I really enjoyed this one- it was creepy, serial killer-y and suspenseful. It was exactly what I was hoping for. There are many POVs and each story line is important despite not fully knowing what is going on at first. They come together beautifully by the final 30% of the book. It kept me guessing and trying to figure out what was going to happen until the very end! Thank you Net Galley for the advanced copy of this audio! This one is going to be a hit when it hits the shelves on February 28!

Note: I wish I had read the physical copy of this one because there are so many important, intertwining points of view, and sometimes I found myself going back and re-listening to certain parts.

The Angel Maker follows Katie, a woman who has a seemingly perfect life. She's got everything she needs except her brother is missing.

I wish I could tell you more about what happened in this book. Beyond Katie and her missing brother, this story is so convoluted. There are so many characters, and that's generally not a problem. I don't mind large casts. However, in this case, I felt that none of the characters were fleshed out enough for me to care about them. Unfortunately, that goes for Katie as well. Also, I read a lot, and I think I have the ability to coherently follow a story. However, this story was so all over the place, that I wanted to DNF pretty early in. I stuck it out because I thought there might be some redeeming qualities at the end. Alas, I found none. In the end, I have to say that this book wasn't for me. Perhaps others can find enjoyment in it, but I prefer not to be confused as hell when I read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Rosalie Craig was a great narrator.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Alex North for providing me with a complimentary audiobook ARC for The Angel Maker coming out February 28, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Katie Shaw grew up in a grand house in the English countryside. Having lived a charmed life, she has big dreams after her graduation. She has a wonderful boyfriend, and a little brother she protects. One day a stranger changes the fate of her family. 

Years later, she is still unable rid herself of the guilt surrounding what happened to her brother, Chris. She now has a child of her own to protect, but she struggles with PTSD. One day she gets a phone call that Chris has gone missing and needs her.

Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page is facing a particularly horrific crime. A distinguished professor has been gruesomely murdered just hours after firing his staff. All the evidence leads to two cold cases: the violent attack on teenager Christopher Shaw, and the despicable crimes of a notorious serial killer who, according to legend, could see the future.

Overall, I liked this book. I loved 2 other books by Alex North. He writes a good mix of crime and horror. I love the mystery aspect of his writing. This one felt a little different. I think I got a little confused with the storylines. The characters felt a little superficial at times. I’m not sure of their motives. I’m wondering if he chose the names Hobbes and Shaw based off the movie. I’m not sure if the ending came together the way I thought it would. I just think there was something missing for me. I enjoyed the setting in England and the narrator though.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys true crime stories!

Thank you NetGalley for the audiobook to review. There are so many characters I couldn’t keep people straight. I kept listening, trying to understand the storyline but ultimately I was very confused. I think this novel would be better if I read the physical copy.

I read other books by this author, which I really enjoyed. This book had several different plot lines which was confusing at times. It did come together at the end and the ending was unexpected. I liked this book, but didn’t love it.

The Angel Maker by Alex North was a very unique, dark thriller. It pertained to the idea that everything that is going to happen is predetermined and already been decided by a greater force. The way the characters were all connected was fascinating. Although this book did start out a bit confusing, by about 40% in it was like "Ohhhhhh... I see what is happening here," yet it still was not predictable. You did really have to pay attention to the story to connect all the dots. More than just a casual read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon books for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After loving The Whisper Man, I was so excited to get an ARC of The Angel Maker. Unfortunately I had some big issues with it. The story got very confusing with so many characters, plot lines, and timelines. It took a lot of focus for me to keep everything straight and I still ended up thinking “who was that again?” a few times. It didn’t help that I was listening to the audio version and there is only one female narrator for so many characters, most of them male. I had to switch over to the ebook version after a while because I was struggling too much.

I also wish this had been a creepier story, like The Whisper Man was. There were some tense moments, but that’s it. Once I got all the storylines straight, I was interested to see how they would all come together. I did figure out part of the big twist but I was interested to see where it would go.

I appreciate Alex North trying to do something different and wanting to push the envelope of a typical thriller, but this one didn’t quite work for me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in audio and ebook!

“𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎, 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘?“

After reading 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘯 last year, I knew that I would read anything written by Alex North . So, you can only guess how ecstatic I was to receive both the ebook & audiobook from my friends at Celadon Books! Thank you so much!

“𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗‘𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎. 𝚈𝚘𝚞‘𝚛𝚎 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎.“

This story is so many different things, all at once. It’s a procedural thriller and a supernatural mystery. It’s heartfelt, heartbreaking, and real. It’s everything I love in a read!

“𝙼𝚢 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚑.“

It took me less than 2 days to fly through this engaging, twisty read about Katie Shaw and her brother, Chris. I loved it and was left wanting more. More thrills, more chills, and more of North’s writing!

“𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚢𝚘𝚞‘𝚕𝚕 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎.“

Alan Hobbs is a wealthy man, and a dead man. What makes his death a bit odd is the fact that he fired all of his staff the day before his death, leading many to wonder if he somehow knew what was to come. As detectives dig into Hobbs’s life, they discover connections to some old cases, cases involving a serial killer who, according to legend, could see the future, and the gruesome attack on a teenager, Chris Shaw. Matters are further complicated when Chris goes missing, and the detectives aren’t the only ones who want to find him.

While I enjoyed The Angel Maker, it didn’t live up to the expectations I had based on North’s prior two novels. The basic story was intriguing and twisted, but it didn’t have me on the edge of my seat, even at the end. It also seemed like there were a couple of characters that were almost unnecessary; that or the story should have been longer and a little more complex. I also expected a little more about the actual Angel Maker.

Rosalie Craig does a fabulous job narrating The Angel Maker. Her tone, speed and inflection were spot on and she did a great job building suspense at just the right moments. I also enjoyed the various voices used for the many characters as well, as well as what it added to the characters.

I can't believe this is only my second Alex North book. Undoubtedly, it will not be my last. It amazes me how someone can write a book with so many twists that come together so neatly at the end.

Throughout this whole book I was on the edge of my seat. How did everything come together? Who is actually the true villain of the story? Up until the last five minutes of this book, you're just not truly sure.

While I loved the narrator of this book, I have a feeling I'll be rereading this book, but a physical copy of the book next time. It's so good and I feel like I'd really be able to dive into a physical copy over listening to it.

If you're looking for an amazing thriller, then make sure to snatch this up when it comes out on February 28th!

This book has a lot potential but it fell a little short for me. The story line was great but the delivery was lacking. I love books that have many characters that, on the surface, seem unconnected until dig deeper and their connection unravels. This was one of those books, however, the jump between characters and timelines seemed so sporadic that it was hard to keep up. On multiple occasions I had to go back to previous chapters to remember what was already said about a particular character. When I was able to keep the details straight, it was a fabulous read. But getting there was a bit of a headache. If you think you can pay attention enough and get past the timeline/POV jumping, then I think this would be an enjoyable read for you!

Alex North has this weird way of writing really good books that I only partly understand. The parts that I could understand are great. But then there's the rest and I struggle to follow along. I'm sure it's just me. There's a lot of storylines to remember and a lot of different POV. It's just...a lot.

The Angel Maker focuses mostly on Katie. She's now a mom and gets a call that her little brother needs her help. She helped him after a huge attack when they were children also. He's caught up in some issue that could possibly get him killed, maybe by the serial killer who attacked him when he was younger? Again, I'm a little confused. There was a professor who was murdered, but it looked like a suicide.

I think it may be worth a re-read so I can try to understand more because I know it's a good book. I could tell.

I found it a bit difficult to keep up with this book and all the different directions it takes you with so much going. Had a lot of twist and plots hard to get on track with who did what. A thriller but more of a mystery thriller not intriguing as captivating but intriguing as to how many more ways can they take you with how man y more characters and storylines. It was a god read just have to definitely seat and concentrate on the book and take notes!

I was so excited to receive the audio advance of this book. It has many elements that I love in books - mystery, thriller, some mystical/spiritual intrigue. However, while listening to this book., I found it hard at times to follow the multiple characters and how they intertwined with each others stories.as well as the multiple timelines. Some characters had more than one name, depending on who the narrator was in the given chapter or depending on the timeline that chapter was in..

That being said, there is a lot of good material in the Angel Maker.. I could see this easily being transferred to the screen where visual clues could give the context to the viewer. The suspense that is built up throughout the book is layered and complex. The characters are well developed for the most part, but unreliable due to their past traumas. There is some wonderful weaving of lives past and present, known and unknown. This may be one better read, than listed to or better still, watched!

My thanks to NetGalley for the advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was ecstatic to have gotten early access to read Alex North’s latest and I was not disappointed. Like his previous books, The Angel Maker is suspenseful and keeps you guessing the whole way through. North does an excellent job of revealing exactly the right amount of information at the right time. I never felt like I had this figured out and wanted nothing more than to sit and listen to it in one go, because I was so engaged with the story and how it unraveled.

If you’re a fan of The Whisper Man and The Shadows, I expect you will enjoy this just as much. For those who haven’t read anything by Alex North, read this and his other two books, they are all phenomenal. He is an author I will continue to buy and read with every new release and know I will be revisiting this and his other books more than once.

I was very excited to get approved for the audiobook of The Angel Maker from Netgalley. I have loved other books by Alex North. This one though, I found extremely confusing. Lots of characters to try to keep up with, and multiple flashbacks to different decades. I found myself almost needing a sheet of who was who and how they all fit together. Really distracted from the story and never really got into it.

I am so confused. I don't know if it had something to do with the narrator, who I struggled to pay attention to, or the book itself.

I really struggled to follow each storyline and see how they connected to one another. Then the timeline jumped around, and I got thoroughly lost.

Someone was murdered at the beginning, right after he fired his entire staff. Another person was brutally attacked some years before, he survived the attack and is now estranged from his family. His sister is married with a child, and the children at the girl's school see someone watching them in a car, which is somehow related to the brother, maybe, or something else? Then there are the detectives who are looking into the murder, it's their storyline that brings it all together.

Expect, I didn't follow how it was all connected.

All that said, I am very much in the minority with this review, but if you find yourself struggling to follow along, just know you aren't alone.

Thanks to NetGalley I got an arc of the audio version, if this hadn't been an arc I would have DNF'd 33% in.

I found this book to be extremely confusing. I enjoyed the audio and I would like to preface my review by saying, reading the physical copy might have been better. There are twists and lots of thriller elements in this one, but it wasn't for me.

The characters were minimally developed and did not have enough substance to tell all of them apart. I had to keep going back to figure out who was being referenced. While I usually enjoy multi-perspective and multi-timeline novels, this one was extremely hard to follow.

After loving The Whisper Man, I was super excited to receive this early audio version of The Angel Maker.

It starts off super creepy and continues from there, taking you away into a unique thriller setting through a paranormal trope that is different than other thrillers I have read. I really enjoy thrillers that have a past element that comes through in the present, so I was definitely curious how it would all play out.

Unfortunately, as excited as I was in the beginning, the book did not hold my attention. I felt my mind drifting as I could not keep up with the details and characters. After losing track I even went back and tried again, but just could not connect with the story. I might try again in the future, but for now I have to leave this one partially unread and give it some space. It has all of the elements that would intrigue me in a thriller though, so I certainly would not let this discourage others from giving it a go!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted ARC!

I am not sure this author is for me. I Keep trying their books and still can't get into them. This book was confusing at first too, trying to keep all the characters straight. When it finally came together in the end, it just wasn't satisfying.