The Angel Gang [Hardcover]

Ken Kuhlken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1994

"The Angel Gang" - During 1949, Private Detective Tom Hickey and Wendy, his second wife, are seeking peace in a cabin on the shore of Lake Tahoe. But the past intrudes, delivering Tom and his partner, Leo Weiss, into a battle of guns and wills against Mickey Cohen's L.A.-Vegas mob.

Editorial Reviews

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 261 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr (August 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031210930X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312109301
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,955,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After borrowing time from his youthful passions, such as baseball, golf, romance, and trying to make music, to earn degrees in literature and writing from San Diego State University and the University of Iowa, Ken got serious (more or less).

Since then, his stories have appeared in Esquire and dozens of other magazines, and anthologies, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He has been a frequent contributor and a columnist for the San Diego Reader.

With Alan Russell, in Road Kill and No Cats, No Chocolate, he has chronicled the madness of book promotion tours.

Ken's novels are Midheaven, chosen as finalist for the Ernest Hemingway Award for best first novel and the Tom Hickey California Century series:

The Loud Adios, San Diego and Tijuana, 1943 (Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin's Press Best First PI Novel); The Venus Deal, San Diego, Mount Shasta, and Denver, 1942; The Angel Gang, Lake Tahoe and San Diego, 1950; The Do-Re-Mi, rural Northern California, 1972 (a January Magazine best book of 2006 and finalist for the 2006 Shamus Award); The Vagabond Virgins, rural Baja California, 1979; The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, 1926.