Rating: 3.5

This was my first novel by Alex North and I was thrilled when the beginning had a promising start. Shortly after, the story started getting confusing with the non-linear timeline and too many characters to keep track of. I had to go back and reread pages. I definitely was spooked at times and the story had me on the edge of my seat with the suspense and plot twists along the way. I also enjoyed the surprise ending.

Katie Shaw lived a quiet yet charmed life with her parents, younger brother Chris and her devoted boyfriend. Like most people who grew up in a tiny town, her dreams were big. With graduation right around the corner, she faced the uncertainty of life ahead … until tragedy struck, and her family was forever changed. This story dives into the bond between two siblings and the mystery of a notorious serial killer who is intertwined with their fate.

Read this if you enjoy:
Serial killers
Plot twists
Horror
Suspense

I received an electronic advanced copy (eARC) from publisher Celadon and Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity to preview this book.

This novel was disturbing. But like, I love it disturbing. A murder mystery with many layers, and the biggest web of paranormal and horror combined weirdness spanning multiple timelines. Alex jokes at the end of his author’s note but I think he really put a lot into this one on the psychology front. The book is based on determinism, the doctrine that including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. 🤯 You might walk away from this one with a fear of coincidence 😂 throw in a serial killer with that mentality and oh wow…

Alex North’s books have been on my back list for far too long. I got approved on @netgalley for his latest, and now I know I need to bump these up on my priority list.

I've enjoyed all of Alex Norths book and I felt this one was a tad bit hard to follow with all of the different POVs. Until about half way through you kind of need to keep a list straight of all the characters. Overall I was anticipating this read and so grateful to have received an early copy

The Angel Maker by Alex North
Star Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis: Following the murder of Alan Hobbes, a beloved professor of philosophy, a host of characters become involved in the investigation and are tethered by connections that are felt if not understood. Chris Shaw, a survivor of a gruesome attack as a child has gone missing. His sister, Katie begins to search for him while fighting against past regret and current paranoia that his attacker is now after her. Detective Laurence is lead investigator of Hobbes’ murder. As he digs for information, he finds himself returning to the murders by serial killer known as The Angel Maker and the attack on Chris Shaw. Each character holds their own puzzle piece of the bigger picture.

Review: In typical Alex North fashion this book is sooo eerie and entertaining. This one reminded me of True Detective and Mindhunter. It is driven by a lot of philosophy and has a lot of moving parts. On one hand the philosophy kept the motive interesting, but on the other it sort of shrouded the mystery. For a while a lot of the story had me on the edge of my seat and kept totally in the dark. Then it took a turn where the reader basically knows more than some of the characters (especially the detective), so it felt a little boring waiting for them to catch up. Finally, there were a lot of speakers in this book. The constant switch in characters was a fun way to leave a cliffhanger, but really didn’t give enough time to get to know Chris and Katie and that left me feeling a little wanting.

Thanks @netgalley and @celadonbooks for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

#happypubday to @writernorth & his latest novel!

this thriller tests the mystery that surrounds fate & destiny amid a legendary serial killer and one of his loyal followers, who has long been seeking ultimate revenge to those jeopardizing his manifest destiny.

the book also focuses on Katie Shaw, who lives in guilt and fear after what happened to her brother years ago. as she grapples w/ her abundance of emotions, detectives nearby have responded to the brutal murder of a local professor of fate & free will. eventually, the stories begin to intermingle, connecting one’s past with another’s present, as Katie realizes that her family has somehow found themselves in the midst of imminent danger.

i looooved The Whisper Man, so I was super excited to start this one! while this book was equally as twisted as the former, i just didn’t find myself as connected to the storyline. truthfully, I think this was huuuugely in part to reading this as an audiobook vs. a physical copy. this was my first #arc in audiobook form, so it was a bit of an adjustment for me. the narrator was British, which I found to be soothing but also a little hard to understand at times.

moreover, there was SO much going on (which I normally love because it’s that much more fun to put the pieces together), but it was hard to keep track of everything happening without being able to look back or stop and process what I read. i don’t think I fully grasped all of the connections happening until about 80% into the story, and even at the end I was still a little unclear on one specific plot line.

overall thoughts: I’m a little bummed that my first experience of this book was through audio; it was a mistake on my part, especially knowing how complex his writing is. combining that with my rookie audiobook skills was just a recipe for disaster. I think this book would have been SO much more enjoyable had I read my ebook version instead. womp, you live & you learn I guess. 🤷🏼‍♀️

thank you to @netgalley & @celadonbooks for my #advancedreaderscopy! you can get your copy today (and I highly recommend that you get it in physical form)!! 😅

This book was one of my most anticipated of 2023 and I was so happy to receive an early copy.

I loved Alex North’s other 2 books and this one did not disappoint.

The book was fairly easy to figure out what was happening but how all of the connections came into play were fun to read.

I do wish that each chapter told you who it was as there were quite a few POVs throughout the book

4 Stars!

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

Recommend this one if you like:
• The idea that one decision can change the entire course of your or someone else's life
• Dual POVs and alternating timelines
• Thought provoking, poignant writing
• The concept of seeing into the future

This was my first read by Alex North and I was so excited to get my hands on it. I've heard excellent things about his writing. The prologue ends with an amazing hook.

We begin with Katie as a teen and her brother Christopher who's life is impacted at a young age by something horrific.

It's years later and a serial killer is on the loose.

Detective Laurence Page and his partner are searching for leads.

And wealthy professor Alan Hobbes who taught the controversial topic of Determinism is in his final moments.

Somehow, all of their stories are connected.

This story was equal parts complex and creepy. A huge THANK YOU to @macmillan.audio for my audio version. The narrator did an excellent job of setting the somber mood for this story.

This story left me thinking about the concepts of seeing the future and fate versus free will.

And while some parts of the beginning were a little confusing for me, once I figured everything out I was completely intrigued.

Cannot wait to read more from this author!

Katie Shaw seemed to have it all. She had a wonderful family, dedicated boyfriend and was about to start a new life out of school. Then, one tragic night, her younger brother, Chris, was brutally attacked and her family life forever changed. Chris fell into a life on the streets and into drugs, but when her mom called to tell her that he went missing, Katie wasn’t keen that something was actually wrong. At the same time, Detective Laurence Page and his partner were called to investigate the brutal murder of a local professor. While some facts were a bit cut and dry, some threw the detectives for a loop. The trailed back to Chris Shaw’s brutal attack years ago as well as the infamous serial killer, The Angel Maker, who claimed to also be able to see the future.

This was a book to many tales weaved together. At times, I felt a little lost, but everything did wrap up nicely at the end. It was a very quick read and some of the twists and turns were some that I couldn’t even fathom. This was definitely on the darker side, leaning toward horror but as a wimp in that genre, I could still bare it. This was a very quick read and with all of the turns, you wanted to keep going to find out what might happen next.

4 🌟🌟🌟🌟 for The Angel Maker
Author: Alex North

Initially I had some difficulty getting into this book, but by the end I had found it a good read and was glad I stuck with it. While the authors other books are more Mystery/Thriller/spooky, I found this book to lean more towards crime thriller.

The first half of the book was definitely a slow burn. The plot is a bit complicated and the first half of the book seemed like mostly set up and laying the foundation. The story picked up in the second half and overall it tied up all the pieces and loose ends nicely.

While Alex's North's newest book takes a slightly different approach from his previous works, he still delivers a story that comes full circle and doesn't leave any stones unturned.

The book started off strong and I was hooked in but it went downhill from there. It was creepy and dark and I wanted to see how it ended but it was confusing at times. It was slow and all over the place. It was an okay read but I probably wouldn’t recommend it. The plot was really creative and interesting but there were to many time jumps.

This is my first Alex North Book but I enjoy the thriller genre so I thought I would give it a try. I enjoyed the overall plot of the book. Katie Shaw lived a charmed life. Just about to graduate from high school, she has 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 and her brother, Chris is attacked. Years later, still unable to live down the guilt surrounding what happened to 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. I enjoyed the character development of Katie, I could really relate to her protectiveness of her family and her desire to help her brother.
This book has scenes of the past and the present and it was really hard to follow with the large cast of characters. I found myself having to go back and read so that the next chapter would make sense. The overall vibe was creepy and was tied up very well in the end but I felt the middle of the book was confusing at times. I would check out another Alex North book in the future.

I would rate this book a 3-3.5/5 starts. Thank you to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy.

I overall rate the story a 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

The story was complex with lots of characters and plot points to follow that Alex North did an excellent job tying together.

I was gripped right away in the beginning, but that did not continue into the middle. I really liked the dynamics between Katie and Chris’s sibling relationship, but those were the only characters I really felt a connection to. This made it hard to stay in touch with some of the other characters and their plots.

This is my second Alex North book and I will definitely continue to read more from this author.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon books for an ARC.

First I have to thank Celadon Books for bringing this book to my attention. NetGalley gave me access to the audiobook, and I devoured about half the book during my first listen. Although I own copies of The Whisper Man and The Shadows this is still the first book of his that I have read, but I will be reading the other two sooner than later. I enjoyed the narration provided by Rosalie Craig, but there were a couple of times that I needed to go back and listen because I heard something wrong.

I did not know much about this book going in, but it kept me entertained. I received access to the egalley of the book, so I went through it to look at the written word.

The Angel Maker, by Alex North

Short Take: This book is a lot, like, A LOT a lot. But also, delicious. Like lava cake with ice cream.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

Hello Duckies!! Like the rest of the world, I’m glued to the Murdaugh trial, so this is gonna be a quick one.

This book takes place in multiple timelines, and believe me, you had better keep your thinking hats on. We roam from roughly the 1950’s, where a serial killer known as the Angel Maker killed little girls and tormented his sons, through the difficult lives the boys lived afterward, to a decade ago, when 17 year old Katie Shaw’s little brother Chris was brutally attacked and permanently disfigured and mentally damaged, to the present day where Katie is a happily married mom and a retired professor is murdered in his partially burned mansion.

Got all that? Good. Because The Angel Maker flips around between characters and decades, through disappearances and name changes and a whole dissertation on the philosophy of determinism and hoooooo boy it is HARD to keep up. Then Mr. North casually tosses out some very complicated family ties, and by the time I finished reading, I felt like I needed a wall with character pictures and red string to figure out who was who and how they were related to each other and wait, this person is using another name and they are actually that person, and yeah.

My brain hurts.

But you know what? If, and I mean IF you can stick with it, and take breaks now and then to mentally map it all out, this is kind of an incredible story. The author does a pretty good job of conveying what addiction does to the addict, and their family, and how the ripples of one bad decision can roll on for years. There’s also a more than decent mystery, and maybe a hint of the supernatural.

But don’t try to multi-task while you’re reading, as I usually do. This is not the book for that.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and a 100-sided die. I didn’t know such a thing existed and now I need one.)

I'm going ro be honest...I don't think my review is going to go quite the same as others. From what I saw others raved about said book. And I won't be.

It's an alright book. I won't say it's terrible or give it like 1 star or anything. It's not like that, however I am left wanting.

In its own description, it talks about dark, gruesome crimes, murder, serial killers and plot twists.....I'd like to know where some of that is?

Maybe I'm jaded about the level of gruesome (because I read too much of it) but like everything is mentioned but there's no detail, there's no gruesome. It was more like the serial killer did this and here's why. This guy was stabbed, there was blood...he's dead.

If they have stuck to the unbreakable bond of siblings, the development of old cases, resentments, perceived slights...then I totally would have gotten that feel for the book and maybe would have felt differently about it.

Once I saw this book available, I knew I had to request it. I enjoyed Alex North's other two novels, so I immediately put in a request. The concept of this story is unique and interesting.
Katie Shaw lived a charmed life until a violent stranger changed her family's life forever. Years later, her brother Christopher disappears and even though they are estranged, she feels she has to find him. Detective Laurence Page is called to investigate the brutal murder of a college professor. As his unravels the mystery of the professor's death, it seems as if the professor knew his demise was coming. The crime also links to Christopher's past and to a serial killer who claimed he could see the future.
I enjoyed the writing and the multiple POVs of this story. The concept of determinism was one I hadn't heard of before. I enjoyed how he took the concept and used it to explain the thoughts and actions of a serial killer. I liked the other subplots of the rivalry between brothers and an even bigger mystery that was revealed little by little in the story. While there were hints that led me to figure out one of the twists in the book, it did not take away my overall enjoyment. The last chapter, while it had some good reveals, fell a bit flat for me. Overall, I enjoyed this story and I thought it was a great mystery.

I absolutely loved The Whisper man by Alex North. I had a bit of a hard time getting into the Angel maker. Quite a few complex characters and different characters. Overall I’d give it a 2.5/3⭐️

This is a gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first page. Alex North does an excellent job of building suspense throughout the story, with plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. The characters are well-developed and complex, adding an extra layer of depth to the plot.

The Angel Maker is a haunting and thought-provoking story that explores themes of guilt, grief, loss, and redemption. If you enjoy crime fiction that is both atmospheric and psychologically compelling, then this book is definitely worth a read. Thank you to Celadon Books and Netgalley for the chance to review this advance copy. The Angel Maker is available for purchase everywhere you buy books now!

One of the things I’ve noticed with North’s books is that while they are “serial killer books” they also are not. So while this story floats around The Angel Maker, it is more the story of the lives he touched…both living and dead and in some cases extended out a ways.
North does suspense very well. While there are some serious crimes alluded to there isn’t any gratuitous violence. That makes it more suspense than thriller to me.
I enjoyed the multiple POVs and timelines but the back and forth on names got a little confusing sometimes. Of course, that’s meant to be part of the intrigue I think but stood out to me nonetheless.
This follows Katie Shaw searching for her troubled and now missing brother who she feels responsible for due to a horrific attack on him when he was 15. Weaving past and present together we see how the characters’ lives are intertwined throughout their lives whether some of them know it or not. Which leads perfectly into another theme here: philosophy and specifically determinism.
This is another thing I’ve enjoyed with North’s works is the added element like that that ties in so well with the characters’ actions.

Entertaining, quick, suspenseful read for fans of North’s other works as well as domestic thrillers, suspense, murder mysteries and thrillers.

I previously read The Whisper Man and The Shadows by this author, so I was super excited to receive this eARC.
I will say overall, I did enjoy the book. The first 50% of the book I found myself constantly confused between characters, timelines and the plot. In order to keep going, I found myself going back and rereading to make sure I was understanding correctly. As soon as I passed the 50% mark, things started to make a lot more sense and I thoroughly enjoyed the plot along with all the twists and turns. The story itself was dark and intriguing and I still enjoyed it in the end.

Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!