Product Description

Doyle, Angel and Cordelia are tracking down a cigarette girl named Betty McCoy. But they're not the only ones to do so. There's a new P.I. in town, Mike Slade. Angel and his troops find that their research leads them directly to Slade and some confidential files.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #519726 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable read, even if you've never seen the t.v series.
Hollywood Noir is an enjoyable book. There are plenty of twists in the plot, you might see a lot of them coming, especially if you have watched either "Buffy" or "Angel". This book is definatley for the older fan, as is the t.v series, which is very refreshing, as the Sunnydale High stories can be tedious in places.
Jeff Mariotte creates a superb atmosphere, the book cuts between characters and storyline twists fluently, although the ending seems rather abrupt ( the baddie is killed far too easily ). Altogether this is a pleasant read, a great way to pass a few hours.

Angel and a ghost - or is that giving away the plot?
Different - the best word to describe this. Actually, the best word is good. Hollywood Noir takes an interesting premise and builds nicely upon it, taking in Angel, Doyle and Cordelia on the way. And, as much as I am a fan of Angel, some of the best bits were Doyle in the cemetery. I have to agree with another reviewer that the villain is not sufficiently developed, and I would like to have seen the possibility of the hard-boiled private eye not being sent back to eternity, but all in all, a good read that held me from first page to last. A thought - why are most, if not all, of the Angel books set in the first half of the first season? Maybe Doyle shouldn't have been got rid of in the series after all!

Decent, but not outstanding
Which is a pity, because it has a good premise - unfortunately, it just never seems to go anywhere. The main villain isn't interesting enough and not enough time is devoted to his 'dastardly plan'. He suffers as pretty much all of the characters do, in that there's nothing really about them. There's some nice, perceptive Angel material right at the beginning, and then I didn't really get the sense of 'Angel' at all; it could have been any private detective, and nearly is. Apart from the whole vampire thing, obviously.

There is this to be said for the book, and Mariotte - he doesn't, as every single other 'Angel' original novelisation has, rely on the use of flashbacks to when Angel Has Encountered This/Him/Her/Them/A Slightly Similar Situation before. While these can add interest, I personally am always wary of them (see Golden's 'Spike & Dru: Pretty Maids...' published only to a few months later be completely shot down by the show - canon). It can be a nice B plot, or it can be a letdown; Mariotte has chosen not to indulge at all (wisely, IMHO), though he hasn't replaced it with any other strings.

In all, the tale plods at the start, plods its way through exposition, goes ploddily through the uncomplicated plot, and plods along to a fairly unsatisfying climax. But it does plod pretty well.