Oct. 27, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: Anne Rice's 'Angel Time' Gives a Contract Killer a Chance to Redeem Himself in 13th Century England
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
The opening sentence in Anne Rice's "Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim" (Knopf, 288 pages, $25.95) is sure to draw in readers who aren't fans of a best-selling writer most famous for her vampires: "There were omens from the beginning."
"Angel Time" is a good book for people who've resisted the author's previous offerings. I have to admit that I'm one of them, so it was with trepidation that I approached the novel. I was pleasantly surprised as Rice drew me into the narrative of a hit man and his guardian Seraph and kept me enthralled until the end.
The protagonist is 28-year-old Toby O'Dare, New Orleans-born like Rice, a contract killer who -- like Rice -- lives in southern California. One of his favorite places is a hotel and spa in downtown Riverside, CA, the Mission Inn. It covers two blocks in the county seat of Riverside County, a county bigger at 7,207 square miles than Connecticut (4,845 square miles), Delaware (1,954 square miles) or Rhode Island (1,045 square miles). Rice lives in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, which is in Riverside County and it's obvious that she's done her research.
The 125-year-old Mission Inn, renovated a number of times, is one of Toby's favorite places because he can go there without disguising himself. He can abandon his nom de crime "Lucky the Fox" and be Toby O'Dare. When his sole client, known as "The Right Man," calls on him to carry out a hit at the inn, he's furious. It's sacrilegious to a man who once dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest to defile his beloved hideaway.
But Toby is used to following instructions from The Right Man, so he carefully plans what turns out to be his last hit, poisoning a banker with a syringe, making it look like a heart attack. Even more painful for Toby is that the banker and his woman companion, soon to be his wife, are occupying the Amistad Suite, the bridal suite that Toby preferred to reside in on his trips to the Mission Inn.
The hit goes down flawlessly while the victim's companion is shopping and that's when Toby meets a mysterious stranger who will change his life. Toby at first thinks Malchiah, the name the man uses, is another hit man sent by The Right Man to eliminate him, but Malchiah is persuasive and convinces Toby that he is a Seraph summoned by Toby's guardian angel to change his life. He tells Toby he works for the other "Right Man!"
Toby, who had a horrific childhood in the Crescent City, with a drunken corrupt policeman father and an alcoholic mother, and the responsibility for taking care of his younger siblings, Jacob and Emily, jumps at the chance to save lives rather than destroy them and travels back to 13th Century England with his often invisible Seraph. Toby was a talented lute player in high school and dreamed of attending the conservatory and become a professional musician.
Dressed in the habit of a Dominican friar, Toby visits the home of Meir of Norwich and is faced with the task of defending Meir and his daughter Fluria against the charges by the town's Christians of killing Fluria's daughter Lea. In 1257 the Jews of England were in a precarious position, only a few decades away from their expulsion from the kingdom in 1290 (they were not allowed to return until the Oliver Cromwell regime in the mid-1600s). More than a few fled to Scotland, a separate kingdom, which prides itself on never practicing state persecution of its Jews. Lea had visited a church to see the Christian pageant and was deemed by the local Christians to be converted to their faith by this very action. When she disappears, Meir and Fluria are accused of a blood libel, of killing Lea.
As is my custom with novels, I won't reveal any more details or even hint at the ending. "Angel Time" is a wondrous blending of religion and crime, with Toby O'Dare getting a chance at redemption through skills and wiles he cultivated as a contract killer. It's an indictment of the bigotry that has permeated Catholicism and Christianity from their very beginnings and I'm glad that it's written by a Roman Catholic author.
To view an Anne Rice video on what inspired her to write the book: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Time-Seraphim-Anne-Rice/dp/1400043530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256411966&sr=8-1
Publisher's web site: www.aaknopf.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Anne Rice's 'Angel Time' Gives a Contract Killer a Chance to Redeem Himself in 13th Century England
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
The opening sentence in Anne Rice's "Angel Time: The Songs of the Seraphim" (Knopf, 288 pages, $25.95) is sure to draw in readers who aren't fans of a best-selling writer most famous for her vampires: "There were omens from the beginning."
"Angel Time" is a good book for people who've resisted the author's previous offerings. I have to admit that I'm one of them, so it was with trepidation that I approached the novel. I was pleasantly surprised as Rice drew me into the narrative of a hit man and his guardian Seraph and kept me enthralled until the end.
The protagonist is 28-year-old Toby O'Dare, New Orleans-born like Rice, a contract killer who -- like Rice -- lives in southern California. One of his favorite places is a hotel and spa in downtown Riverside, CA, the Mission Inn. It covers two blocks in the county seat of Riverside County, a county bigger at 7,207 square miles than Connecticut (4,845 square miles), Delaware (1,954 square miles) or Rhode Island (1,045 square miles). Rice lives in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs, which is in Riverside County and it's obvious that she's done her research.
The 125-year-old Mission Inn, renovated a number of times, is one of Toby's favorite places because he can go there without disguising himself. He can abandon his nom de crime "Lucky the Fox" and be Toby O'Dare. When his sole client, known as "The Right Man," calls on him to carry out a hit at the inn, he's furious. It's sacrilegious to a man who once dreamed of becoming a Catholic priest to defile his beloved hideaway.
But Toby is used to following instructions from The Right Man, so he carefully plans what turns out to be his last hit, poisoning a banker with a syringe, making it look like a heart attack. Even more painful for Toby is that the banker and his woman companion, soon to be his wife, are occupying the Amistad Suite, the bridal suite that Toby preferred to reside in on his trips to the Mission Inn.
The hit goes down flawlessly while the victim's companion is shopping and that's when Toby meets a mysterious stranger who will change his life. Toby at first thinks Malchiah, the name the man uses, is another hit man sent by The Right Man to eliminate him, but Malchiah is persuasive and convinces Toby that he is a Seraph summoned by Toby's guardian angel to change his life. He tells Toby he works for the other "Right Man!"
Toby, who had a horrific childhood in the Crescent City, with a drunken corrupt policeman father and an alcoholic mother, and the responsibility for taking care of his younger siblings, Jacob and Emily, jumps at the chance to save lives rather than destroy them and travels back to 13th Century England with his often invisible Seraph. Toby was a talented lute player in high school and dreamed of attending the conservatory and become a professional musician.
Dressed in the habit of a Dominican friar, Toby visits the home of Meir of Norwich and is faced with the task of defending Meir and his daughter Fluria against the charges by the town's Christians of killing Fluria's daughter Lea. In 1257 the Jews of England were in a precarious position, only a few decades away from their expulsion from the kingdom in 1290 (they were not allowed to return until the Oliver Cromwell regime in the mid-1600s). More than a few fled to Scotland, a separate kingdom, which prides itself on never practicing state persecution of its Jews. Lea had visited a church to see the Christian pageant and was deemed by the local Christians to be converted to their faith by this very action. When she disappears, Meir and Fluria are accused of a blood libel, of killing Lea.
As is my custom with novels, I won't reveal any more details or even hint at the ending. "Angel Time" is a wondrous blending of religion and crime, with Toby O'Dare getting a chance at redemption through skills and wiles he cultivated as a contract killer. It's an indictment of the bigotry that has permeated Catholicism and Christianity from their very beginnings and I'm glad that it's written by a Roman Catholic author.
To view an Anne Rice video on what inspired her to write the book: http://www.amazon.com/Angel-Time-Seraphim-Anne-Rice/dp/1400043530/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256411966&sr=8-1
Publisher's web site: www.aaknopf.com
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