Angelology

Angelology
by Danielle Trussoni
Viking Penguin, 2010. 452 pgs. Fiction

When Sister Evangeline, assistant librarian at the St. Rose Convent, Hudson River Valley, receives a request for access to the convent's library to look for letters from Abigail Rockefeller to Mother Innocenta, she types out the standard refusal letter but doesn't send it. Curiosity piqued, she searches the archives until she finds a letter and then shares it with Verlaine, the young man making the request who has come to the convent to find it. From there all hell literally breaks loose as Verlaine and Evangeline find themselves drawn into an ages-old conflict between the Angelologists and the Nephilim--children of mortals and fallen angels. Though the Nephilim are exquisitely beautiful and filled with light, it is an unholy illumination. Their need for power makes them indifferent to humanity and they kill and dominate according to their own desires and whims. Trussoni is a fine writer. Her settings and descriptions are particularly well done, visual and evocative. The story bogs a bit in the middle when Sister Celestine provides a lengthy backstory for the current uproars. Back to Evangeline and Verlaine the action, treachery, and violence return (with a need for suspension of disbelief as to what would go unnoticed in New York City), and lead to a slam-bang ending. If Angelology will have a sequel, the ending is a fine, unsettling cliffhanger. If not, it is just unsettling. A mixed bag, but ambitious, beguiling, well-written. Definitely a story that will not be soon forgotten.