BOOK REVIEW:Angel of Music by Kim Newman ★★★★☆

Deep in the shadows under the Paris Opera House resides Erik the Phantom, mysteriously enduring through the decades as the mastermind behind a strange and secret agency. A revolving door of female agents are charged by wealthy Parisians and the French Government to investigate crimes and misdemeanours they would prefer to keep out of the public eye.

Imagine Charlie’s Angels in the 19th century and spanning over five decades (1870-1910), Angels of Music is a novel depicting an Opera Ghost detective Agency founded in the 1870s by a secretive genius (Erik the Phantom) who lives beneath the Paris Opera House. His agents are many female protagonists from famous literatures, with his protégée Christine Daaé (Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux) as one of the founding agents alongside Trilby O'Ferrall (Trilby by George Du Maurier) and Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle). The novel is spilt into five acts, each involving a decade, an adventure with a different trio line-up of Angels. There is also one shorter story, described as an "entr'acte" which means a piece of music written to be played in the intermission between acts of an opera. 

I first read Newman’s work ‘Guignol’ in Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear by Stephen Jones which I liked, (although I love Ripper by Angela Slatter more). When I discovered it was an extract from a book, I was eager to get it out. But reading this book, about halfway, it felt like it was repetitive but I think that was for added effect. Angels of Music is an ambitious novel with many literature characters and some of these cases could have been worked on. 

However, I do like how Newman opened the first two cases; ‘The Marriage Club’ opens "towards the end of the seventies", by which Newman means the 1870s, not the familiar 70s. the scene-setting paragraph highlights the similarities between the two decades although a century apart. The opening of ‘Les Vampires de Paris’ does the same with the 80s.

Towards the end of the seventies—that colourful, hectic decade of garish clothes, corrupt politics, personal excess and trivial music—three girls were sent to the Paris Opéra.

Each angel has a unique ability that makes her an Opera Ghost Agent. For example, fan favourite Irene Adler is the angel of Larceny, which here means, thievery. In each act, I’ll review the plot and characters as though it was a short story, although after reading all the cases link. 

Act One: The Marriage Club

Christine Daaé – the Angel of Song, Trilby O’Ferrall – the Angel of Beauty and Irene Adler – the Angel of Larceny are the original trio who kick start the Opera Ghost Agency. In the (1870s) a madam contacts the agency because one of her former clients got married and stopped coming to her brothel, and following that, a number of prominent high figure men have been acting out of character after recently taking young and beautiful wives of obscure origins. Erik and his angels decide to investigate.

This had a good twist, albeit creepy, with an introduction to a socialite villain Countess Cagliostro and the mysterious works of Monsieur Coppélius and Signor Spallanzani. If you’re a fan or have read the works of Leroux, Du Maurier and Doyle who feature their famous heroines and villians, then you’ll get right into this story. If you haven’t then Newman gives you lengthy descriptions of how the angels came into this line of work. I think this was a good case to start the story, although it all seemed a bit silly and farfetched. Christine, Trilby and Irene worked well together and set the foundations for future angels.

Act Two: Les Vampires De Paris

La Marmoset – the Angel of Light (La Marmoset, The Detective Queen by Albert Aiken), Sophy Kratides– the Angel of Vengeance (The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter by Arthur Conan Doyle) and Unorna – the Angel of Magic (The Witch of Prague by F. Marion Crawford) are the next set of trios based in the 1880s. A group of professional killers who call themselves ‘Les Vampires’ hire the Angels because a diplomat was murdered, his body drained of blood and the police believe its them. With vampire fever on everyone’s mind, the angels must prove that it is an ordinary man who wears a bat mask in a caped figure, flying around rooftops and not an actual vampire.

Although tedious to get through, I did like the twist about a prank gone wrong and revenge that followed suit and the depiction of the title character, down to being a mechanical genius, with decades of physical training, and waltzing around rooftops with a costume with a bat on the chest gives troupe to Batman’s character. The start and the middle were slow to get into, but the big reveal saved it in the end. La Marmoset, Sophy and Unorna as a trio were odd, compared to their predecessors, but at least they did their best. 

Entr’acte: The Case of Mrs Norton

Although the decade is unknown, the current angels are sitting idle. Ayda Heidari - The Angel of Blood, Ysabel De Ferre - The Angel of Rapture and Hagar Stanley - The Angel of Insight help out a formal angel, Irene Adler, now known as Irene Norton, who believes that her too-good-to-be-true husband Godfrey is hiding something. 

I really liked this one, albeit sad. Short and to the point, Irene is utterly convinced that her seemingly upright and noble husband must be hiding some kind of dark secret, because everyone has a secret. Newman fleshed out Irene’s character and her desperation to find a fault in her husband, as the three angels fail to bring any incriminating evidence. She concludes that she can't stand to be living an ordinary married life as she was once and adventuress. 

Act Three: Guignol

Katherine Reed - The Angel of Truth (The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club by Kim Newman), Clara Watson - The Angel of Pain, (The Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau,) Lady Yuki - The Angel of The Sword (The Lady Snowblood by Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura). In the 1890s, the trio are hired to investigate a series of gruesome murders committed in the Pigalle area. The victims are poor and often unidentified by the police. Evidence points them to the Théâtre des Horreurs, a gore-fest, nightly performances set out to shock the audiences with displays of graphic blood-soaked horror. Guignol (pronounced genyo’l), the leader and star, is the epitome of slash horror, and the three agents wonder if the show is just a show, or are the killings are actually happening, in front of an unsuspecting audience. And are there powerful people protecting the show from the investigators?

As mentioned, I read this extract in horror anthology. even after reading the others, I liked this act lot more. Guignol is written well and depicts horror and violence compared to the other cases. Plus, in this there is some fiction and maybe a bit of jealousy between Kate and Clara, both red heads and opposite in every way, to a point where one angel thinks the other had betrayed her. Lady Yuki, on the other hand, liked to dismember her enemies from limb to limb. I’d give this one full five stars. 

Act Four: The Mark of Kane

Gilberte Lachaille - The Angel of Love (Gigi by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette), Elizabeth Eynsford Hill - The Angel of Many Voices (Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw), and Riolama - The Angel of The Air (Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest by William Henry Hudson). Set in the 1900s. the Agency's commission, should they choose to accept it, is to take down a tycoon from a barbaric nation who plans to set off a war between the superpowers in order to bolster his own country and his own business interests.

This is probably the only act that brings the Mission: Impossible ‘should they choose to accept it’ line complete with its own self destruction message. It was a straight forward case were Gilberte and Elizabeth go undercover and the latter bumps into her husband at the party housed by the tycoon Charles Kane, the tycoon who buys European towns and turns them into tacky resorts with adjacent fast food restaurants (including Burgher Kane). I liked how the angels worked together to bring down the tycoon figure. But that was about it. Again, it was full of verbose prose and hard to keep track of the first two angels swapping disguises. 

Act Five: Deluge 

In this concluding case, it begs to questions, is this the last stand of the Phantom of the Opera and the Angels of Music? The Great Flood in the 1910s throws Paris into disarray and an old enemy strikes directly at the Agency. Alraune Ten Brincken - The Angel of Ill Fortune (Alraune by Hanns Heinz Ewers), Olympia – The Clockwork Angel and Thi Minh - The Angel of Acrobats team up with the rest of the angels in the aftermath of the Persian’s death. One of the angels is not who she seems and one of the Angels is not to be trusted. 

I think it was a good case, trying to get all the angels back, but Newman kept it real that some of the angels like Christine and (I think) Trilby don’t make it back as they have moved on with their lives. It was a great way to bring up one of the earlier cases and villain for the finale, although this case did feel as if it was all over the place. It’ unclear what happens to Erik, but we do get more from Irene, who really at the end of it was the best Angel.

Character and Writing 

All the angles brought something new to their cases. Erik the Phantom and the Persian are exported characters to Charlie and John Bosley of Charlie's Angels. If you’ve read The Phantom of the Opera, then you’ll find Erik mysterious. But its Newman’s original character that stole the show. The Persian is the front man for the secret agency, who sits in his café smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. The Angels have a touching friendship with him. Formally a Daroga (policeman) in Mazenderan, he is a bona fide action hero who plays referee between Erik and the Angels at times. 

To be honest, this book should have taken me two weeks to read, but it took me about a month, and that had to do with the writing. At times, Newman’s writing style felt too wordy. It starts telling a story, then goes off on a tangent about one of the characters, returns to the story briefly before going off after another character. by the time I finished reading the familiar Guignol case, I was too frustrated to follow the last two stories. The actual story was buried beneath all the silly unnecessary verbose. 

Summary 

I mean, yes, it had adventure, good action, Parisian glamour and laugh out loud humour, but I was frustrated that just as I fell in love with one set of characters and was eager to know what they would do next, they were tossed aside and we got a new set of characters. It was witty and ambitious, but maybe not Newman’s best. 

I think it is too harsh of me giving this a three star but I’d be mad to give it a full five star. so, I’ll settle for a four star because the concept was interesting, but the execution didn't work for me. It was too wordy, three of the cases could have been worked on and I think there were just too many minor characters that just dropped off the pages and never played a role in the initial cases. There might be a sequel in the works, which I will check it. 

Rating: 4/5

Publishers: Titan Books

Publication date: October 4th 2016 

Genre: /Fantasy/Historical/Mystery