Fic­tion

Phan­tom Angel

David Han­dler
  • Review
By – April 28, 2015

Aspir­ing actor turned pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tor Ben­ji Gold­en loves the the­ater. He is also very good at find­ing miss­ing peo­ple. That is why Mor­rie Frankel, the last great inde­pen­dent Broad­way pro­duc­er, hires him. Mor­rie is ful­fill­ing his life­long dream of cre­at­ing a musi­cal ver­sion of Emi­ly Brontë’s Wuther­ing Heights, but he needs financ­ing for his extrav­a­gan­za: $65 mil­lion. He has cast the hottest young movie idols as the lead char­ac­ters, but he can’t pay them. He thought that he had found his angel, a British hedge fund mogul named R.J. Far­nell, who offered $12 mil­lion, but the mon­ey and Far­nell have dis­ap­peared. Ben­ji man­ages to find Farnell’s beau­ti­ful young girl­friend, Jon­quil Beau­soleil, but she tells him that Ben­ji will nev­er find Far­nell because he does not exist. Mor­rie has a great deal to explain. Ben­ji aban­dons the case, but he soon finds him­self in the mid­dle of a mur­der inves­ti­ga­tion. Mor­rie turns up dead on 42nd Street and Ben­ji has to keep Jon­quil safe and fig­ure out who killed Mor­rie. Mys­tery read­ers will enjoy this sto­ry with its col­or­ful char­ac­ters and Broad­way lore.

Relat­ed Content:

Bar­bara M. Bibel is a librar­i­an at the Oak­land Pub­lic Library in Oak­land, CA; and at Con­gre­ga­tion Netiv­ot Shalom, Berke­ley, CA.

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