Shadow of the Dark Angel by Gene O’Neill

Reviewed for MonsterLibrarian.com

While Shadow of the Dark Angel has similarities to Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lector books it has differences as well. In this book, Katy Green and John Cato are a team of detectives hunting a sexual serial killer. However, unlike Harris’ books, Shadow of the Dark Angel is neither a mystery book nor a police procedural. Instead, O’Neill has filled his book with minute details that lead to explicitly fleshed out characters, at the expense of the storytelling. At best, it’s an extensive profile of the detectives and the killer but what it possesses in detail it completely lacks in tension and plot momentum.

O’Neill’s style of presenting characters and events without genuinely storytelling works in a short form, but keeps readers at an arm’s length in this novel. In the end the minutiae of the characters’ daily lives and psychological health take precedent over the story, leaving out the police work and much of the actual solving of the crime. It’s also frustrating that the author dedicates a lot of time to describing a book Katy Green is writing that is a blatant reference to another of O’Neill’s books, and the reader may feel cheated that the author is using the book to advertise his other works, while sometimes ignoring the plot of this one.

Although Shadow of a Dark Angel is not without its merits, it is a disappointing read. Available only as a pricey limited edition, Shadow of the Dark Angel is best left to O’Neill fans and collectors.

Contains: Explicit language, violent situations, sexual situations