As The Angel Gang begins, thoughtful, capable ex-private detective Tom Hickey is married to the delicate Wendy, whose unworldly innocence and faith in her “angels” provides her with a stronger shield against evil than even Hickey’s devotion and the gun he carries. Hickey is drawn away from their idyllic retreat in Tahoe to come once more to the aid of Cynthia, the young singer who caused him so much trouble in The Venus Deal. But he is summoned back hastily when criminals employed by one of Hickey’s several old enemies abduct the pregnant Wendy. The rush to rescue her becomes an almost unbearably taut drama whose climax is as surprising as it is heartrending.
From Publishers Weekly
The final book of Kuhlken's WW II trilogy, begun with The Loud Adios , which won the publisher's Best First PI Novel Award in 1991, is set in the 1951 world of hot jazz, hard-boiled fiction and black-and-white television. PI Tom Hickey, who plays jazz saxophone and clarinet, has set off from his Tahoe, Nev., cabin and his sweet, slightly slow, pregnant wife Wendy to investigate the murder charge against Cynthia Tucker Jones, an old girlfriend, in San Diego. Hickey's involvement sets off a chain of kidnappings which endanger the lives of his Tahoe neighbor, a casino owner; his former partner, 70-year-old Leo Weiss; Wendy; their unborn child; and a collection of ne'er-do-wells. During Hickey's travels from snowbound Tahoe to sunny San Diego and back, Weiss has his nails plucked out, his kneecaps cracked and eyelids slashed, while Wendy is dragged through the woods by two thugs. The angels of the title intercede to save most, but not all, of the worthy characters in this gritty, brutal tale, which is tenderized by the PI's near palpable devotion to his wife.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As the final third of a trilogy, this title's plot belongs to a larger whole: it continues the story of post-World War II P.I. Tom Hickey (The Venus Deal, St. Martin's, 1993). At the insistence of his pregnant and vulnerable young wife, Hickey leaves his Lake Tahoe cabin to help a scrappy San Diego singer accused of killing her brother-in-law. Anxious to resolve the case, Hickey brashly antagonizes rival mobsters, one of whom apparently kidnaps his wife to get even. A nicely orchestrated rescue set in simpler times, with sturdy prose, nonstop action, and steady suspense. Recommended.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.