Dead and Dying Angels (The Dos Cruces Trilogy)

By James A. Mangum

Book Overview

In "Dead and Dying Angels"--the first volume of the Dos Cruces Trilogy--elements of pathos, the supernatural, and dark humor merge in a writing style that has been referred to as a cross between... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 097176672X
• ISBN13: 9780971766723
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: John M. Hardy Publishing
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 3.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

dead and dying angels

A non-stop read. Some of the most eerie and interesting characters I've ever read. My mind wrapped around the story and wouldn't let me put it down until the end. Couldn't wait until volume 2.

Novel Noir in the Texas Sunshine

Dead and Dying Angels by James A. Mangum The first words you read after the title page is...."Please Excuse Me, I'm Killing Myself". It's an ominous start to this well crafted gritty "novel noir" set in the south Texas sunshine. Jamey Maxwell, a depressed, retired custom officer lives in Dos Cruces, a hot dusty town..... "forty miles from Laredo and light years from anywhere else.....where both sides of the tracks are on the wrong side of town." He has moved to the town to get away from a downturn in his life. His wife and daughter were killed in a car wreck in Houston and Jamey believes he is at fault. He sees no reason for living. Then strange things begin to happen in Dos Cruces....a brutal rape and murder is blamed on an innocent local and Jamey is drawn into a labyrinth of mysterious events with twist and turns reminiscent of Raymond Chandler's 1930's hard boiled detective novels. Chandler with a hint of the supernatural The first person writing style of Dead And Dying Angels is conversational and personal.....revealing sometimes embarrassing details about the main character's life. The easy prose moves the plot along giving us plenty of backstories for character development. Jamey Maxwell is a good and ethical man to whom bad things have happened and that continue to happen. His ultimate reaction to all this is violent and we find ourselves applauding.....cheering him on while at the same time knowing that we are condoning a crime. A good writer like James Mangum can pull this off with grace and style. It's the stuff of good literature. I put the book down after reading it in one sitting and wished I could start on the second book of the projected trilogy. Hurry up James, a lot of us are waiting. Tim Saska Santa Fe