The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

A Novel

By: Janice Hallett

Narrated by: Annie Aldington, Nneka Okoye, Gareth Armstrong, Sid Sagar, Kristin Atherton

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“[An] ingenious jigsaw puzzle of a book...highly entertaining.” —The New York Times

“The queen of found footage thrillers.” —Julia Bartz, New York Times bestselling author

A whip-smart and “fast-paced mystery” (The Daily Telegraph, London) from the internationally bestselling author of The Twyford Code and The Appeal about a true crime journalist who revives a long-buried case about a cult—and finds herself too close to the story.

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.

©2024 Janice Hallett (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

Masterfully constructed

This book has a really cool structure in that the way that its parts come together is clever and satisfying. I found it to be a bit weirdly paced, though. A lot a lot happens at the end and very little happens in the middle parts.

Multiple viewpoints contemporary suspense

There is virtually no prose here, it is all first person viewpoints in text messages, email messages, WhatsApp, messages, and a few newspaper articles. So it reads like a series of conversations. Takes a little getting used to, but the story is complex and ultimately engrossing. Even satisfying. Good narration by all. 

Unpredictable ending

The story was initially a little difficult to follow, the various types of documents described and learning the characters, but when the pieces starting coming together I could stop listening. The voices for the story were excellent as well. I can usually predict the ending of mystery novels, but I was thoroughly shocked by this one. I will definitely recommend this to others and look forward to reading the author’s other books.

Brilliant

Very complicated & compelling mystery. Astounding twists & turns. So, much fun! An excellent audiobook production that is very highly recommended.

Intriguing plot

Intriguing plot, moves rapidly. As an American, I highly recommend you read it instead of listening to it n Audible. I found many of the accents very hard to understand

Angel Heart meets Slow Horses

Found this audio book to be particularly engaging from the get go - so much to parse through, written with humor and finesse, excellent pacing of narrative and character development. Very stimulating, keeps you guessing, and deft at whetting the appetite for more. Almost fell in love with it - although somehow felt a little disappointed by the finale.

Very enjoyable listen, well and uniquely written and haunting

I was a bit skeptical as I started listening, I disliked the format at first, with the way the story is built on pieces of communications, the inclusions of emoji especially annoyed me, but I quickly came around as the story began to take shape. It is really a great story, and it is well told, and the narrators are wonderful also.

My favorite author

Janice Hallett can’t write a book that I don’t love. I order her books from England as soon as they come out and then have to wait a year for the audiobook. I love the narrators and the story is just as good the second time.

Hmmmm

Not sure if I liked it or not! I didn’t like it at first, then started to like it. I thought how it was structured was interesting.

Actor chewing noises disgusting. Did not finish.

I am legally blind and buy audiobooks to read a book, not listen to a radio play. I ceased listening when one of the actors started making eating noises. It was revolting and unnecessary. Will be returning this one and likely giving this publisher a miss in future. Very sorry audiobooks are going this route.