover of myth and legend this story was right up my alley and the descriptions of the illustrations were just marvellous. This is a family full of secrets even if we (the readers) do not know why certain relationships are secrets, I dont get why the son of a murdered friend would not be known by your own children and neice, for are we told what happened to Simon's father and what does any of it have to do with the summer solstice? This and other mysteries remain unexplained.
April 28, 2022
Family secrets
I enjoyed this book it was about family island Boston And family secrets it was a good mystery that kept you on the edge of your seat but also kept your heart warm with family and how people do it with each other So as much as it was a sad book about murders and things it was a warm book about family and love
I enjoyed this book it was about family island Boston And family secrets it was a good mystery that kept you on the edge of your seat but also kept your heart warm with family and how people do it with each other So as much as it was a sad book about murders and things it was a warm book about family and love
May 29, 2024
This is a reread. It was just as good this time as the first time. This book explained why The Widow was in the Ireland Series as the characters from that book are in this book. However, the book is definitely a standalone. One does not have to read The Widow first, nor is there a cliffhanger.
The book was suspenseful. The bad guy was not obvious.
A good read.
The book was suspenseful. The bad guy was not obvious.
A good read.
November 8, 2024
I guess this just was not a book for me. Having not read the first in the series, it took me quite awhile to get all the family relationships clear in my mind. I didn't really connect with any of them, I was not into the magical aspect of the mystery of the stone angel, and the romantic angle didn't hit me right.
August 18, 2025
A novel of a young girl's dream of finding angels and Irish folklore. Her family and best friend. Secrets are uncovered and demons are called as the war of evil and good moves through this story Join Simon an ex-FBI and a storyteller Kiera meet and fall in love. Together they fight evil and find happiness for themselves and their families
September 28, 2018
I had a hard time getting started with this book, keeping track of all the characters and remembering how they related to each other. The only reason I hung in there was because I have read and loved so many of Carla Neggers's books. And ultimately, I really enjoyed this one too.
October 24, 2019
I use romance novels as a palate cleanser. They are supposed to be fast, fun, and engaging. I read about a third of this book and it never got there. The day I picked up the book and felt it was a chore, I decided to drop it. Just couldn’t make a connection with either the story or the characters.
January 25, 2020
Loved the connections with Boston & Ireland, but at times (when it went back in forth) I really had to keep my attention on the characters, who they were, and found it easy to get confused. Other than at like the book!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 156 reviews