I knew going in this wouldn’t be a conventional mystery novel but I was still impressed at how well William Hjortsberg followed the traditional tenets of what constitute a hard boiled novel. For about 90% of the book, this reads like a decent PI tale. And though I found the cult aspects to be boring and the reveal to be predictable, I still enjoyed the writing.
This is a book that wastes no space. There are 48 chapters and each one exists to move the plot forward as quickly as possible. Yet it doesn’t read like a cheap paperback. Instead, it reads like a man being pulled deeper and deeper into something he’s unsure of yet going headfirst anyway because…well you’re not too sure of the “because” and again, though I thought it was predictable, it was entertaining to make the journey with Mr. Angel.
There are criticisms to be had of how William Hjortsberg handles the occult. People, black people in particular, practicing a form of tribal occultism is an old trope and, even though Hjortsberg tries to be respectful, it’s still exhausting to read this. And when one of the female protagonists is revealed to be 17…ugh.
So if you can live with those, and it’s understandable if you cannot but if you can, you have an engrossing crime-cum-horror story that’s easy to read and keeps its energy up through the end. This is one of the most unique books I’ve read; genre-fusing is something that is better in theory than practice. But Hjortsberg was able to do it.