Epistolary Book Recommendation: The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

Posted On June 2, 2024

Hi Readers! You know I love a good mystery. But, lately, all I had been reading were cozy mysteries. So, reading The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels was a nice change of pace from those. It was not cozy, nor was it detective fiction and it was also not action based criminal mystery. Maybe that’s why I loved it so much. It’s fresh and unlike any mystery novel I have read before. It’s unpretentious and simply marvellous.

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared.

Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.

~~THOUGHTS~~

~~GENRE & WRITING~~

Making a 416-page book only in the form of emails, text messages, transcribed interviews & conversations, letters, newspaper articles sounds tedious to read, but Janice Hallett made it unravelling fun. Sure, at times, it became slightly monotonous, but with the right reveal at such time is what kept it going. I haven’t read many books in the epistolary fiction genre, but I definitely want to read them now and this book has set a high standard.

I liked that how the writing was still able to take the spotlight even though all the text was just the day-to-day. It was like having a charm to your daily life. Text messages but make them sound like they can be either really genuine or entirely fake. Emails that say meaningful things but are all just templates sent to multiple people. In all of this, the transcribed text is what we could really rely on. The conversations between Amanda and Oliver, or Amanda and Ellie, or Amanda and other key resources to the case. Those conversations even in dialogue, felt so real that real emotions were captured in those. This balance between all the forms of documents made the writing unusual and also quite refreshing.

~~CHARACTERS~~

Amanda Bailey is our main character in the form of a true crime author on the hunt of her new book. She came across as a no-nonsense woman who is fearless in what she wants to achieve. She may also come across as slightly selfish, but again, if she were a man, no one would question her behaviour twice, so I enjoyed reading her. Then we have Oliver Menzies, a fool of a character whom I loathed from the beginning. We have Ellie Cooper, who is Amanda’s transcriber. I enjoyed her quite a lot. In the transcribes, she has her own little comments, which are sometimes insightful and sometimes just funny.

Aside from these three, there is a long list of minor characters, all of whom were involved in the case 18 years ago: detectives, journalists, true crime enthusiasts, amateur murder clubs and so on. It was a different interaction with each kind of audience. Most of all I loved reading the murder club emails, because as harmless as they were, they also shared vital information.

~~PLOT~~

Given the nature of the book, to keep the plot moving briskly is a task. For a long time, I felt like the story did not move forward at all. But, when it did, I wasn’t happy with it. And then, it finally went on the correct track making sense of it all. Solving old and cold cases has never been an interest of mine, because what are the odds you will find something new? But, in this one, the discovery of it all was so fun to watch.

We start by reading about a cult who want to sacrifice a baby who is believed to be the Anti-Christ. And then, the story shifts a little into the paranormal. And, then, there is the big reveal, which is just so simple and plausible. For once, I loved the normalcy of the ending. I think the author made it as complicated as possible throughout the book and then kept the ending which would be acceptable to any kind of reader.

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels has it all! It flows across the genres of horror, crime, mystery, paranormal all in the form of epistolary fiction. A cult who called themselves the Alperton Angels were all set to sacrifice the Anti-Christ who was a baby, until things took a turn and there were multiple deaths. Now, 18 years later, the baby who is now an adult has captured the interest of true crime author Amanda Bailey.

In her search to write the story from the baby’s perspective, what will she uncover? Will she dig deep enough to know what exactly happened that night? Will she meet Gabriel, who was the leader of the cult and find herself understanding him? Will she be able to track the baby only to know something unexpected? And in all of this, will she have a better book than her colleague Oliver Menzies who is set for the same target? Will they find a way to amicably work together or will past difference come in the way of this current partnership? Who will be alive at the end of it all?

If you find all of this intriguing, you should definitely read the book! I have rated The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett at 5/5 stars! I cannot wait to read all of her books!

Until next time,