Lost Angel [Hardcover]

Mike Doogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2006

The icy interior of Alaska is the setting for this breathtaking first mystery from the winner of the Robert L. Fish Award for short fiction.

L ost Angel is an astonishing debut novel from Mike Doogan. In the tradition of Nevada Barr and C. J. Box, Doogan explores the darker side of man's nature against the backdrop of stunning natural beauty.

Moses Wright founded the Christian commune of Rejoice. The rough-and-tumble interior of Alaska may seem a strange place for such a community, but for twenty years it has served as a beacon in the wilderness. Two decades later Moses granddaughter, Faith, is the star of the younger generation. Pretty and intelligent, she's the first teenager in the town to choose to experience the outside world. When Faith disappears, the elders of Rejoice look beyond their village for help.

Ex-cop Nik Kane lost his faith long ago-dissolved in a bottle. A few drinks, a dark night, and a shooting led to seven years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Nothing can give him back his career or his family, but the search for Faith may restore his soul.

By turns lyrical and hard-edged, Lost Angel is a remarkable first novel from a powerful new voice in mystery fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Meet Nik Kane, the charming star of a new series by Anchorage Daily News columnist Doogan. Kane, a 55-year-old ex-cop who's also an ex-con, not to mention an ex-husband, heads to the Alaskan interior to do some detective work for a remote religious community called Rejoice. One of Rejoice's leaders, Thomas Wright, has hired Kane to track down his teenage daughter, Faith. Maybe Faith ran away, or maybe she was abducted. Kane—only periodically distracted from his detecting by his attraction to a woman he meets at Rejoice—quickly learns that Faith wasn't representative of her conservative religious community. A budding feminist with Ivy League ambitions, she also had a sideline income, $500 a week, deposited in a pseudonymous bank account. While Doogan telegraphs the solution to the riddle of Faith's disappearance, engaging, lucid prose more than compensates. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* A white-knuckle flight in a bush plane over the Alaskan wilderness jump-starts this debut novel, establishing both the unforgiving setting and the desperate resolve of the main character. Nik Kane spent 25 years with the Anchorage police, 15 as a detective. He has just been released from a 7-year prison term resulting from a false conviction and is on his own, adrift from the police and from his wife. Kane, forced into private investigation, is headed for Rejoice, a fundamentalist Christian community in the harsh, high desert of the interior. One of the daughters of the Elders, an 18-year-old girl named Faith, has gone missing; no one knows if she has simply broken free from the restrictive life at Rejoice or has met with foul play. This is a richly textured novel on several counts. Kane is achingly well delineated; his struggle to adjust to a much bigger, louder, more confusing world after the confines of prison--and to try to find meaning in a life stripped bare of supports--is gripping. All the exigencies of struggling through an Alaskan winter ring true (Doogan has long been a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News), and the portrayal of a religious community that holds both secrets and dangers is fascinating. A top-notch start to a projected mystery series. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (August 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399153713
• ISBN-13: 978-0399153716
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #219,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good first book., October 3, 2006

By 

L. J. Roberts (Oakland, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost Angel (Hardcover)

Alaskian Nik Kane, an ex-cop, is trying to put his life together after wrongfully spending almost 7 years in prison. Now released, his former boss, Anchorage Chief of Police Jeffords, is trying to help him by sending him to Rejoice, a religious community. The daughter and granddaughter of the community's leader and founder has disappeared and have asked Kane to find her. But Rejoice's nearest neighbor is Devil's Toe, where the manager of the local gold mine wants Kane to help him prevent a possible payroll robbery. It's up to Kane to uncover the secrets that tie these two communities together.

Doogan creates interesting characters, particularly Kane who, although betrayed by the legal system, still believes in the law with investigative instincts and experience. He has a past to overcome and it will be interesting following his course. Although Doogan doesn't utilize the setting as much as I might like, he has still given a good sense of life in Alaska. This is a very good first effort.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!, January 6, 2008

By 

RetiredMilitaryOfficer (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Angel (Hardcover)

Fast paced, flawed but essentially decent protagonist, well-written interwoven descriptions about Alaska... Overall, I look forward with anticipation to reading the next Nik Kane mystery. I hope more people take a look at this new mystery writer and enjoy him as much as I did.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging read, December 8, 2006

By 

Sitka Sound "brightysunshine" (Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Angel (Hardcover)

Doogan's Lost Angel is a delight. The book was filled with dark humor and suspense. He doesn't break out of the "I'm-a-bachelor-private-detective-with-a-shady-past" mold. But there's a reason every good mystery has a sketchy, skirt-chasing private eye. The setting in Alaska is harsh, strange and authentic; Doogan's family has been in Alaska for generations. If you enjoy mysteries or have an interest in Alaskan fiction, this book is sure to please. I look forward to more stories from Doogan.