Review: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett

This blog has been a fan of Janice Hallett from the outset, and her particular brand of multimedia crime fiction. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels is a return to her multimedia form, found in The Appeal, but with the twist that the reader doesn’t really know who is collating the material. One might assume we’re reading the collected research of Amanda, a true crime novelist researching her new book on a case from eighteen years prior, but there are inclusions of materials she shouldn’t have access to that raise questions from the start.

The case itself is a sprawling one with more tangles and tangents than we’re perhaps used to from Hallett. The Angels were a cult who believed themselves to be angels. They believed they had a baby who was the antichrist and had to be sacrificed. The baby survived, but three (or four?) cult members, as well as an apparently unconnected Indian restaurant waiter, were murdered or died by suicide instead. The remaining leader, Gabriel, was imprisoned as a result, and the minors involved in the case were absorbed into the care system.

Even trying to write a brief precis of the story is an awkward affair, filled with the temptation to go deeper, to be more specific, to lay out more of the world Hallett has imagined and its many apparent inconsistencies. As Amanda and her colleague and rival, Oliver, exchange messages and transcribe interviews, what’s revealed is part conspiracy, part comedy of errors, and all intriguing mystery.

I will say that, used to getting straight into a Hallett novel and being immediately absorbed, the Alperton Angels took a little while to get going. There is so much story to set up here before even getting into the details of working out what happened, and such a large cast of characters, that quite some time is plaid to making sure all of the salient ‘facts’ are straight in the reader’s mind. However, once this establishment is made (and Hallett can start unsettling it) the book is completely absorbing.

To anyone who has enjoyed Hallett’s work to date, this is a more complex story which, as ever, rewards eagle-eyed readers with an attention to detail. For those new to Hallett’s work, you’re in for a super thorny introduction!

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett is released on 12th January and can be preordered here.

Review written with thanks to the publishers and Netgalley.co.uk for providing an e-advanced review copy.