Fischer, Bruno - The Angels Fell (1950)

The Angels Fell (1950) is a medium-boiled detective thriller. The hero is a former newspaper man, now working as a manager in a small trucking firm. His femme fatale ex-wife, who dumped him so she could marry a more successful man, calls him up, and says she's in trouble. She is - and she soon has the innocent hero up to his neck in a murder frame, a disappearance, dirty politics, hoodlums, cops, private eyes, and a briefcase that seems to be wanted by all of

them.

"The Angels Fell" is no masterpiece. But it does have some surprising virtues. For one thing, embedded in all this tough melodrama is a genuine detective story. When the killer is revealed towards the end of the story, there are no less than four genuine clues to the killer's identity. All of which I missed when reading the story - fairly fooled by the author. Not only is the case solidly clued, but the choice of killer and the clues to the killer's involvement all complete the story, making the plot of the book make more sense. So this is a logically constructed detective novel. Although embedded in a tough melodrama about civic corruption, not a GA style murder at a country house. The subplot about the brief case also leads to a fair play finale. In the second half, Fischer's series detective, private eye Ben Helm shows up. He is hardly the protagonist of the novel, weaving in and out of the tale. In Encyclopedia Mysteriosa, William L. DeAndrea lists this as a non-series novel. It isn't.

Bruno Fischer wrote some good short stories, which occasionally showed up in old anthologies. I've only sampled two of his novels. Thought The Spider Lily (1946) was awful. The Angels Fell is definitely better.

This book is hardly John Dickson Carr. One would give it a "B" as a grade. But it shows some solid craftsmanship. It is for those who like tough guy fiction.

Mike Grost