Tuesday, March 10, 2020

The Black Angel, A Book Report









A book report by Larry Eicher


This story is written in the first person and narrated by a young wife whose husband called her “Angel Face.”  It begins on a night when her husband is about to run away with another woman.  She is aware of the other woman’s identity and goes to her apartment to try to fix things.  When she arrives, the woman is lying on the floor dead.
The story skips around a little at this point but later they have a trial and convict her husband for the murder.  He is sentenced to death and the date is set for three months hence.  She and he love each other and she believes his did not do the murder.
She remembers one policeman, an investigator, who seemed to believe her about her husband’s innocence.  She went to him requesting his help.  After their talk, he tells her to go ahead with her proposed investigation.  He wishes her luck and he does not re-enter the story until much later.  Before they part he reminds her they need solid evidence to stop the execution.
Her investigation centers on an address book she found at the murdered girls apartment.  She decides to check on the M’s based on a match book cover she found there also with two M’s on it.   She being a young woman uses her wiles as part of the whole thing.   She also incorporates her feminine intuition.   She contacts the men one at a time and gets to know them, judging all the while if they murdered the girl.
She seems to have a mental list of things to check for each man based on her knowledge of men.  I must admit that I began reading this novel doubting whether the author being a man could write a woman’s internal thoughts.  Using only my limited knowledge of women and their thoughts I came away thinking he did a good job.  She passed on the first two and came to the third with whom she fell in love.  Things get dicey from there and I must not reveal that part and risk you’re not reading the novel.  The ending is frightful and unexpected in several ways.  I hope you read this and let me know if you did.


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