Another Pulse Pounding Thriller from Alex North!

Fate is a funny thing. Either you believe in it, or you don’t. Alan Hobbes is a Professor who teaches Fate, and Free Will, and believes fully in both. As if he knew, or had some sort of intuition, a few hours before Alan Hobbes is about to be murdered, he fires his entire staff. Sounds almost like fate or perhaps just a coincidence?

Growing up, Katie Shaw and her brother Christopher were quite close until one fateful day when Katie made the greatest mistake of her life. Thereafter, both she and Chris paid dearly for it. Chris most of all.

Years later, Katie has a family of her own, who she would do anything to protect. Unfortunately for her, she’s going to have to do just that.

Throughout most of his life, Chris has been through hell. It seems as though he has come out the other side. It’s too darn bad that hell isn’t done with him.

A twisty-turny novel that got me all riled up, The Angel Maker is another winner from Alex North.

I will admit that I wasn’t sure about this at first, and had a bit of trouble keeping all the storylines straight. Listening to the audio simply didn’t work for me at all! Normally, I just would have given up on a book that confused me from the get-go, but since I’ve loved all of Alex North’s previous books, I decided to switch to the ebook and start fresh. Let’s just say that I’m super glad I did.

This was a buddy read/listen with Kaceey.

Thanks to Celadon Books and Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

4 out of 5 stars



I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for allowing me to listen to this in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good dark thriller and this is definitely that! When Katie Shaw was on the verge of graduating her younger brother Chris was attacked. Things were never the same after that. Chris was never the same and Katie got over her guilt of not protecting her brother the way she felt she should have. Years later Katie has a partner and a child of her own when her brother disappears.

Meanwhile Detective Laurence Page catches a terrible murder of a man who leads back to two terrible crimes, one of them leads back to Christopher Shaw.

I would describe this as a slow burn dark thriller. Alex North did a good job of slowly building up tension and the performance by Rosalie Craig was fantastic.

I really enjoyed this book though. It was a little bit of a slow start for me personally. I really like the narrator kept the story moving. I like the characters in the book. I’ve read this author’s previous novels and enjoyed them. Definitely add this book to your to be read list if you were a fan of the authors work.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for my gifted audio copy of THE ANGEL MAKER by Alex North!

THE ANGEL MAKER is a dark horror thriller following a set of siblings. Katie has a good life with a husband and an adorable daughter. She grew up close with her little brother Chris until he was violently attacked out of the blue and his life was sent on a different trajectory. When her mother calls to let her know that her brother has gone missing, again, Katie feels the need to try to make contact. She doesn’t expect then that there might be a danger to her own little family as well.

Meanwhile, there is a Detective Page who is looking into a horrible crime. The victim was an expert on the study of free will and predetermination. The investigation will bring the detective across the same path as Katie and Chris and bring ties to old crimes even more horrifying.

This book took me quite a while to get into. In the beginning we are getting glimpses of what happened to Chris in the past, things that are happening in the present with Katie and her family, and the crimes being investigated in the present and the past. All of this together made it a bit of a struggle to keep who was who straight and how the timelines fit together.

There is a lot of philosophizing as well about the issues of predetermination and freewill and the ways this works in with religion and . At times this feels a bit like attending a lecture, but in the end I did find that there was a payoff in how it tied in with the story. There is a need for suspension of disbelief as well with the way some elements have you wondering what is real and what is out of the realm of possibility.

I wound up enjoying myself in the end and this did make up for the slow and confusing start, but I would recommend starting this one at a time when you really can put full focus on it! The audio was good, but I did find myself wishing I also had a physical copy to be able to flip back and reference things in the beginning.

😭😭😭 this review pains me because I do LOVE this author. However, I felt like as a reader, I was left too much in the dark for too long. The jumping timelines and pov's (even mid chapter) made it so hard for me to follow. Reading a book shouldn't be this difficult.

It could be the audiobook that fell flat for me, so I'll give it a go once the book comes out and I can get the physical or e book to eyeball read.

The Angel Maker is creepy crime-fiction from Alex North.

"Katie Shaw still feels guilt about the attack on her brother Chris years ago. Now he's missing and her mother asks her help to find him. Katie is also uneasy about the car she keeps seeing. It feels like she's being stalked and her daughter's talking about a man watching her at school.
Detective Laurence Page is called to an odd murder. The victim had fired his staff hours before being murdered. As Page follows the leads, he finds connection of his case to the assault on Chris and the crimes of a serial killer."

I did not want to stop listening to this story from North. There's a lot going on but North ties it all together at the end. There are a lot of twists, many that you will have a good guess for but the story is still entertaining. It was fun to try and figure out what North was going to do.
I would like to have seen more about Edward and his early role with the Angel Maker. There are some similar themes to the Whisper Man and North writes some creepy villians.

An excellent audio performance from Rosalie Craig.

Fans of crime fiction or creepy stories should add this to your 2023 list.

This one missed for me. It was very slow and I found myself losing Interest half way through the story. I really liked the previous two books from this author so sad this one didn't work for me.

I REALLY enjoyed this book. I think this may be my favorite Alex North title to date.

Years ago, tragedy struck the Shaw family. Katie has never forgiven herself that she wasn’t there for her younger brother when he was brutally attacked by a serial killer. But Chris survived and has lived a troubled life.

In present day, Katie is starting to feel like something is coming. Her daughter is the most important thing in her whole world and she fears that she may not be safe… and it is all connected to what happened to her brother (who is now missing).

The unknowns interwoven into this story were just so interesting. I liked the incorporation of the notions that people don’t have any actual control over things like free will and that all occurrences are preordained…

This was a great thriller and I definitely enjoyed the audiobook.

Rating: 4 Stars
I had to take notes while reading this. Im probably missing some characters, but I counted 21. Yes, 21 characters, possibly more. It wasn't a fun time. However, the plot....LOVED IT.
Listen, I'm not saying it wasn't a good book; just be prepared.

I think the story was good and the narrator did a good job with the women’s perspective, but it was a very hard book to listen to because the same voice is used with every character. You had to listen for little clues to figure out which perspective you were hearing from and that made it difficult to follow sometimes.

Thank you @netgalley for the ARC of The Angel Maker. Alex North's books are always a good read. This one was creepy and kept me guessing. I think it is better in print form than in audio, but I it's still a great book!

I was super stoked when I was approved for the audiobook from NetGalley. I am a huge fan of The Shadows and The Whisper Man, so I couldn’t wait to get to this one. I love how the audio mixes crime with horror elements.

Sadly, I’m not much of a fan of this one. I feel like the book lost me within the first 20 minutes of audio. This book features like Goosebumps-level short chapters but from different perspectives. Not to mention also time periods? It jumps so fast and so often that you aren’t really spending significant time with anyone, which wasn’t allowing me to settle into any one perspective. It was incredibly confusing.

The hooks and twists of the story were lacking for me, they read as kind of unbelievable. I’m not sure if it was because they were too simple, too coincidental, or because they actually didn’t make sense. This read like a book that got published 2 or 3 drafts before it was finished. There’s interesting stuff here, but it’s not collected well. The Angel Maker? It’s like oddly referenced two or three times, sounds super creepy and weird, but literally has no pay out. Did they forget? It kind of sets up its horror elements, but then forgets to add them in.

Personally a 2/5* for me. Oddly disappointed!

I'm not sure where to begin for this review. I listened to this thriller on audio and binged it quickly.

This book follows multiple characters including Katie and her brother Chris who is currently missing after she reported him to the police for stealing from her 2 years ago. Michael Hyde is another main character who attempted to murder Chris when he was a teenager. Katie blames herself for not walking home with her brother when she was supposed to. Alan Hobbes is another of the main characters in the novel, a wealthy philosophy professor who lectures on the idea that every action is predetermined and cannot be changed. There are also two detectives who play main roles in the novel trying to locate Chris (the missing brother) and help solve a murder amongst other underlying crimes.

This was a very well written thriller however, with all of the characters, it was a bit hard to follow on audio and keep up with how they were all connected. I found myself wishing I had the text in front of me so I could flip back in the book and refresh my memory. I do believe some sort of character map would have been helpful to keep all of the connections straight (even though it would have been a spoiler as some connections you do not discover until the very end). Maybe it could be bonus content on the author's website?

I noticed that the book is classified as "horror". I wouldn't necessarily describe this novel as horror personally. Overall, I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a serial killer, multiple point of view, thriller.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an ARC of The Angel Maker in exchange for an honest review.

In 2000, when she was just 17, Katie Shaw lived a nightmare. The one time she broke the rules and spent an hour at her boyfriend’s house instead of walking her younger brother Chris home from school, he was attacked and nearly killed by a knife-wielding man named Michael Hyde. In October of 2017, a former professor of philosophy named Alan Hobbes is found murdered. As Detective Laurence Page investigates, he is troubled by several things: the many signs indicating that Professor Hobbes seemed to know he was about to be murdered; that Chris Shaw seems to have been involved with Professor Hobbes; and that Professor Hobbes had an extensive collection of memorabilia from a notorious mid-century serial killer known as The Angel Maker.

On one level, The Angel Maker is a standard thriller, with murders and detectives and mystery and whatnot. But it has some uncommon wrinkles to it. First, it explores siblings and their sometimes complicated relationships, especially when tragedy and guilt are present. Second, the story cleverly incorporates the philosophical theory of determinism (the idea that everything is predetermined because of the laws of physical matter, and that what appears to be chance is just a function of the observer’s incomplete information). Can one or more of the characters somehow see into the future based upon their knowledge of the present?

The Angel Maker is well-written. The first half is a bit of a slow burn, but the second half flies by at explosive speed. Some of that pacing is likely because there are large number of characters for a novel of this length, and it takes a bit of time to get to know them and their troubles. Finally, a word about the narrator, Rosalie Craig. She did a really good job with this ensemble cast of characters, and her accent added to the overall vibe. Another successful novel by Mr. North. Recommended.

I was approved for both the book and the audiobook. I could not get into either one. It was difficult to keep up with so many characters.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* Wow, so there was a lot i didnt see coming, that's for sure. This book had me guessing until the end and unable to put it down!

t took a little bit for me to get into this story, but once I could keep all of the characters straight (because there are quite a few) it was much more enjoyable. One thing that North did really well in this book is give you ample time to try to figure out what was going on, how the characters were connected, and create your own theories. The abundance of characters made it all the more fun to try to piece all the information together.

Another aspect that I really enjoy about North’s writing is the little sprinkling of paranormal/supernatural elements in his works. This didn’t disappoint in that aspect. I will continue to pick up North’s works in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Alex North for an e-arc of The Angel Maker in exchange for an honest review.

I want to thank Celadon books and Netgalley for an early release copy of this book.

I was approved for both the book and the audiobook, and I have to say that the book was much easier to handle. I ended up giving the physical book 4 stars, but the audiobook 3 stars.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story, however, it was sometimes difficult to read with the vast array of characters. I am not going to attempt a synopsis, because it is too twisty to try to explain. Essentially, it is based around the ideas of a famous serial killer who believed he could "see" the future (more so that he cracked the code of the future of everything being pre-determined, so there was nothing you can do to change it).

As with North's other books, you need to slow down and really focus on this one, because things are developing so quickly, you may miss an important point, if you are zoning out.

The only thing I didn't love were the number of characters that you had to keep track of. I kept finding myself confused as to who was related to who and in what way. I almost needed to make a flow chart. This was especially difficult with the audiobook, due to there only being one narrator, and it was harder to differentiate the personality of the different characters.

Overall, if you like dark thrillers, that are a little more difficult to read, I recommend this book. If you are only interested in popcorn thrillers, it probably isn't for you.

I love Alex North novels, so I was very excited to receive an advanced copy of this. This tale is told in multiple POVs and I think the narrator did a great job, although her male characters could use a little work. The timeline does jump a bit, and there are multiple story lines going as well that will eventually collide with several twists and turns that will leave you sitting there like “what did I just read?” North does not disappoint.

This book will appeal to fans of thrillers with a good serial killer and philosophical debate.

This is my third book by this author and although everything about them screams “you will love me!” Something just doesn’t quite work for me.

However the writing is well done and good character development. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something about it didn’t hit quite right.

Thank you #netgalley for this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.