Rating: 
Summary: No wings for this angel... - a vertiginous book
Review: After some short science-fiction texts (like "Gray Matters"), William Hjortsberg kept some after effects from them because he put some elements in his first detective attempt. Here, a detective sweetly named Harry Angel is hired by a weird, disturbing character named Louis Cyphre to refind Johnny Favorite, a crooner who vanished before he could respect a contract. His investigation will soon take him down to the depths of black magic and vaudou, and... But I won't give you the whole plot. Just read this and you'll see. You'll be stunned. It's amazing. All I can tell you is that Angel isn't really an angel, and that his soul won't go up to heaven.The cinema world couldn't not matter about this vertiginous story: it's finally British filmmaker Alan Parker who took it on the screen, with Robert de Niro and Mickey Rourke, and directed his only detective movie so far (along with his next release, "Mississippi Burning"). Despite its gloomy and (too?) bloody atmosphere, the film is far from worthing this incredible, abnormal novel, which doesn't respect any of the conventions because it's the only one, I think, where... but I won't give you the ending. Just read it and you'll see. It's astounding. Stephen King was himself terrified, and that means everything. A very special novel, one of the best detective stories ever written, a jewel not to be missed! Paradoxically William Hjortsberg is less known as a screenwriter: "Legend", a fairy-tale filmed by Ridley Scott (1985), starring Tim Curry as... the Devil (here called Darkness) and Tom Cruise.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth Your Time, Movie or Not
Review: After watching the movie _Angel Heart_ a couple of times, I thought reading the book it was based on would be enjoyable. For the most part, it was.
The plot is not the norm and if you have already seen the film, you're one step ahead. Harry Angel, a private investigator in 1950s New York, is hired by Louis Cyphre. Cyphre is odd to say the least but he pays well and only asks that Angel track down Johnny Favorite. Favorite was a singer several years earlier but it seemed that at some point after he returned from the war, he disappeared. As Angel goes looking, he discovers that Favorite was not just an eccentric, but a man well versed in all things related to the occult. Contrary to the film's portrayal, Angel does not leave New York to find people in New Orleans. He finds plenty of trouble on his own territory and has a number of close-calls throughout the novel.
In terms of whether the story fits into the genre of mystery, horror or both, I am not sure. I would call both the book and the movie 'noir' if I had to label them because they are forms of the classic gritty PI in a seamy underworld scenario. The writing does seem dry, tired and even inconsistent in some places but overall it will probably hold your interest. Personally, I finished it in two days (even while frantically preparing for finals) because I was interested to see how closely the movie followed the book. But even if you haven't seen the movie and have no interest to, the book is worth your time.
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Summary: AN EXCELLENT THRILLER THAT WORKS ON MANY LEVELS
Review: At one point in William Hjortsberg's masterful horror novel, Epiphany Proudfoot, 17-year-old voodoo priestess, tells our detective hero Harry Angel "you sure know a lot about the city." The city in question is the New York of 1959, and if Angel knows a lot about this crazy burg, then Hjortsberg, in the course of this tale, demonstrates that he knows even more. While much has been said of this book's scary elements--its voodoo ceremonies and Black Mass meeting and horrible murders--what impressed me most about this tale is the incredible attention to realistic detail that the author invests it with. I don't know if the author grew up in this town in the '50s or just did a remarkable research job, but the reader really does get the impression that this book (which came out in 1978) was written a few decades earlier. Roosevelt Island is called Welfare Island, quite correctly; street names are given the names they had 45 years ago; subway ads are described that I can dimly recall from my youth at the time; one-cent peanut-vending machines are in the subways (boy, does that bring me back!); and on and on. This is the type of book in which if something is described, you can bet your bottom buck that it really existed. For example, at one point our hero walks into a 42nd St. theatre called Hubert's Museum and Flea Circus. I checked it out; it was really there in the late '50s! You can really learn a lot about the city as it was by reading this fast-moving tale; it's almost like a history lesson wrapped up in a hardboiled voodoo thriller.
And what a thriller this is! Even without the incredible attention to detail, this book would be a winner. In it, Harry Angel is hired by Lou Cyphre (get it?) to track down '40s crooner Johnny Favorite, and by the time Angel is through with his quest, we have been treated to all sorts of oddball NYC characters and grisly doings. Many scenes impress, most notably the late-night Central Park voodoo ceremony, the Black Mass in the abandoned subway station, and an off-season walk through the Coney Island midway. The book is justifiably included in Jones' and Newman's excellent overview volume, "Horror: The Hundred Best Books." It works on many levels--as a thriller, as a scarifier, as a Faustian object lesson--and succeeds on all of them. I haven't seen the "Angel Heart" movie that was made from this wonderful book, but can't imagine it being any better. This volume deserves all the praise that's been heaped on it. Fortunately, it's still in print, as it well should be. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing thriller
Review: Detective stories are a mine field. Given the amazing numbers of this kind of books, every now and then you surely are going to step in a bomb and regret the time and money you spent in some terrible story. Fortunately, this is not the case in "Falling Angel". Harry Angel is a private detective in the New York in the end of the fifties, hired by a misterious character to find a very famous crooner who disppeared in the middle of the WW2. During his investigation, he discovers some terrifying truths, envolving voodoo worship, satanism, black massess, and yet Johnny Favorite, the crooner, is nowhere to be found. In the end, the truth is really amazing, and Harry could never escape it. For those who saw "Angel heart" before reading this book, I must say the surprise was completely lost. However, Hjortsberg is a fine and talented writer, the book is told in the fast-paced rhythm of New York, and the sucession of scenes is very well programed and easy to follow, and fast to read as well. This is a classic detective story, with lots of sarcasm, murders, twists, and something that you don't find in every down-to-earth detective book: supernatural elements. As strange as it seems, it doesn't spoil the story, in fact these supernaturals combine to enhance the thrilling of the plot. The final two or three chapters are amazing, and the ending is surprising and powerful. Grade 9.5/10
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Summary: A Horror Masterpiece, A Necessary Read
Review: Falling Angel is one of the best Horror novels I have ever read, so fast paced I'm amazed there aren't scorch marks on the pages of my copy. At first you think you are reading a detective novel, and then a Horror novel, and then decidedly, the demented offspring of both genres. Low rent private eye, Harry Angel is recruited to find a pre-war crooner by the name of Johnny Favorite, a singer indebted to Angel's client. A client by the name of Louis Cyphre. Angel's pursuit of Johnny Favorite takes him to the seediest of locales in mid 1950's New York and enlightens him on the city's darker side. A world of witchcraft and voodoo and unspeakable rituals. All the while Harry Angel is trying to deal with his own amnesia. As the mystery unfolds so does the terror and slowly as each piece is revealed Harry Angel walks the tightrope of madness. Not only is Falling Angel an intelligently crafted Horror novel it is incredibly vicious as well. Yet strangely it seems to be more of a cult favorite than a Horror novel that everybody knows. All I can say is that it is one of the most original Horror tales I have ever read, impossible not to read in one sitting. It was made into a movie called Angel Heart that follows the basic outline of the story and the plot but does some shifting of locales not seen in the book. The movie was good, the book a thousand times better. A must read for Horror fans.
Rating: 
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: First off this was not a horror story. Or if it was suppose to be, it failed. To me it was a PI mystery with a twist. A very imaginative twist too but one that William Hjortsberg failed to bring alive. The whole book read like an old Raymond Chandler. That's it. There is no suspense. No buildup. No horror. No nothing really...it's a very blah book. Easy to read...nice point A to point B style but DULLSVILLE. The other reviewers must have been reading a different book. This book is nothing like a Stephen King or Dean Koontz book....not even close!...not in the slightest. Falling Angel was copyright 1978.
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Summary: for mystery lovers an eclipsing view of the supernatural
Review: Great gumshoe book -- an intelligent read without alot of confusing characters. A page turner w/"a" plus prose. Set in 1950's NYC your need to read grows stronger as details of the occult, era and mystery unfolds. The humor is richly interwoved with an almost true to life character analysis of a famous star. If you like the x-files, you'll love this powerful book
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Summary: Bayou Blockbuster!
Review: Hjortsberg really crafted a vicious thriller. Combining the atmosphere of New Orleans, private dick sensibilities and the occult, nothing can prepare you for the twists and turns of this great mystery. I got to read this after I watched the film (Angel Heart) and I was still enthralled by the plot hooks and turns of the story. A real winner!
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Summary: Chilling
Review: I came across this book a few years before "Angel Heart" was released. Although I'm not a big fan of horror novels (with the exception of Dean Koontz and the occasional Stephen King), I was drawn to the front cover description (original release) as crossing Raymond Chandler with "The Exorcist." It was a pretty chilling read, but I forgot about after a while. Then some friends and I rented "Angel Heart." I didn't realize that the movie was based on the novel, but I had enough subconscious recall of the novel that I found the movie eeriely predictable. The movie was so-so, the novel rocks.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book!
Review: I first watch the movie and I love the history and his characters (DeNiro made an incredible part in this movie!), but the book for me were a great choice to spend time with some (very) good lecture, buy this book, it's amazing!!
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