Streetwise chancer Fitzroy Maclean Angel, faced with the prospect of parenthood and a move to the country, has to do the unthinkable – get a job. At the insistence of his fashion designer wife Amy May, he joins Rudgard & Blugden Confidential Investigations, a previously all-female private detective agency. While trying to solve a seemingly impossible crime involving stolen botox, he is distracted by a vivacious redhead with a passion for salsa dancing; a Russian sailor dealing in old East German cars; an estate agent with a passion for Audrey Hepburn; and some very strange goings-on in country houses.
Telos Publishing is proud to present another of its reissues of Mike Ripley’s acclaimed series of comic crime novels – complete with a new, specially-written introduction by the author.
‘Revving up at a laugh a line’ – Observer.
‘If laughter is the best medicine, Mike Ripley’s Angel novels should be on National Health prescription.’ – Val McDermid
306 pp. B-format paperback novel.
ISBN 978-1-84583-924-6
Published 16 July 2015
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Ripley is the author of 19 novels, including the award-winning Angel series of comedy thrillers, a dozen short stories and the non-fiction memoir Surviving A Stroke. He was a scriptwriter on the BBC series Lovejoy and the crime fiction critic for the Daily Telegraph and the Birmingham Post, reviewing more than 950 novels over 18 years. In the 1990s he was the co-editor, with Maxim Jakubowski, of the three Fresh Blood anthologies, showcasing new crime-writing talent such as Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Ken Bruen and Denise Mina. He has appeared at many literary festivals and conventions, developed a creative crime writing course for Cambridge University and devised and produced ‘An Audience With …’ stage shows for Colin Dexter and Minette Walters.
After a 25-year career in journalism and public relations, latterly for The Brewers’ Society, he became an archaeologist specialising in Romano-British sites in East Anglia until he suffered a stroke at the age of 50. He sat on the government’s Stroke Strategy Committee and currently supports both the Stroke Association and the Blood Pressure Association.
He wrote the monthly column Getting Away With Murder for Shots Magazine, is part of the obituary writing team at the Guardian, and is the series editor for the imprints Top Notch Thrillers and Ostara Crime. Working with the Margery Allingham Society, he completed the novel left unfinished on the death of Youngman Carter in 1969, which was published in 2014 as Mr Campion’s Farewell. A second ‘continuation’ to feature Allingham’s famous detective, Mr Campion’s Fox, is published in 2015.
