The Angel Tapes
A Blade Macken Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
On a clear summer day in Dublin, O'Connell Street is crowded with pedestrians when a bomb explodes directly beneath a black taxicab, sending several people to a horrific death. Police investigators led by Blade Macken, a weathered detective superintendent hard on his luck, discover that the bomb was detonated from below the asphalt streets. A twisted killer called Angel contacts Blade and tells him more bombs have been planted. There is no way the police can find them, short of tearing up every street in Dublin. With only days to stop Angel before the city erupts in panic and despair, Blade must search into his troubled past to learn who is behind these devilish acts. If he fails, it may very well even cost the life of the American president.
The breakneck pacing, fabulous characters, and authentic Irish setting in David M. Kiely's The Angel Tapes promise a hopeful future for this new series.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A series of tiny but irritating inaccuracies plague this far-fetched but highly charged series debut. After an underground bomb detonates in Dublin just days before the arrival of the American president, the technologically altered voice of the bomber contacts the Dublin police, telling them that there are more bombs planted throughout the city and that if they don't come up with $25 million, one of the bombs will be used to kill the visiting dignitary. Dublin copper Blade Macken seems an unlikely choice to lead the investigation. His nights tend to pass drunkenly, and he's an easy target for a female journalist who clumsily seduces him. His family life is a mess: he and his son, Peter, are obsessed with proving that the lover of Blade's estranged wife (Peter's mother) can support her financially. The new lover is also sleeping with Blade's teenage daughter. All this stuff is distracting, but it at least serves as a kind of weird harbinger for the character of Angel, the bomber, who is pursuing a twisted vendetta of revenge for an old murder--a case which also involved Blade. Although Blade's sudden transformation at the end from thuggish drunk to action hero is hard to swallow, this sloppily constructed tale nonetheless packs quite a visceral wallop.
