SIDNEY SHELDON'S ANGEL OF THE DARK
by Tilly Bagshawe
A mysterious beauty and an unsolved crime are catnip a tough international detective can't resist.
When LAPD detective Danny Maguire arrives at a crime scene, his life is forever changed. The brutal murder of art dealer Andrew Jakes is unconventional—some of the obvious loot is left, while a number of rare miniatures are stolen. But it's Jakes' widow, the gorgeous Angela Jakes, who gets to Maguire. Despite having been brutally raped and beaten, she is a knockout—the most beautiful woman Maguire has ever seen—and he vows to avenge her. But before he can really get to work, Angela disappears, and none of the lies she told him provide a clue. Not until years later, when Maguire has rebuilt his life in France, does the case seem to come alive again. Jakes' unacknowledged son has a lead, and soon, several seemingly copycat crimes are leading Maguire to Rome, Hong Kong and Dubai. In each case, a wealthy, elderly man is murdered, and his younger stunning wife is assaulted. Despite the geographic distribution of the attacks, there are strange similarities, and before long, Maguire is convinced he's on the trail of one demonic killer. Working from a rough outline simply called "Novel 19," Bagshawe (Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness, 2010)—a thriller author in her own right—has fashioned a fast-paced go-get-'em that successfully melds Sheldon's signature sex and glamour with a globe-trotting thriller.
Bagshawe does the franchise proud with a silly but amusing read.