Seven Spanish Angels

by Stephen Graham Jones

On the verge of retirement, El Paso crime-scene investigator Marta Villareal finds her final days in the department fraught with chaos and emotional upheaval as she investigates the disappearance of her homicide detective partner, a series of lethal explosions, and a string of homicides across the border in Juarez, Mexico. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: Horror, Indigenous, Thriller

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2005

About the author

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author thirty-five or so books. He really likes werewolves and slashers. Favorite novels change daily, but Valis and Love Medicine and Lonesome Dove and It and The Things They Carried are all usually up there somewhere. Stephen lives in Boulder, Colorado. It's a big change from the West Texas he grew up in.

Reviews

[Amanda F · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story! I loved the author’s note at the back almost more! I always appreciate when an author says where an idea came from or how they feel about it, but most of the noted that Jones leaves just touch me as much as whatever story I’ve just read.
Anyway, this is the story of a crime scene tech in training who jumps in and tries to solve the serial murders of women… the Spanish Angels. There is just so much character work and so many people who look guilty. I was guessing from beginning to end, and what a great adventure this was!

[Jeff Wait · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can really see the pull of slashers on Jones in this one. There’s a serial killer who kills women who look like our MC. She has to solve the case. What starts out as a pretty straightforward premise leads to a twisty mystery full of heart, kicks in the chest and visceral scenes. I think this is one of the easier to read early stories of SGJ, especially compared to The Fast Red Road. It’s less ethereal but no less poignant. Highly recommend if you want a middle area between the current slasher-obsessed Jones of today and the ambitious literary works of his early publishing career.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ebook on hoopla. Really well paced mystery. Somewhat confused still about how the Mom died but it almost doesn't matter. Still very good.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Stephen Graham Jones and so I jumped at the chance to read this novel that fans have been waiting about five years for.

All the Beautiful Sinners is the first novel that actually scared me, made it not okay for it to be night. Reality bends and collapses and refracts and is built again in that novel, where the surreality of the world comes in shades of horror and dread.

Seven Spanish Angels was written, originally, around the same time and feels similar, very much a part of the same reality, but it doesn't measure up, I don't think. It's definitely his most straightforward novel, without any of the literary tricks, all the avant garde style pulled back to simply deliver the story. And it does, and, in that way, it succeeds. There are some great characters in here, some you'll remember a long time, and some that feel as if you've known them for years, and maybe you have.

For me, the book failed in the ways that All the Beautiful Sinners succeeded. A surreal thriller/horror that just rips through your consciousness, leaving you reeling. Seven Spanish Angels is much more direct and concise, maybe. By pulling the style back and leaving the story bare, some of the fun of his books is lost for me. Also, there were a few too many places where the narrative stated what the reader just came to realise, which is always an annoyance to me.

I think it's the direction he's moving in and maybe always was. Each book has become less stylised, more direct, more just about the people and what happens, less about the reader or the writer, if that makes sense. He's no longer hiding behind experimentation, which is maybe a good thing, but it's what made me love his books so much in the first place.

By no means is this a bad book and I imagine many will love it. It's the kind of book that pushes a writer from the fringe to a more central place. I'd recommend it, but not if you're looking for something like The Bird is Gone or even All the Beautiful Sinners again.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is sort of a seven year old story, and sort of a new one. it's a great crime novel. would be a great movie. it lacks some of the beauty and finesse of say, LEDFEATHER. it touches to some of dysfunctional tenderness of THE LONG TRIAL, but never really embraces it. it's a good gateway into the author's work, and reads in a way that fans of the genre will love, as well as fans of other minimalist authors, like palahniuk, carver, or vlautin.

[Brandon Nagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Stephen Graham Jones book...