The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Pages: 495

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Publisher: Viper Books

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★★

Open the safe deposit box. Inside you will find research material for a true crime book. You must read the documents, then make a decision. Will you destroy them? Or will you take them to the police?

Everyone knows the sad story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl and convinced her that her newborn baby was the anti-Christ. Believing they had a divine mission to kill the infant, they were only stopped when the girl came to her senses and called the police. The Angels committed suicide rather than stand trial, while mother and baby disappeared into the care system.

Nearly two decades later, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is writing a book on the Angels. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen and can finally be interviewed; if Amanda can find them, it will be the true-crime scoop of the year, and will save her flagging career. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and is also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realise that what everyone thinks they know about the Angels is wrong. The truth is something much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined. And the story of the Alperton Angels is far from over..

After all, the devil is in the detail…

My Thoughts:

I have heard about “The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels” before, but I only picked it up last month during my first trip to 66 Books. I spotted it on the shelf, read the synopsis and remembered seeing it before – the rest was history. There were so many things that intrigued me about this book, and all were so well executed.

Amanda was an intriguing character, to say the least. Married to her work, as she mentions herself. She is focused on her new case about the Alperton Angels and doesn’t leave any stones unturned. We don’t know a lot about her personal life, but the moment she has to work with her old colleague, Oliver, we can notice there is some tension between them.

“There is no one more convincing than the convinced.”

The second thing I liked about “The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels” is the format. It’s written through emails, letters, WhatsApp messages, interview transcripts and book excerpts. This sped the pace of the book right up, making it very easy to read and quite hard to put down. I would love to read more books like this – is there a way to find books written in interactive format – how do I go about finding more of them?

The mystery of the Alperton Angels case is on a whole another level.

I was certain it’s an actual true crime and tried googling what happened. Don’t even bother trying, I can assure you it’s all fiction, but it sounds very believable when you’re reading it. I enjoyed that we were finding out clues at the same time that Amanda was. Some of the reveals were a bit predictable. With the ending, I wasn’t surprised by how it ended, and it was slightly deflating. But the aftermath made up for it, so it was quite satisfying after all. I would definitely recommend this book to any murder mystery fan. 

About the Author:

Janice Hallett is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. She wrote articles and speeches for, among others, the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Department for International Development. Her enthusiasm for travel has taken her around the world several times, from Madagascar to the Galapagos, Guatemala to Zimbabwe, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. A playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and cowrote the feature film Retreat. The Appeal is her first novel.

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