Can earnestness overcome the deficiencies of a crime novel’s technique and plot? No, generally speaking. But an exception might be considered for Gene O’Neill and his SHADOW OF THE DARK ANGEL, published in a handsome edition from Bad Moon Books.
We meet the perpetrator of the novel, Sam Kubiak, as a child in the prologue. We learn that Sam is a shy child who clandestinely spies on young girls as they undress. What excites him most are glimpses of their underarms and pelvis. We also learn that Sam hears voices in his head. The voices are two angles — a Light Angel that cautions him of misbehaving, and a Dark Angel that overtakes his behavior and commands him to seek vindication and vengeance whenever he is humiliated.
The scene then moves forward several years. Sam now works in the laundry room of a local hospital in Sacramento, Calif. But the voices of the Angels are still with him. One night, a woman he meets in a coffee shop near the hospital tries to seduce him, but ends up laughing at his hairless physique and impotence. The Dark Angel later orders Sam to vindicate himself, and he returns to the woman’s apartment and kills her with a straight razor.
The murder case is assigned to Police Detective Katy Green and her partner, Johnny Cato. Together, they are known as “The Green Hornet and Cato,” thanks to a previous, high-profile murder case they solved and the media coverage that followed. There are few solid clues and even less reliable witnesses, but eventually, they discover that the murderer cut off a piece of the woman’s pubic hair and a portion of her scalp, as well.
More women are soon found similarly murdered. Eventually, the trail leads Green and Cato to a dangerous encounter with Sam.
The narrative unfolds in alternating chapters — first-person observations from Sam, followed by third-person action from Green and Cato. But O’Neill has Sam addressing himself in these chapters (as in, “You see the light in the window …”), and it is an overused device that gets tiresome instantly. Straight-ahead narration would have been more involving and effective.
O’Neill also relies on a far-reaching coincidence that links Green’s background and upbringing with that of Sam. It’s a bit much to accept and is only meant to include Green as a target for Sam’s Dark Angel-directed vengeance.
The chapters detailing Green and Cato, however, are by far the stronger sections of the novel. O’Neill here shows a confidence and assurance in both the action and character details that are far more effective and believable than his Kubiak moments.
Unfortunately, we already know how things are going to end up long before O’Neill takes us there. Even Sam’s obsession with the victims’ hair is way too predictable for its own good.
But it’s those chapters following Green and Cato that convince us that the author has the potential for some swift, effective crime stories and characters. Too bad he chose a perpetrator type and situation that have long since been detailed in far too many stronger novels.
If you’ve somehow never read Thomas Harris or any of the other popular serial-killer novels, you’re likely to find SHADOW OF THE DARK ANGEL an absorbing and memorable experience. But seasoned crime-fiction readers will recognize the familiar territory before they finish the prologue and likely go no further.
Got anything else, Mr. O’Neill? —Alan Cranis
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- Angel Skin
- The New Destroyer: Guardian Angel
- Angel in the Full Moon
- Angel Dust Apocalypse
- Rogue Angel: Solomon’s Jar
