📚: The Angel Maker by Alex North (@writernorth)
⭐️: 3/5

A highly anticipated release for this winter, The Angel Maker sets a dual narrative, where one is Katie Shaw. At age 17, she’s about to graduate from high school when her younger brother, Chris, is brutally assaulted by a stranger. Fast forward decades later, and Chris has gone missing.

The parallel narrative sets a serial killer of the past at the center, who believed to prophesied the future. How these two come together (in a twist that felt slightly predictable), brings into question if there is such a thing as fate or if everything we experience is predetermined and set in stone.

This book slightly missed the mark for me. A creepy slow burn read that falls confusing at parts, I found myself putting this down even as the twist unfolded. The very end cumulates beautifully though - I just wish that carried through the whole book.

Big thanks to @celadonbooks via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for a honest review. The Angel Maker is out on February 28th. #gifted

Okay here we go. I have a lot to say.

I’ll start with the good: there are no gratuitous descriptions of child murders in this book. I kept expecting them to come as details about The Angel Maker were revealed and they didn’t, which I was surprised by and grateful for. As I read it I thought a lot about the genre of crime fiction; what are so many authors (and especially white male authors) doing writing in such detail about the murder and mutilation of women and children? Especially authors like Alex North who have written multiple novels in the genre? Just sitting around fantasizing in sick vivid detail about such violent ways to kill and mutilate and then making money off it. Why are they doing this again and again? Why do we want to read it? It’s gross. So, I am happy to report that that isn’t really what’s going on this time, which I appreciated.

But….I can’t recommend this book. It is SO freaking confusing. I normally love a novel with multiple points of view/through lines that converge but this novel is trying to do SO MUCH and jumps relentlessly between way too many characters, timelines, and really complicated history. I tried so hard to wrap my mind around what was going on but there were several times that I just couldn’t follow. People would pop up and I’d have no idea who they were - is this someone I should know? The introduction of yet another character? A character whose name or family has or both has changed for the first or second time?

I stuck with it to the end because I was so thoroughly puzzled that I wanted to see how he’d resolve it and I found the end to be really disappointing. It was super rushed after all the complicated exposition and backstory and it felt like North kind of just gave up on his own messy novel. It was a letdown where it could have maybe been a redemption if it were a bit more clever and built out (the irony of the ending really needing more when this book was otherwise doing so much is unfortunate).

I really loved The Whisper Man, didn’t feel the same about The Shadows, and this one….I just didn’t enjoy at all. Probably my last Alex North.

As always, thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions expressed here are obviously entirely my own.

I love everything Alex north has written and this is no exception! Such a good book with so much suspense.

. . This is a story that attempts to solve an old man's murder; who was a retired philosophy professor at a local university,while learning of the years of secrets and evil that are passed generationally within a family. It explores many themes including addiction, abuse and marital strife.
It was confusing in parts for me as there are many characters, who are intricately woven together. When I figured out who was who, I was so surprised by the plot twists and totally did not predict the ending. I didn't want to put it down! It is well worth the read and I will pick up more books by this author in the future. Thank you so much to Netgalley, Celadon books and the author for giving me the opportunity to read and review the arc of this great book!

Reading Between the Wines book review #14/115 for 2023:
Rating: 2🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: The Angel Maker
Author: Alex North
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
RELEASES February 28, 2023!!

Sipping thoughts: So this is a very intricate plot. So much so I was so lost. I know a lot of people will love this book based off the plot and writing method. This is probably a good book but I was lost for most of the first half of the book. Once I started to understand who was who and keeping the timeline straight, I started enjoying it better. I think North's writing style might either need a more focused mind from me or it may just not be for me.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley, @CeladonBooks and @MacMillanAudio for an advanced copy of @TheAngelMaker.

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Thank you, Netgalley and Publisher, for this Arc!!

I'm reading lots of good books lately and this is another one. Super dark and absolutely thrilling, this book had me hooked, especially with the back story of the murder victim.

Allan Hobbes was murdered in his creepy mansion, and the detectives are on the case. However, this leads them in a lot of directions, making it seem like there is an underlying connection between everything.

Sarah is a protective sister with her own family, a daughter, and her husband. However, she hasn't had a chance to be that protective sister for her little brother in over a decade. When she finds out her brother, Chris, is missing, she immediately takes it upon herself to start the search.

Chris is, in fact, in hiding. But it is not for what I first believed. There are connections, like a spiderweb, over the different character's and their pasts. This story really drew me in with the brutal history of serial killer jack lock and his creation of a book that reveals the future. It's almost as if the future is laid out, pre-ordained, and nobody even has any real choices. (A very interesting and quite depressing thought🤣🤣)

I loved this. I loved the darkness of the theme that ran through this story and following these characters. Definitely recommend for fans of thrillers!

Out February 28, 2023!

Content Warnings for violence and disturbing imagery

<i>Received a complimentary ARC of The Angel Maker by Alex North from Celadon Books/NetGalley. Scroll past the <b>BOOK REPORT </b>section for a cut-and-paste of the <b>DESCRIPTION</b> of it if you want to read my thoughts on the book in the context of a summary.</i>

<b>BOOK REPORT</b>
This was a pretty good one-off, but I probably enjoyed it more for the philosophical/theoretical aspects than the mystery/ies proper.

<b>DESCRIPTION
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Whisper Man and The Shadows comes a dark, suspenseful new thriller about the mysteries of fate, the unbreakable bond of siblings, and a notorious serial killer who was said to know the future. </b>

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 Celadon Books and NetGalley for this ARC. Having loved the Whisper Man and The Shadows, I was very excited to read The Angel Maker, however this book didn’t do it for me. The plot has a lot of character stories to follow that can be confusing at times and hard to keep up with the story.

Alex North has done it again with a creepy, fast paced and intricate mystery. North is one of my favorite writers and just like his previous books The Whisper Man and The Shad0ws, this book takes you on a wild journey. The main character here is Kate, a teacher and mother of a young daughter. Kate is happily married to Sam but carries a lot of guilt from the time she snuck away after school and her teenage brother was attached and mutilated by a mentally ill man. The brother Chris, changed for the worse after the attack and Kate has not seen him since she had to call the p0lice on him for stealing her money to buy drugs. How Kate, Chris, Kate's daughter and a rich man who was murdered come together takes us to the 1950's and a serial killer named Jack Lock who was the "Angel Maker' and killed a number of young children.

As Kate begins to feel she is being followed, two police detectives are trying to find out who killed Alan Hobbes a distinguished and rich professor and Kate's brother Chris who may be involved in the murder has disappeared. Sibling rivalry, philosophy and the subjects of fate and free will all come to play in this dark and atmospheric book. Highly recommend to readers who enjoy gothic mysteries and not too gory serial killer stories. As always, I eagerly await any new books that North writes. Thank you to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for a review.

After absolutely loving The Whisper Man and liking The Shadows I was so excited to received an ARC of The Angel Maker. ⁣
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Alan Hobbes is a philosophy professor who is brutally murdered after firing his staff. He has spent his life lecturing on determinism so he saw this coming.⁣
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As he awaits his death, he explains that his death is going to affect two other people in life, whose journeys in life somehow sort of end up tying back to him in a way. ⁣
⁣
When one of those people is a detective who learns of Hobbes he starts looking back on old cases that are tied to the serial killer The Angel Maker. ⁣
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Everyone is connected in unexpected ways and while the story lines were interesting there were a lot of different characters and evil people to follow that I got really lost at times. It was such an intricate plot that it took me a while to really figure everything out but once I did it held my attention til the end to find out what was really going on and the different connections.⁣
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the whisper man is still my fave, but i liked this one.⁣
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A professor is brutally murdered. As the detective starts to investigate ties to a former religious fanatic and serial killer start to appear. Meanwhile, a sister gets an anxious call that her brother is missing, the brother she failed to protect in a malicious attack when he was a teen. Are the detective and the sister looking for the same person? This is my third Alex North book and I will say that it had a different feel than the others. While there were times of horror that kept me riveted, the storyline just seemed to move along slower than before. The plot was ok though a bit too busy but overall I enjoyed this book. I'm giving it 3.5 starts rounded up to 4. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the audiobook.

Has a huge fan of Mr North, I went into this one with super high hopes. And I was greatly surprised. The writing alone in this book, just fantastic. Twists and an ending I did not see coming. I have many patrons who I already know will love this one and I cannot wait to recommend.

I was so excited to be able to read an advanced copy of Alex North’s new novel, The Angel Maker. Thank you Celadon Books. Alex North has become a writer I get so excited about ever since reading The Whisper Man.

This book kept me completely engrossed and kept my brain working to figure out how the characters were intertwined. This was well told for something that can be tricky when there’s multiple characters with twisty backgrounds involved.

We have a couple of lead detectives involved, a main character Katie who has blamed herself for an event that happened to her brother Chris in childhood, and then we’ve got others involved that you have to figure out their relation to each other and their intentions— for good or bad.

While this is a crime/thriller, it also touches on other topics that were brilliantly intertwined with the novel. Alex North will be an auto-buy author for me!

Another terrific novel from North, this one covering one family torn by a tragic attack many years ago, another guided by a serial killer father who believed he could tell the future. The book skillfully moves back and forth in time as we see how each family came to be and the secrets that forged the futures of everyone involved. It's an intense story with well-drawn characters whose flaws define their nature. To say it's a serial killer novel wouldn't do justice to the entirety of the plot. The ending is strong and a perfect wrap-up for the serpentine tale we just experienced. If you haven't read North yet, it's time you started. He's definitely one of the best thriller writers out there. 4.5 stars bumped to 5 for the quality of writing and powerful ending. Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited to be approved for The Angelmaker and started reading it the same day. I am a huge fan of The Whisper Man and maybe I hold that in high regard, but Angelmaker was just alright for me. The story sounded really interesting but it just didn't keep my attention as it read a bit of a slow burn.

The Angel Maker-Alex North

A horrible attack on a teenager 17 years ago, a strange present day death, and a terrifying serial killer from decades past who claimed to see the future…can they be related?

As a teenager, Katie Shaw made a decision to disobey her parents and live her own life for once. A decision that led to the brutal attack of her younger brother Chris. Since then, Katie has always felt the guilt of that decision, and Chris has struggled in life. Grown up and worried about her own child now, Katie learns her brother has gone missing.

A professor is murdered in his home, after firing all his employees and getting all his affairs in order. Only one item seems to be missing from his home, a book possibly written by a decades old serial killer who supposedly could see the future. And it appears that the book was taken by none other than Chris Shaw…

Can detectives make sense of all these events? Are they all just coincidences or do they tie together and does someone know what is going to happen before it happens?

This book was hard to put down!! Despite all the different things going on, it was easy to follow. There’s an understanding of how horrible some of the character’s acts are, without all the gory details. Very well written. Highly recommend this book!

Ever since I recieved my first ARC ever The Whisper Man by Alex North I've fallen in love with his work!! This book is a tangled web of stories that for a bit your not sure how they connect but the a slow burn of piecing it together with a grand finale! Boom! It's a blazing in front of you!!! Loved it!! Thank you netgalley and celadon books for the chance to read this a head of publication!!

I was lost until about 50% in this book…too many POVs, constant time change, several protagonists. Then story came together, but it was too far in the book, that I didn’t bond with main characters and didn’t care on what is going on. Not a bad book, but just didn’t catch my attention. The super slow start and confusion in the beginning ruined it for me unfortunately.

I have heard and seen this book everywhere and after reading it I see what all of the fuss was about. This book was fantastic, I really liked it. I could not put it down, it's the spookiness of it that gives goosebumps what I enjoyed the most. It's the most unexpected story I've read.

Alex North gripped me with the Whisper Man so I was so pumped to get a chance to get my hands on this before pub date and it didn’t disappoint. This gives you the same gripping, edge of your seat creep factor that you would expect but it also puts a whole new aspect of philosophy into the mix. It deep dives in and there were a few sections I had to go over a couple of times to make sure I was grasping it all-make sure you’re paying attention to everything!!
In 2000, Katie Shaw was the good girl who always followed the rules. Until one day she decided she’d had enough of being her brothers keeper and went to her boyfriends house for an hour after school and in that hour her brother Chris was attacked and nearly killed by a man named Michael Hyde. 17 years later a philosophy professor named Alan Hobbes is found dead in his home and as Detective Laurence Page investigates his death, it looks like he was murdered and the signs seem to point to the fact that he knew he was going to be murdered, that Chris Shaw was somehow connected to Alan Hobbes and that Hobbes had an extensive collection of memorabilia from a serial killer known as the Angel Maker. How are all these things connected?
Katie deals with a lot of guilt as can be expected as a result of what happened to her brother and these years later as he’s been in and out of her life, we see their complicated relationship. There are a lot of characters to keep up with and sometimes it is hard to do but it’s worth sticking with it because the second half just flies by.