Angel Eye by Madeleine Nakamura
Angel Eye is a book that slowly winds the reader’s anxiety up and up and up. Madeleine Nakamura builds tension and a sense of dread word by word, paragraph by paragraph, chapter by chapter. However, Nakamura writes such a compellingly well written story that it’s impossible to stop reading/listening despite knowing that things are going to go bad for Adrien, professor of magic and disgraced ex-physician. As a result of his fight to save Astrum from a magical curse in book one, Cursebreakers, Adrien’s magical core is damaged, and his self-doubt and guilt make him terribly vulnerable. He does not trust his own intuition and actions, and he has the worst luck! When the hospital and Solarium experience an outbreak of patient deaths due to heart attack, Adrien gets himself entangled with the Inquisitors, swings from being defiant and outspoken to timidity and cowardice. Making things worse, Adrien must have a “keeper” to watch over him when his dicrazium (or bipolar Type 1) flares up. He hires Dr. Florian Albrecht, a respected physician and experienced keeper. Florian moves in with Adrien and under the guise of keeping Adrien safe, manipulates the man into greater self-doubt and slowly isolates him from his friends. When Florian offers to treat Adrien’s magical damage, he inflicts a level of mental control that results in pain and memory loss. Nakamura makes no secret that Florian is a psychopath and indeed uses Florian’s character to ratchet up the anxiety!
Madeleine Nakamura creates an amazing magical world of academics, doctors, military, religion, and a branch of the government called the Inquisitors. This group operates with impunity, bypassing the rights of citizens to justice by normal means. Reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, the Inquisitors use kidnapping, torture and ruthless intimidation to speed up the imprisonment or execution of any magic user unfortunate enough to come under their suspicion.
I confess to having to take breaks from Nakamura’s world because it is horrific in many ways, and all too parallel to events in the United States at this very moment.
I’m glad I persisted in finishing however, because the finale takes us on an exciting, dangerous, and unpredictable rollercoaster of events. I won’t give any more spoilers but this is a book worth reading or listening to. Highly recommended!
Tim Lounibos is the perfect voice actor to narrate this book. If you’re an audiobook listener, you know that a good narrator can elevate a book to greater enjoyment for the reader/listener, and Lounibos is terrific!