The Angel Gang

The First Two Books of Ken Kuhlken's series set during World War II were far more than just hardboiled, action-filled stories about a private detective in San Diego - although they were certainly that as well. They transcended the genre to become complex, engrossing literary works that hold their own against the best of today's novels, with marvelously multidimensional characters and an extraordinary feeling for the period.The Angel Gang, the third and final episode, crowns Kuhlken's character Tom Hickey with a human drama that shines with spirituality as well as excitement. As the book begins, the thoughtful, capable ex-private detective is married to the waif he rescued in The Loud Adios, the delicate Wendy, whose unworldly innocence and faith in her "angels" provides her with a stronger shield against evil than even Hickey's devotion and the gun he carries.Hickey is drawn away from their idyllic retreat in Tahoe, where Wendy is conspicuously pregnant, to come once more to the aid of Cynthia, the young singer who caused him so much trouble in The Venus Deal. But he is summoned back hastily when criminals employed by one of Hickey's several old enemies abduct Wendy. The rush to rescue her becomes an almost unbearably taut drama whose climax is as surprising as it is heartrending.