All the Blue-Eyed Angels

Reviewed by Tahlia Newland

January 16, 2013

All the Blue Eyed Angels wasn’t given to me in exchange for a review. I received it as a gift, so I read it as a kind of reviewer’s holiday, feeling a sense of relief that here was one book that I wouldn’t have to write a review about. However, I hadn’t read far before I realised that I would be writing a review after all, because the book is simply excellent and deserves to be praised loud and clear for all to hear.

Not only is it expertly written, it’s a great tale with an unpredictable plot that left me wanting the next instalment so much that as soon as I had finished it, I turned the internet on and bought it immediately.

It’s the kind of book that makes anyone who says that Indie books aren’t as good as mainstream books look either ignorant or an idiot, because this is every bit as good as the best that any mainstream publisher might produce, and it deserves to sell every bit as well.

Reporter Erin Solomon is a modern woman with a strange past. After being bequeathed the island where she lived as a child, one she hasn’t lived on for twenty years, she returns to unravel the mystery of a fire that killed 32 people. A package of photographs that came with the title deed indicate that whatever the truth was all those years ago, it was covered up with the full knowledge of several people, including her estranged mother. Erin intends to find out the truth and write a book about it.

She lived on the island in a cult with her father until she was nine, and though she remembers it as a good, safe time in her life, as the story progresses and she sees some of the events from a grown up perspective, she begins to question her childhood perception.

A thread of romance also weaves its way through the story; two men, two different relationships, and neither of them simple. Add the facts that people start dying from the time she begins her investigation, and that Erin’s parents are both well-involved in the cover-up, and it’s no wonder that Erin’s soon out of her depth. Slowly, the facts start to come together, but the real knowledge only comes along with a fairly catastrophic event. The pacing is flawless, building steadily to a riveting climax. The characters are complex, likable and expertly drawn.

If you enjoy contemporary mysteries, then you don’t want to pass on this one, and even if—like me—you don’t usually read mysteries, I highly recommend it. The romance softens the otherwise very gritty story.

All the Blue-Eyed Angels now holds the exclusive AIA seal of quality. It is available on Amazon.