The Angel Maker is a fast paced thriller. There are supernatural vibes and multiple point of views. This book holds up well to Alex North's previous titles. When the penny drops and I realized why the book is named The Angel Maker, my jaw literally dropped.

"Our experiences and fears collect in the backs of our minds like dry kindling…"

--------------------------------------

"…there is really no such thing as long ago"

After writing eleven stand-alone mystery/thriller novels, author Steve Mosby shifted course to horror, birthing his nom de doom, Alex North. The Angel Maker is his third under that name. The first, The Whisper Man, was a spine-tingler of the highest order. His second, 2020 - The Shadows, took on lucid-dreaming, bound to garish murders. The Angel Maker returns us to a contemporary setting brought into being by crimes committed a generation ago. It revolves around a spooky book, around one seriously messed-up family, around a young woman, and around a central philosophical theory that fuels a psycho-serial killer.

Thirty-something Katie Shaw is a caring teacher with a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and a shaky marriage to her childhood sweetheart. Her brother, Chris, a couple years younger, has been out of touch for quite a while. Katie had finally reported him to the police after he’d stolen money from her bag during a family event. Drug addiction can do that to a person. But then, if you were 15 when some seemingly random psycho tries to kill you on your own street and literally tear your face off, it can have lifelong repercussions. So, Chris has issues. But he is out now, of jail, of rehab, has been for a while, even has a partner and a life. Which is why Katie is confused when her mother tells her that Chris has gone missing. And the hunt is on, as Katie goes all Miss Marple, trying to track down her little brother.

Professor Alan Hobbes, seventy-something, is getting his affairs in order as he expects to die on October 4, 2017, the present of the novel. He lives, or rather lived in a very large house, one with some decidedly spooky elements.

"…at the far end of the room, an archway.
He stared at that for a moment. It clearly led away into some deeper chamber of the house, but the blackness there was impenetrable. [Detective] Laurence [Page] could hear the faintest rush of air emerging from it, and the sound reminded him of something breathing."

This in addition to a section of the upstairs floor that burned decades back, but was never repaired. (The UK title of the book is The Half Burnt House.

Why did Chris disappear? How did Hobbes foresee his own end? And what does all this have to do with notorious child-killer (and possible seer) Jack Lock, who died in prison in 1956? What was Lock writing in his book all those years ago, and why is some rich guy looking to get it? Edward Leland is clearly a nogoodnik, rich, angry, sociopathic, employer of bad people. And he wants that book, whatever it takes.

So, we have our hero, Katie, who is the primary page-getter here. (19 chapters of 50) We follow along as she tries to track down her brother as the threat levels against both her and Chris keep ratcheting up. Oh, and the guy who had tried to kill Chris all those years ago? Out of jail.

"When I first started planning and writing The Angel Maker, all I really knew was that I wanted… the characters [to] be searching for a rare and forbidden text. Some of them would end up doing so for innocent reasons, of course, but there would be others who genuinely coveted the dark knowledge they imagined it contained…I settled on the journal of a fictional serial killer called Jack Lock, an item that would be valuable in and of itself to certain damaged people. But I also wanted it to contain some kind of secret knowledge, which raised further questions. What else might drive people to seek this book out?…in the end, I went with an idea that has haunted me more than a little for many years now, and which engages with a number of the themes that have always interested me. Nature versus nurture. The influence of the past on the present. How much control any of us really have." - from the Crimereads interview

North flogs this theme throughout, which is a strength, giving the book more heft than relying solely on a scary story. Here we have a scary philosophical theory. Leads one to wonder, with a shudder, just how many people might hew to this perspective.

Detectives Laurence Page and Caroline Pettifer offer some entertaining banter, but serve mostly as a way of connecting parts of the story. Laurence offers some echoing of parental issues as well.

The story is definitely engaging. Katie is a good egg, and is easy to root for. North provides her with the handicap of an unsupportive, disbelieving husband, which was cause for a bit of eye-rolling. It is such a trope these days. Maybe always has been.

Dangling fantasy items are tossed in, but seem gratuitous. Katie’s daughter reporting that the moon comes to talk to her, for example. There are a few more otherworldly gewgaws added here and there, but they serve, mostly, as window-dressing.

There are elements that permeate. The first is, obviously, the quest for the magical book. Second is Katie’s quest to find her brother. Parent/child relationships are important, particularly when parents display a clear preference for one child over another. Siblings have issues with each other as well. (Don’t we all?) Thematically, the book is about free choice. Are we really free, or is everything laid out, reducing us to actors reading lines? Do events in our past define our options moving forward? And if the future is set, where lies personal responsibility? North has some fun counterpointing characters named Lock and Hobbes, standing in for the immutability of determined events vs the ability of people to effect change via personal decision-making, reflecting their well-known namesakes from Western philosophical history.

The story dips back from the present (2017), with scenes set in the 1950s, ‘70s, 80s, and 90s, offering explanations for what is going on today. Some might find it a bit tough to follow. I did not have a problem. There are fifty chapters in this 336-page book. So, it is easy to read this one in small chunks if that is your style.

There probably are no books that can foretell the future. But, the odds are that by the time you finish reading The Angel Maker, I predict, you will be quivery and exhausted. You are free to read this book, or to pass, a matter of personal choice. But if one believes in God, a god who knows all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that is to come, then the decision was made long before you were ever offered the choice. Are you still responsible for that decision? And if you veer from what is written in God’s plan, are you not defying the Almighty? Read it or not. The choice is up to you?

"'If you could see the future,' Sam asked her, 'would you want to?"

Review posted – March 31, 2023

Publication date – February 28, 2023

I received an ARE of The Angel Maker from Celadon in return for a fair review and agreeing not to dig up those things in my yard. Thanks, folks, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating.

For this review the way it should be seen, please head over to my site: https://cootsreviews.com/2023/03/31/the-angel-maker-by-alex-north/

Only Alex North can weave a suspense story so intricately and keep it so tight the reader has no idea how it will all be drawn together in the end. Fantastic writing and great suspense/psychological thriller!

This book was definitely one I didn’t want to put down! I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end…. Most def. A must read for 2023!

I love thrillers, and I heard great things about this author’s previous work. Unfortunately, the Angel Maker just didn’t work for me. It was just too slow and I couldn’t get into it. Ultimately, I put this book down and picked it up so many times, but I just couldn’t stay engaged. Which is truly a bummer because I love a good thriller. Ultimately, I ended up skimming a lot of it. Thank you so much to the author and publisher for the chance to read this one early. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t a favorite.

This book was so confusing!! I finished it and I still have questions. Either I didn't pay enough attention, or the main things I wanted explained weren't explained.

Way too many characters that were not memorable enough for me. Switching back and forth between so many different timelines felt chaotic, and it just required too much focus for me.

A book should not be this much work to follow, and it should not make me feel so dumb.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this book was okay but for the first half of it, it was really hard to follow. There were too many people’s perspectives to have a good understanding of what was happening, and then when you started to grasp it, you were already halfway through the book and didn’t really have a good grasp of the characters, or even care much for them. They weren’t really likeable and didn’t have any character development, and with how slow the book was moving, having the motivation to read it became harder and harder. That being said, around 75% of the way through, I did want to see how the book ended and wasn’t overall disappointed with the book. However, I wasn’t excited about it either. It was just kind of…meh. I rounded up to 3 starts but I think it would be a stretch. At the end, you still didn’t understand why everyone did the things that they did (like why did Michael Hyde want to kill Sienna? What does Katie being alive and having kids have to do with the fact that he mixed up Chris and Nate? Why was everything her fault?). It was an okay book but I probably wouldn’t recommend it to many, especially if I had the option of recommending North’s first two books first.

I love the fact that most of his books are always so wild and out there while still feeling possible. This book didn't seem as realistic but it still possessed that creepy feeling that his books tend to have. It seems smarter than I'm able to comprehend but I still had an appreciation for the book

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for a free E-book copy of ‘The Angel Maker’, I’m always so grateful to be a chosen one, especially for a highly anticipated book from my list.

This was such a creepy read, the start was very interesting. It gets a little muddled for me the middle towards the end. I didn’t hate it but I also didn’t love it. I wish there were more context on a couple things from the beginning of the story.
Overall we had a good plot, but im left with mixed feelings, so for now my final rating is 3.5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ rounded down.

The Angel Maker offers an interesting premise and I think mostly hits the marks. While it is mostly predictable, there are some clever parts I did not see coming that elevate it slightly above the average thriller. I did enjoy the relationship that Katie and Chris have because, like real life, it is more complicated than some idyllic bond often portrayed in media. The philosophy angle was a neat hook, but ultimately I felt that the vagueness surrounding the original crimes led to it falling a bit flat at the end.

Happy Pub Day to #TheAngelMaker !! Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Buckle up for this read, bc it sure is a bumpy ride!! If you like a story told from multiple POVs, coming together at the end, then this is exactly the book for you! It was hard to keep track of who was who at times, but for the most part it wasn’t too bad! One of the main character’s names was Katie, and there’s something extra scary reading a thriller when a character has the same name as you!

There are also multiple time jumps in the book, but they are needed to piece the story together. If you’re a scaredy-cat like me, I don’t recommend reading this one at night😂While this was a slow burn (pun intended) there were still MANY chilling scenes! This was my first Alex North book, and I will definitely be reading more from him - during the day time😂

“And what did that mean? Something terrible and incomprehensible. Something that had always been coming for you, but which you wouldn’t even see until it swerved in out of nowhere and changed your world forever.”

The Angel Maker - Alex North

A modern thriller reminiscent of Jack the Ripper meets Da Vinci Code.

Teenager Katie Shaw lives a perfect life in a small English Country Town when her younger brother Chris is horrifically attacked. Now, as an adult and mother herself, she must work to locate her brother who has mysteriously disappeared.

Detective Laurence Page is working to solve a particularly gruesome crime - an elderly professor has been murdered and the case somehow keeps coming back to Christopher Shaw.

I don’t read thrillers very often but I did enjoy this one. I liked how there were multiple story lines, timelines and perspectives to follow that eventually all came together.

I did find some of the plot unclear at times but altogether this was a quick, intriguing read with fast-pacing at the end and I couldn’t put it down.

I’d recommend this if you enjoy creepy, fantastical crime thrillers and family sagas

⭐⭐⭐⭐3.5 rounded to 4. I had a lot more hope for this book by horror novelist Alex North, who I do enjoy as an author. It's no Whisper Man however. Katie Shaw was a bit difficult to bond with, and I'm not a fan of far too many characters and timelines to follow, as it was easy to become confused. With this tightened up of the characters, this book could be fabulous and has a great premise.
Goodreads description as follows: "Growing up in a beautiful house in the English countryside, Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. At the cusp of graduation, she had big dreams, a devoted boyfriend, and a little brother she protected fiercely. Until the day a violent stranger changed the fate of her family forever.
Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris, and now with a child of her own to protect, Katie struggles to separate the real threats from the imagined. Then she gets the phone call: Chris has gone missing and needs his big sister once more.
Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly gruesome crime. A distinguished professor of fate and free will has been brutally murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the leads point back to two old cases: the gruesome attack on teenager Christopher Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who, legend had it, could see the future."
Thank you NetGalley, Alex North and Celadon Books for this ARC. #horrorbooks #thrillerbooks #bookstagram #booktok #bookstagrammer

This one got a bit confusing for me. There were a lot of characters that were hard to keep straight and differentiate. Each character had their own backstory and plot and it was also hard to keep those straight, especially once they started weaving together. I've read a lot of books with multiple points of view and multiple timelines and this one just wasn't executed smoothly.

I also felt like even with the multiple plotlines, the story was still slow moving. For a thriller, I expected a faster pace. Overall, this was a difficult to follow and get invested in.

My first Alex North book and I am FLOORED I loved it. Read it in literally less than a day, I could not stop. You are constantly being put on the edge of your seat with the twists and turns and I was so wrapped up in the story because it requires you to be that way to be able to follow it or else you'll miss something you don't want to miss. So good. 4.25/5 stars

I am admittedly the unluckiest person alive, so to say I was SHOCKED when I won an arc of this is an understatement! The Angel maker is an atmospheric story about unrivaled sibling loyalty, a serial killer who can predict the future and a detective determined to put the pieces together.

In total transparency, I did enjoy North’s The Whisper Man and The Shadows a bit more than this one, but that’s not to say this isn’t an amazing story that ABSOLUTELY gripped me! Highly recommend if you’ve liked his other works and enjoy reading thrillers that include multiple perspectives and jump scares.

Well, what can I say about this book; after LOVING 'The Whisper Man' by the same author, I was so excited to get to read this before it coming out this last January. I started physically reading it at my Doctor's office and not being able to get into the characters in this one. So I tried again 2 days later......and i ended up DNF'ing (did not finishing) this at almost 40%. Sorry this one did not have the horror aspects or the writing i was expected to see from Alex North.
1.5 stars of what I read.

I was highly anticipating any new book from Alex North as I have enjoyed his previous books. This book was no exception. The story is well paced and engaging with plenty of twists and turns. Unfortunately, I read this intermixed with other genre-books (typical for me) and I found that to be the wrong way to engage with this story. Let me say that I still found it well done and a great plot. My negative take is really due to how I read it because there are multiple characters and different POVs and timelines that would likely be much easier to follow if you read this in a couple of sittings, without other content interspersed. I felt like I was missing key things due to this that I would normally piece together easily. Overall, the story was absorbing and the interplay of the POVs and timelines was an engaging tactic.
So, if you want a thriller with a plot that has you guessing throughout, then give this a try.
Definitely recommend.

#TheAngelMaker #NetGalley #CeledonBooks

This story is about siblings Katie and Christopher Shaw and how they get tangled up with a murder that has dangerous consequences for them both.

Christopher was brutally attacked as a young boy and has never fully recovered and turned into a troubled young adult. Katie lives an idyllic life putting the past behind her. But when her brother goes missing and her daughter is being stalked, Katie is determined to go to any lengths to protect those she lives. What Katie doesn’t know is how her family ties in to the recent murder of Professor Hobbes and his fascination with a serial killer who was thought to see the future.

This one took me some time to get into. There were several storylines that later converged together but there were a lot of characters to keep track of. I started with the audio version but had to return to the ebook to help me manage the characters. The story was an interesting one and not as scary as the horror I was expecting. Fans of Alex North will surely enjoy his newest novel.

Thank you so very much to @netgalley and @celadonbooks for an early review copy and early listening copy!

I had to quit 25% in. I liked Katie’s storyline but everything else got very confusing. Other reviews indicated the same confusion. There are too many books out there to read a confusing one.