City of Fallen Angels
- Paul Buchanan
This week, I review Paul Buchanan’s recent PI series debut set in LA during the early sixties. Next week, I’ll be posting my review of his sequel, Valley of Shadows.
First up then, is City of Fallen Angels. Set in Los Angeles in the summer of 1962, City of Fallen Angels is Paul Buchanan’s first book in his PI Jim Keegan series. A sumptuous and engrossing noir fiction, it’s the series launch for private detective, Jimmy Keegan. Published in 2020, it’s an intriguing tale about truth and deception surrounding a murder.
Jimmy is a solid, fully formed character and I felt comfortable riding shotgun with Buchanan’s PI. He’s confident, committed and rounded, and he knows his own mind. There is though a good helping of failure within Jimmy’s character too – bad luck attached to him which helps to flesh out a real person, one who gains the reader’s empathy.
Supporting characters are limited in number, perhaps by design, and I like Buchanan’s restricted palette. The heroine is particularly well crafted but all are well-conceived and engaging. Jimmy’s secretary, Mrs Dodd, with her twangy Queens way of talking and his pseudo-buddy, Kipper Lusk who runs the newsstand where Jimmy buys his gum are both great characters. Lusk is an ex-hood and like Mrs Dodd, he’s equally very New York. There’s often an underlying element of humour in Buchanan’s writing and somehow Lusk brings to my mind Mow Szyslak from The Simpsons.
The plot is presented simply and the reader is drawn into the mystery which is central to the story and also to the intriguing relationship which develops between Jimmy and the young heroine, Eve. The author’s research is evident in creating a highly convincing sense of time and place. Buchanan builds a colourful picture of Los Angeles in the early sixties. I have a particular interest in LA during this era – my new novel is also partly set in sixties California – it’s a wonderful period to write.
The characterisation, the attention to description and just the overall quality of the writing put me in mind of Robert Galbraith. Perhaps Buchanan’s not quite up there with JK Rowling, at least not yet, but for this reader, I’d say Jimmy Keegan is knocking on Strike’s door, and knocking loudly enough for him to hear.
The ending, for me however, came suddenly and too soon. I really wasn’t expecting the book to finish where it did. I had previously been listening to longer audiobooks and for the story to end at a point that I thought to be somewhere near the middle came as a surprise. I felt there ought to have been more and so I was left feeling a little unsatisfied. On reflection, what is left unresolved isn’t actually so important to the story and I suppose a book has to end somewhere. And I guess it’s a good sign when you don’t want your fiction to end just yet.
Fortunately, the sequel picks up Jimmy’s story soon after the first book ends – and if it were the author’s (or the publisher’s) intention to leave the reader wanting more, then that aim was achieved in this reader because I bought the sequel straight away. I liked Jimmy and his exploits in Los Angeles and I was keen to spend more time with him.
I listened to this book rather than read it. One note about the audiobook: the narration is superb; the voice artist is perfectly cast and the reading certainly adds an extra dimension to the storytelling. I did miss the narration on the sequel which, at the time of writing is unavailable as an audiobook.
In summary, this debut sparkles like the glittering black sequins on a sixties Hollywood starlet’s evening gown. The sequel is as good, if not better and, once it arrives, I’ll certainly be reading book three in this series too.
About the author
Author, Paul Buchanan. Photo credit: Biola University, CA
Paul Buchanan earned a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and an MFA in fiction writing from Chapman University. He teaches and writes in the Los Angeles area.
Watch out for next week’s blog post when I’ll be reviewing the sequel, Valley of Shadows.
