Review of Angel Dust by Anthea Cohen, Endeavour Press, originally released circa 1988.
Few things niggle me more than consistency. An example of this is the use of the word "Sister" when used to address a nurse's rank or position, rather than the familial usage. Example: 'You're new, sister. 'should be "You're new Sister." When speaking to the Nursing Sister.
Lead
Another seems to be the author's problem of not relating well to the main lead. I wonder perhaps if the author was indeed a nursing sister in her own right. Her discipline may have taught her to talk to her subordinates by their surname but seeing as she (the author) is leading with the main character I would have expected to see the use of either Agnes or as the situation demanded. After all you are talking about, of, or to yourself. To use the name 'Carmichael' because you are tired or cannot construct an alternative is tardy.
Typo errors are minimal but repetition in close proximity is another bug I try to iron out of my writing. Example: "..... escaped to the changing room, to get out of her theatre gear, dress and drive home. She glanced out of a window on her way to the changing room." The work does not need the repetition.
Storyline
Agnes Carmichael is an excellent nurse but she is calling it a day at the hospital and retiring. Inherited wealth means that she does not need to work but then she does because what else would she do? She longs to settle down, have a close relationship, lovely house and friends and maybe marry one day. In Angel Dust we find out how close she gets to achieving all of this. Agnes also has a rich vein of right and wrong running through her veins and this can lead her into danger. Danger it seems that fate will nullify for her.
Before long Agnes moves on to work in a private hospital where the wards are less crowded, patients are more forthright and the staff as overworked as always. Doctors are usually consultants from other hospitals and the chef is a right pain in the "-------." In her search for that perfect new home, Agnes finds a cottage she would like to buy in a pretty village, by a river. As luck would have it, it is owned by a patient she has recently looked after at the private hospital, Lavinia Leyton. During one conversation Lavinia lets on that she is worried about a grandnephew and asks Agnes to investigate his situation. Thus begins Agnes' search al those who are selling Angel Dust to the young and old of the area, and to close the supply down for good.
Three murders and three drug overdoses, one tonsillectomy, one affair revealed and one proposal never heard will take you to the end, but quite the end, there is still one more twist that makes little sense unless you have read the rest of the book. The clues are there.
Summary
This an easy book to read, and my mentor Bethany Briggs would love some of textual tapestry, woven in such a way to convey the perfect imagery of the perfect village by a perfect stretch of river, in England. Much of this is what I meant by the book being a slow burner. If is action, dark egos, handsome men with bodies that ripple the turn away now. This is more Woman's Weekly (UK magazine) than OK, Heat or The Vagenda.
Simple plot, nicely told, don't forget the twist.
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