Falling Angel

"Falling Angel" is a fantasy/horror/thriller hybrid novel with occult overtones by William Hjortsberg. It was made into the movie "Angel Heart", albeit with a few significant changes.

Plot Summary

What happened to the singer Johnny Favorite? A teenage idol before and during World War II, he hasn't been heard from or seen in at least 15 years. When a private detective is hired by a sinister client to track him down, he finds himself tangled in a web of voodoo and devil worship.

It's 1958 and Harold Angel is a private investigator whose services are engaged by an ostensibly French gentleman named Louis Cyphre to track down the singer Johnny Favorite who mysteriously dropped out of sight in Manhattan's Times Square on New Year's Eve of 1943. Monsieur Cyphre claims that Mister Favorite was contractually obliged to him for unspecified services rendered and must be located so as to allow for fulfillment of his part of the bargain.

Harold Angel unwittingly leaves a trail of gruesomely murdered people wherever he follows the cold, cold trail of Johnny Favorite. Somebody, it seems, is following in his wake and extracting vengeance upon anyone involved in Favorite's disappearance. The closer he gets to his quarry the faster that events and revelations unfold until he has a final shocking epiphany revealing his own personal direct involvement in this unholy business.