Hollywood Noir – Jeff Mariotte

Jeff Mariotte brings us back to season 1 of Angel in this tale of a private investigor. killed in the early 1960s, who comes back to life when his body is found hidden behind a wall in his old office.  He sets out to take down his murderer and solve his final case, which crosses over with Angel’s latest case, brought about by Doyle’s vision of a long dead cigarette girl.

Angel went off the air in 2004, and the occassional trip back to his corner of the Buffyverse thanks to book purchases I made years ago have usually been a nice palette cleansing from the more current offerings.  This one, however, was more engrossing than I would have thought.  Mariotte does a good job of mixing the Angel universe with the pot boiled detective formula from an earlier time.  I also enjoyed the inclusion of Detective Kate Lockley, who appeared quite often back in the first season, before being slowly left aside in season 2.

I’m not sure how many of these Angel novels I have left sitting around, of if there are more out there that I never bought.  If there are, and they are up to this standard, they will be well worth tracking down.