Janice Hallett. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. Ebook download from TPL's Libby. Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 2023.
Trust me: you have never read a book like this. Having leapt into it enthusiastically (recalling Hallett's intriguing The Appeal), I emerged the other end in stunned awe that one person, one mind, could conceive this challenging tale. We the readers are presented with all the recorded evidence of apparently ritual murders ‒ still an unsolved case ‒ and asked if the right conclusion was reached. The research was done by experienced author Amanda Bailey, in preparation for her new book about a doomsday cult that believed they were angels. Several male cult members had been found slaughtered. Cult founder, Gabriel Angelis, was convicted of a quite different murder and imprisoned for life. Teenaged "angels" Holly and Jonah escaped the killing with a small baby that Gabriel direly called the Antichrist. Their real identities were never made public and they disappeared into social services history. With that baby now turning eighteen years old, Amanda feels it's the right time to uncover the truth in the once-sensational case.
An old acquaintance, Oliver Menzies, is also planning a book on the same subject; their publishing bosses, rather than viewing them as rivals, insist they collaborate. Focusing on who and where that baby is now, the two writers could not be more different. Oliver drags his feet until he gets caught up in his own fantasies. Amanda wastes no time in tracing the relevant emergency responders, police, social workers, journalists, previous authors—anyone who had been part of the shocking event. Presented as a chronological collection of her research notes and transcribed interviews, emails, texts, phone calls, and so on—the disjointed pieces don't always jibe, people's memories are questionable, names and timing conflict. Some attributed suicide to the dead cult members. Maybe Gabriel was not the unproven killer of his followers; confounding hints of alternate theories emerge.
Hallett's unique delivery is totally absorbing. I admit getting lost at times in the convolutions. What initially seems straightforward conceals prevarication and fabrication; not only that, danger awaits to pounce on an unprepared Amanda. As she closes in (maybe) on the true story, every detail counts, for the reader to retain their own sanity. About half of the quotes below are Amanda's, but all are from her correspondence with many people, so quotation marks are not used.
Bits
▪ Did they all believe they were heavenly beings? (49)
▪ How do you live with the fact that you were labeled "evil" and narrowly escaped being ritually sacrificed by a crazy cult? (52)
▪ A girl came in and said the archangel Gabriel wanted her to steal a credit card. (69)
▪ Identities masked, key information redacted, contacts melting away. Goalposts changing. Interviewees' stories not adding up and taking me nowhere. (84)
▪ There's an unseen level of communication that draws us to those whose emotional development is similar or complementary to our own. (138)
▪ This monastery is the same twisted world the angels created. (148)
▪ I said leave the talking to me. This is why you get nowhere. You're a blunt instrument. (149)
▪ How can she have been the same age and reported the same crime thirteen years earlier? (242)
▪ I'm linking it with cult theory. How the human mind is susceptible to non-logical beliefs. (253)
▪ THE LYING CHEATING ARROGANT WITLESS FUCKER. (274, sic)
▪ His conclusion was as unnerving as it was short: there had been a cover-up, a smoke screen still in place today. (288)
▪ As you might guess: we're married. (389)
Karen Ellis. Last Night. Mulholland Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2019.
How much trouble can two teenagers get into when they barely know each other? Titus Crespo ("Crisp") is valedictorian of his graduating class, straight-arrow student, speaks half a dozen languages, and has been accepted at Princeton on full scholarship. Glynnie Dreyfus is a restless, rebellious rich kid who hates her parents, always ready to indulge in a lark. Thrown together by chance, Glynnie persuades Crisp to accompany her into the Coney Island night to see her weed dealer. Glynnie's next mission is, inexplicably, to buy a gun, so the two end up in the Red Hook projects, a dangerous area for a white girl and a half-black boy. Serious mistake, they swiftly realize. Their home curfew time comes and goes, and both are reported missing.
Detective Lex Cole in Crisp's precinct lands the case; he identifies with Crisp's worried mother Katya because they share immigrant Russian background. Crisp never knew his father who came from the same projects where he's in trouble. In a wealthier precinct, Detective Saki Finley was contacted about Glynnie; the two cops get together to share information—especially when Glynnie arrives home in the small hours of the morning, without Crisp. The story Glynnie tells of their nocturnal foray clearly omits and/or lies about details. Like: murder. Never mentioned are transactions with her young weed dealer, JJ. Now the hunt is on for Crisp and some very bad dudes. A camera at an ATM, phone tracking, and new technology help the detectives partially reconstruct the youngsters' trail.
Last Night is admirably well-crafted. Also rather pointedly diversified in character and tone, it's handled by a most adept author. While Lex struggles to keep personal issues at bay from the investigation, Crisp's existential concerns almost engulf him until his beloved family is complete. Beautifully done, compelling, nerve-wracking and ultimately ‒ shall I say it? ‒ heartwarming.
Crisp
▪ Lex learns that Princeton isn't the only fancy school to offer him a full ride: so did Stanford, and Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and Brown all came close. (25)
▪ He's wholesome, is what he is, in a way that none of her private school friends are. (32)
▪ One thing Crisp knows for sure is that life as a young man half black and half white is a daily battle. (45-6)
▪ He pinches together the tips of his thumb and forefinger to make a sharp weapon, intending to peck Jerome's right eye first. He inches closer. (94)
▪ This cannot be happening, not after the night in jail because he rode his bicycle on the sidewalk. (103)
Glynnie
▪ One-of-a-kind Glynnie in orange flip-flops, ripped jeans, and a striped T-shirt, her thin blonde hair tucked behind her ears. Just like last time they met, she has this perpetual look of messiness about her. (31)
▪ Glynnie wishes he'd chill: Crisp's nervous energy is making her nervous. (48)
▪ She has no intention of ever using the gun—why would she? ... But the thought of owning one slides deliciously through her imagination, and now, especially now that Crisp has staked himself against it and on top of that is judging her (just like everyone else, her parents, her teachers) now more than ever she wants to see this happen. (74)
▪ "Please." She needs Crisp to see her. To acknowledge that she tried to reverse her fuckup. That she cares. (137)
▪ She had no idea a person's life could unravel this fast. (165)
Cops
▪ Adam admitted that he'd had enough of his valiant efforts to keep his alcoholic boyfriend afloat. That was when Lex put out his hand and his heart, and Adam took them both. (26-7)
▪ The only thing that's clear right now is that these aren't just errant teenagers; those kids are on the run from something. (180)
▪ Lex stands abruptly. "Their phones got switched." (182)
▪ "I've been doing my best to think like a teenager—my brain feels like scrambled eggs, so maybe I'm succeeding." (209)
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