Kill Angel - Angel #3

Author: Frederick H. Christian

First Published: 1973

Fileseize/Pages: 451kb/141pp
Ebook Publisher: Piccadilly Publishing

Ebook Date: April 2014

(Note: My  numbering of the Angel series is based upon the publication order by Sphere UK)

I can't believe its been over a year since I last read a Western! I don't know why such a long time elapsed, but I'm glad I've got back in the saddle. Kill Angel is another tale of the Justice Deptartment's "get-it-done" special investigator, Frank Angel, written expertly by Frederick H. Christian (aka Frederick Nolan). I had a great time reading Send Angel back in May 2020, and I'm happy to report that Nolan entertains even more so with this exciting installment.

This time around Frank Angel is called upon to find and bring back to justice the head of the notorious Blantine clan, father Yancey Ballantine. Charged with his mission by the Attorney-General, Angel sets out to enlist the help of two friends, Chris Vaughan and Pearly Gates to travel with him into Mexico and ride right up in to the heart of the Blantine-controlled town of Agua Caliente. They not only have to contend with a town full of Blantine henchmen, but also the sons of Yancey named Harry, Burke and Gregg.

Frank Angel devises a plan to bring the Blantines out of thier hideout with a brazen entrance to Agua Caliente's saloon. Its a risky venture, as he throws himself into the lion's den with the help of his two partners - but somehow they need to find and capture the ring-leader who was responsivle for the mass murdering rampage of an entire town.

Nolan provides an excellent book. Afast, no-nonsense Western that skirts around the edges of the Piccadilly ultra-voilence that dominated at the time. His characters of suitable balck or white, and the action incridibly satisfying. There are a couple of stand-out scenes, a nighttime attack by local apache indians, and a show-down in a dead-end canyon.

My only negative was that possibly the order the Sphere paperbacks as published in the UK might mean that this was the first appearance of Angel's friends, Vaughan and Gates - whereas I have a sneaky feeling that perhaps they had already been characters in one or two of the other Angels books if they had been released in the correct order? I can't be sure, but the way both of the men are introduced, its cleaer that Angel has back-story with them, which as a reader I wasn't privvy too.

If you are after a neat, solid quick Western with a just a touch of bloody action, this could be the one for you. I really enjoyed this Nolan title.