Falling Angel

{{about|the 1978 William Hjortsberg novel|other uses|Falling Angels (disambiguation)}}

{{distinguish|Fallen angel (disambiguation)|Angels Fall (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox book |

| name = Falling Angel

| image = FallingAngel.jpg

| caption = First edition

| author = William Hjortsberg

| illustrator =

| cover_artist =

| country = United States

| language = English

| series =

| genre =

| publisher = Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

| release_date = 1978

| media_type = Print

| pages =

| isbn =

| oclc = 873367495

| preceded_by = Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974)

| followed_by = Tales & Fables (1985)

}}

Falling Angel is a 1978 horror novel by American writer William Hjortsberg. Written in a hardboiled detective style with supernatural themes, it was adapted into the 1987 film Angel Heart.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE5D71F31F935A35750C0A961948260|work=The New York Times|title= Angel Heart (1987) Film: Mickey Rourke Stars in 'Angel Heart'|authorlink=Vincent Canby| last = Canby | first = Vincent|date=March 6, 1987}}

Background

Falling Angel came out to a muted reception in hardback in 1978, but gained a much wider audience the following year with its paperback release.{{Cite web |last=February 12 |first=James Keen // |last2=Reply |first2=2013 at 7:50 pm // |date=2013-02-11 |title=William Hjortsberg ‘Falling Angel’ Review |url=https://horrornovelreviews.com/2013/02/11/william-hjortsberg-falling-angel-review/ |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=Horror Novel Reviews |language=en}} It was eventually followed by Angel's Inferno, published posthumously in 2020,{{cite news |last1=Didcock |first1=Barry |date=12 December 2020 |title=A Satanic sequel to cult noir Angel Heart set in Beat-era Paris |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/arts_ents/18937035.angel-heart-mickey-rourke-william-hjortsberg-angels-inferno/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |work=HeraldScotland |language=en}}{{cite web |last1=Nette |first1=Andrew |date=9 December 2020 |title=The Long, Dark Legacy of William Hjortsberg's Supernatural Neo-Noirs |url=https://crimereads.com/the-long-dark-legacy-of-william-hjortsbergs-supernatural-neo-noirs/ |access-date=23 May 2022 |website=CrimeReads}} in which Harry Angel attempts to make sense of his past and track down his greatest enemy.{{Cite web |title=Bedford Square Publishers {{!}} Angel’s Inferno |url=https://bedfordsquarepublishers.co.uk/book/angels-inferno/ |access-date=2025-03-19}}

Plot

The plot unrolls in New York state in 1959. Down and out private investigator Harry Angel is hired by a mysterious client, Louis Cyphre, via the law firm of Herman Winesap, to find a missing crooner named Johnny Favorite.

Johnny Favorite rose to swift fame before the Second World War, but has not been seen since he was critically wounded during a 1943 Luftwaffe raid on Allied forces in Tunisia, after which he was returned to the US in a vegetative state. Cyphre has received information that Favorite may be a patient at the Emma Dodd Harvest Memorial Clinic in Poughkeepsie, but has not been allowed access to him.

After some investigation, Angel discovers that Favorite was indeed a patient at the clinic, but was released into the care of a man called Edward Kelly. Angel searches New York for Kelly and the rest of Favorite's old friends, an investigation that leads him into a disturbing occult milieu. He learns that Favorite's girlfriend, Margaret Krusemark, is an occultist and practitioner of black magic, as was Favorite himself; legend has it that the crooner once conjured the Devil during a Black Mass. As one by one, Favorite's old associates are murdered during the course of the enquiry, Angel begins to fear that he is being framed for their deaths.

Finally, Angel is confronted with the truth: that he himself is Johnny Favorite. Having summoned the Devil during a Black Mass and agreed to trade his soul for fame and success in the music business, he rose to fame as a singer, but his career was cut short by the war. Left with amnesia after his injury in 1943, and with the help of his friends, he has reinvented himself in order to escape his contract with Louis Cyphre - or Lucifer. Since then, Cyphre has been tracking him, killing all his old friends and leading him to this moment of discovery. The book culminates in Angel's arrest for the murders, for which there is conclusive evidence of his guilt.

Reception

The novel was enthusiastically received on publication. Rafe McGregor describes Falling Angel as "exemplary occult detection."{{Cite web |last=Mcgregor |first=Rafe |date=2020-11-04 |title=Theaker's Quarterly Fiction: Angel's Inferno, by William Hjortsberg {{!}} review by Rafe McGregor |url=http://theakersquarterly.blogspot.com/2020/11/angels-inferno-by-william-hjortsberg.html |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=Theaker's Quarterly Fiction}} Stephen King is quoted as having described it: "as if Raymond Chandler had written The Exorcist."

Adaptations

The book was adapted into a 1987 mystery-thriller film entitled Angel Heart starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, and Lisa Bonet. It was also adapted into an opera by J. Mark Scearce to a libretto by Lucy Thurber.{{cite web |url= https://blogs.music.indiana.edu/composition/2013/04/10/j-mark-scearce-dm-93-commissioned-by-the-center-for-contemporary-opera/ |title= J. Mark Scearce (DM 93) Commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Opera - News Updates |publisher= Indiana university |accessdate= 25 April 2017 |archive-date= 19 May 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170519111708/https://blogs.music.indiana.edu/composition/2013/04/10/j-mark-scearce-dm-93-commissioned-by-the-center-for-contemporary-opera/ |url-status= dead }} Titled Falling Angel, it premiered at the Brevard Music Center on June 30, 2016,{{cite web|url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/falling-angel-review-brevard-bravado-1467752865|title='Falling Angel' Review: Brevard Bravado|first=Heidi|last=Waleson|date=5 July 2016 |accessdate=25 April 2017| work = WSJ}}{{cite web|url=https://www.brevardmusic.org/festival/performances/19800/|title=BMC > Performances > June 30, 2016 > Falling Angel – World Première|publisher=Brevard music|accessdate=25 April 2017|archive-date=26 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170426062542/https://www.brevardmusic.org/festival/performances/19800/|url-status=dead}} after having initially been commissioned by the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York. The novel was serialized in digest version in Playboy magazine in 1978, winner of Playboy Editorial Award for Best Major Work.{{cite web|url= http://williamhjortsberg.com/sample-page/books/titles/falling-angel/ |title=Falling Angel |website=williamhjortsberg.com |access-date=2023-03-06}}