She wore a tight black sweater that shamelessly shaped the contours of her full deep breasts, and a pair of harlequin stretch pants, patterned in multi-coloured dots, that did equal service with the sweater in revealing the full feminine curves of her rounded hips, and firmly tapering thighs. At a conservative estimate I figured she was around 105% woman, and reflected happily that she was my kind of woman.
Flyboys, prisoners of war, beautiful broads, and an unusual mascot, make for some entertaining and pulp-tastic reading in ANGEL!; an Al Wheeler investigation.
Starting with a scene worthy of a James Bond flick, Wheeler and his trusty Healy nearly end up in a ditch after narrowly avoiding a plane which had swooped down from the skies to strike fear in unsuspecting motorists. Unfortunately for the pilot, he didn't bank on the motorist being a cop! A cop who just so happened to be on his way to the pilot's house to clear up complaints by neighbours fed up with the sky high antics.
However, the complaints and his own brush with death soon evaporate when Wheeler plays witness to a murder following a deadly midair explosion which killed the pilot instantly and left a ball of flame and a bevy of suspects in his wake.
There was a lot going on with this one, and as usual, there was a close knit group of suspects - all with probable cause to be a killer; from a cheating wife, to a blackmail spanning years, to a lovestruck mechanic; the murder really is a mystery.
The approach to ANGEL! flips the script on the traditional Carter Brown ending; yes there's the grandstanding and violent confrontation to unearth motive in the final chapters, but this time, I was left with a level of uncertainty as to who the killer actually was; a refreshing ending to the formulaic narrative.
Bonus: The covert art depicts one of the more prominent characters in the book; the unusual mascot Angel - her behind, the object of good luck for the flyboys.
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