What do you think?
Rate this book
Fallen Angel
According to the cover, this reprint has been "specially revised and edited."
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1945
62 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 11, 2026
Entertaining story that one can read over a couple of days.
Set in war-time California, we meet Eric Stanton, a drifter and con artist who has been kicked off a bus in a small coastal town. It's not long before he meets a local waitress, Stella and becomes infatuated with her. After learning of another woman's money inheritance payout in the town, he comes up with a scheme to scam her, take the money and run - with Stella, of course. But while Stella is also eager to leave this nowhere town and her dead-end job, she isn't overly keen on doing it with a no-hoper like Stanton.
This plotline has been done many times before but is still fun to encounter again in this book.
Stanton has to marry local lady Emmie to get her inheritance money, which he does, but his plans go bad when Stella is found dead. But who killed her? Suspects are rounded up but no murderer is found. The book from here becomes a whodunnit as well as a suspense tale as Stanton tries to prove his innocence when the law starts pointing the finger at him.
A fast moving, entertaining read, and the atmosphere of a coastal town in the wartime era is vividly described. It's not always credible, people can be two strangers in one chapter, and yet only a chapter or two later are talking about getting married. Things move fast here; I guess the author needed to keep pushing things along quickly. And the woman that conman Stanton marries is really naïve. Too naive to be really true.
The book really feels like a movie of that period, and it's not surprising that it was made into one.
The author was once an employee at Paramount studios, and it seems that she had ambitions to write for the movies. The movie of this book was made by 20th Century Fox, however. I haven't seen it, but some changes were made to the story, I believe.
As for the book's conclusion, things were all wrapped up with a surprise result in who was Stella's killer. The last two and a half pages seemed to comprise of a tacked on happy ending regarding the fate of Stanton and Emmie's marriage and future together. It was the sort of ending that a Hollywood movie would have added if it wasn't in the book already. Perhaps the author was aware of this, and confident that film makers would be interested in her book, ended it the way she did.
I thought the book would have had a better ending if only the first two pages of that final chapter were there, but saying more here is going into spoiler territory.
As it stands, with minor quibbles put aside, this is an entertaining book.
Set in war-time California, we meet Eric Stanton, a drifter and con artist who has been kicked off a bus in a small coastal town. It's not long before he meets a local waitress, Stella and becomes infatuated with her. After learning of another woman's money inheritance payout in the town, he comes up with a scheme to scam her, take the money and run - with Stella, of course. But while Stella is also eager to leave this nowhere town and her dead-end job, she isn't overly keen on doing it with a no-hoper like Stanton.
This plotline has been done many times before but is still fun to encounter again in this book.
Stanton has to marry local lady Emmie to get her inheritance money, which he does, but his plans go bad when Stella is found dead. But who killed her? Suspects are rounded up but no murderer is found. The book from here becomes a whodunnit as well as a suspense tale as Stanton tries to prove his innocence when the law starts pointing the finger at him.
A fast moving, entertaining read, and the atmosphere of a coastal town in the wartime era is vividly described. It's not always credible, people can be two strangers in one chapter, and yet only a chapter or two later are talking about getting married. Things move fast here; I guess the author needed to keep pushing things along quickly. And the woman that conman Stanton marries is really naïve. Too naive to be really true.
The book really feels like a movie of that period, and it's not surprising that it was made into one.
The author was once an employee at Paramount studios, and it seems that she had ambitions to write for the movies. The movie of this book was made by 20th Century Fox, however. I haven't seen it, but some changes were made to the story, I believe.
As for the book's conclusion, things were all wrapped up with a surprise result in who was Stella's killer. The last two and a half pages seemed to comprise of a tacked on happy ending regarding the fate of Stanton and Emmie's marriage and future together. It was the sort of ending that a Hollywood movie would have added if it wasn't in the book already. Perhaps the author was aware of this, and confident that film makers would be interested in her book, ended it the way she did.
I thought the book would have had a better ending if only the first two pages of that final chapter were there, but saying more here is going into spoiler territory.
As it stands, with minor quibbles put aside, this is an entertaining book.
July 25, 2008
The set-up is classic noir: Anti-hero wanders into small California town, hooks up with femme fatale, plots to swindle local old maid (who, of course, is not actually that old) out of her recently inherited $10,000. From there the plot drifts a bit toward whodunnit territory, and the resolution is too dues ex machina not to be disappointing. On the whole, your time will be better spent watching the Otto Preminger film of this novel (bearing the novel's original title, Fallen Angel), which is much more tightly plotted and much more satisfying.
April 17, 2023
Quick noir read. The characters were the stock noir characters--a tough guy who has an idea for a con, a femme fatale, a hard-edged cop, and a soft-hearted heiress. There were some turnarounds I did not see coming and, in fact, did not see any basis for them. If you saw the movie, it was very, very different in so many ways.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2025
Nifty study of a grifter gradually having a change of heart as he tries to save himself from being framed for the murder of a waitress with whom he was involved. The internal monologues of the narrator, the descriptions of the town, and the cast of supporting characters create a strong noir vibe. However, the woman he marries intending to cheat so he can run off with the waitress does come off as a bit too naive, and his character change due to the "love of this good woman" doesn't ring true. The film version works better with Alice Faye giving the wife some bite and character, while Dana Andrews plays the lead as hinting early one that, despite his cynicism, he has the potential to change.
July 24, 2023
Excellent well-paced noir about a drifter/con man who attempts to finance his affair with the hot greasy spoon waitress by draining the church organist's bank account via a quickie marriage. Of course, it all goes to hell when the hash slinger winds up dead, but there's more than one unusual plot twist is in store. Not to hard to see why Hollywood came a calling for this one!
April 23, 2023
Fallen Angel by Marty Holland is a gripping film noir classic with a thrilling plot and vivid descriptions of a small coastal town. Curtis Evans provides an insightful introduction that sheds light on the elusive author and the historical context of the book. A must-read for fans of the genre.
June 6, 2024
This one is a really great grifter comes to a small town noir.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews