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LOS ANGELES
by Peter Moore Smith
Little, Brown, January 2005
352 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0316803928


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

The unreliable narrator isn't what you'd call an unusual device in literature, but it's not often one you come across in crime fiction. It's not giving anything away to relate that Angel Veronchek, the hero (if you can call him that) of LOS ANGELES is highly off-the-wall.

He's an albino, the son of a famous movie director, shut away in a grotty West Hollywood apartment with Blade Runner on a continuous loop on the DVD. The reclusive Angel strikes up a friendship with his beautiful next-door neighbour Angela. And when she disappears, and he receives a bizarre phonecall from her where she whispers his name before the connection is lost, he's determined to find her.

There then follows 300-odd pages of twists, turns and smokescreens. Angel's on enough medication to keep a drugstore stocked for life, so the reader is never quite sure whether what they read is the truth or something burrowed deep in Angel's twisted imagination.

Smith, brother of actress Julianne Moore, can certainly write -- his previous novel RAVELING was nominated for an Edgar Award. The most memorable and stunning scenes are those describing the city of Los Angeles, as it passes Angel by in his search for Angela. And there are also the occasional vivid gemstones plucked from Angel's murky and bubbling memory -- his meeting with the sinister Lionel when he realises what might have happened to Angela had me turning on all the lights and the TV and considering hiding behind the sofa.

LOS ANGELES has the feel of a flickering movie, played out in dingy interiors or blindingly bright exteriors. And there's a cast of picaresque characters shifting continually in front of the reader. My guess is that some readers will feel short-changed by the book, as the final twist seems a little lame. I didn't -- I found it a swift and intriguing read with some high-quality writing.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, December 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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