Angels Whisper

Five Star, Feb 2005, $25.95, 319 pp.
ISBN: 1594142653

In Franklin, Indiana, former Indianapolis Standard investigative reporter Nick Bertetto is taking home his four-and-a-half-year-old daughter and five other kids from St. Rita preschool when he almost hits a homeless person wandering in front of his vehicle. He stops to help the unconscious male who mumbles something about missing state representative Calvin Cahill wearing red. The police arrive to take charge of the scene so Nick takes the children home.

Nick visits the homeless person, learning that his name is Elijah Smith. Elijah insists that the angels told him that Cahill wore red. Though his spouse would have cardiac arrest if he began making inquiries, Nick cannot stop himself from sleuthing. Joining his old peer at the newspaper, Ryan Lockridge, Nick begins to uncover a strange scenario involving gambling and corpses, but the tie-back to Cahill remains nebulous. Now Nick and his family are targets of someone who wants him to stop his investigation.

The second tale (see SECOND ADVENT) starring stay-at-home dad Nick Bertetto is an enjoyable, journalistic, investigative story. The mystery of Cahill is cleverly shrouded so that the audience wonders if Elijah is either crazy or truly hearing angels. Nick is a fantastic protagonist, but the key to the novel is the strong support cast, especially his wife, still mentally unstable from being abducted during his Indianapolis days, the "mystical" Elijah, and Ryan. Tony Perona provides a fine, contemporary mystery starring a solid lead who hides his inquiries from his wife to protect her fragile mind.

Harriet Klausner