Angel's Inferno by William Hjortsberg

You're going to
burn for this, Angel...

I'm a fan of William Hjortsberg, as you might be able to tell (and yes, I've come out of my self-imposed exile to bash this review out because I have no beer and someone else is on the Playstation. Of course I mean I am taking a well-earned break from my deep, inner work), and as such, I don't want to believe the shit-talking that's been going on around this novel, published some 40 years since his first to feature Harry Angel, the tough, ex-military private eye on a tragic trajectory with His Satanic Majesty. However, I've read it, and to their credit (and the book's detriment) for the most part the criticisms are valid, to wit:

1. The plot is barmy - I won't be going into lengthy spoilers but rest assured if you want a spoiler you can find plenty of them over at BoardGameGeek. Caveat emptor.
2. Harry Angel / Johnny Favorite undergoes an unintelligible schism in terms of personality, suddenly and without warning. Some would have it that this is the masterful storytelling genius of a gifted novelist, but I am not certain.
3. Murder has suddenly become Harry/Johnny's foremost reaction to any obstacle, which is not quite how the dark and troubled Angel of Fallen Angel dealt with issues in the first book (or, indeed, in the Alan Parker / Mickey Rourke movie Angel Heart). He is remorseless and unrepenting, straight from the get-go, and as a result is far less relatable and sympathetic, especially when he tortures, skins and kills his lover. Yeah, I know, right?
4. Although this isn't a criticism made by BoardGameGeek, I found the ending predictable, tired and extremely unsatisfactory.
5. Some of Hjortsberg/Angel's language seems anachronistic - it doesn't seem fitting that a detective in the 1950s would say things like cancer stick (even though the first written record of cancer stick was 1958, according to Meriam Webster, although Collins disagrees).

But, I will also make a statement in Hjortsberg's defense, if that isn't a conflict of interests. And unfortunately, it isn't a defense based on the merits of this novel. 

Hjortsberg wasn't the most productive writer of novels - his output was slow and steady, his previous novel arriving in 2015, a mere 20 years since the one before. And this one wasn't published in his own lifetime. He died in 2017 and Angel's Inferno didn't see the light of public scrutiny until 2020. That, to me, makes me wonder whether he was happy with his final draft. Jubilee Hitchhiker took an awfully long time to make it into print, and I suspect that Hjortsberg didn't sign off on this manuscript (although I have no proof either way). I would hope that, had he made it to the 2020s, he might have solved some of the issues that I feel detract from what could have been a super follow-up. 

I do feel somewhat guilty about the slaying of this particular sacred cow, even if this review could be said to have done so successfully, but I really enjoyed Fallen Angel and was sorely disappointed. Maybe it's a failure of expectation rather than delivery, but in either case, my disappointment has soured my reading experience. 

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