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Isaiah Coleridge #3
Worse Angels
Ex-Mob enforcer and now private investigator Isaiah Coleridge pits himself against a rich and powerful foe when he digs into a possible murder and a sketchy real estate deal worth billions.
P.I. Isaiah Coleridge is hired to investigate a suspicious death tied to a stalled supercollider project in the northern reaches of New York State. An industrial tycoon recently turned senator may be involved--at least his alienated ex-major-domo and bodyguard sure thinks so. Meanwhile, Coleridge and Lionel attempt to solve the mystery of 1.5 million bucks they recovered during their last case, and decide what to do with it...
P.I. Isaiah Coleridge is hired to investigate a suspicious death tied to a stalled supercollider project in the northern reaches of New York State. An industrial tycoon recently turned senator may be involved--at least his alienated ex-major-domo and bodyguard sure thinks so. Meanwhile, Coleridge and Lionel attempt to solve the mystery of 1.5 million bucks they recovered during their last case, and decide what to do with it...
335 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 26, 2020
About the author
Laird Barron
167 books2,650 followersLaird Barron, an expat Alaskan, is the author of several books, including The Imago Sequence and Other Stories; Swift to Chase; and Blood Standard. Currently, Barron lives in the Rondout Valley of New York State and is at work on tales about the evil that men do.
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
Photo credit belongs to Ardi Alspach
Agent: Janet Reid of New Leaf Literary & Media
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
February 5, 2020
“Worse Angels” is the third book in the Isaiah Coleridge series about an ex-mob enforcer, now a private eye, always eager to prove how well-read he is. “Blood Standard,” the first book in the series was so terrifically narrated that one would assume that by the third book the excitement would be unparalleled. No such luck. Here, Coleridge investigates a suicide in an industrial plant that doesn’t seem real suicidal and on the way deals with Senators, military-industrial complexes, and meat-devouring cultists. The narrative voice here sort of goes off the rails with smart asides, dream sequences, and endless discussions of things not germane to the plot.
August 24, 2020
Υπάρχουν οι συγγραφείς-μιμητές και υπάρχουν κι αυτοί που στο είδος που γράφουν, δημιουργούν δίχως παρωπίδες. Έχουν αναπτύξει το δικός τους στύλ, το οποίο εντοπίζεται ακόμα και στα πρωτόλειά τους, το οποίο αποτελεί μια απόδειξη πως δεν γίνεσαι ξεχωριστός συγγραφέας παπαγαλίζοντας, αλλά επειδή έχεις κάτι μέσα σου που πασχίζει να βγει. Γράφεις για να βγει δίχως να σου σκίσει τα σωθικά. Ο Λερντ Μπάρον δεν έχει ωραία πράματα στο νου. Ο κόσμος του είναι σκοτεινός και εξαιρετικά βίαιος. Συνήθως γράφει ιστορίες ενός κοσμικού τρόμου, που είναι πολύ κοντά σ' αυτό που θα έγραφε ο Λαβκραφτ αν ζούσε σήμερα, εγκατέλειπε την αμετροεπή περιγραφικότητα για την λιτή γραφή ενός Χέμινγουει με μπόλικες δόσεις από hard-boiled και εξάρσεις ενδοσκόπησης. Αυτό το crime/hard-boiled στοιχείο ο Barron αποφάσισε να το καλλιεργήσει παραπάνω, ξεκινώντας την σειρά Isaiah Coleridge.
Έχετε διαβάσει εσείς Barron; Όχι; Σας αρέσουν τα αστυνομικά; Ο τρίτος τόμος, είναι ο καλύτερος της σειράς. Σ' αυτόν ο Barron έχει αποδεχθεί ποιος είναι ο ίδιος και που βαδίζει ο πρωταγωνιστής του. Οι δύο πρώτοι τόμοι ήταν πιο καθαρές crime ιστορίες. Εδώ υπάρχει μια μετατόπιση, και ό,τι υπαινισσόταν προηγουμένως, εδώ γίνεται λίγο πιο ξεκάθαρο: ο κόσμος του Κόλεριτζ δεν είναι αυτός μιας αστυνομικής ιστορίας. Είναι κάτι πιο φρικαλέο. Υπάρχει, η μίξη κβαντικής τεχνολογίας, ψυχοτρόπων ουσιών και ύπνωσης, που μπορεί να μεταλλάξει την νευρομυϊκή απόκριση ενός σώματος, τα οποία είναι κάποια από τα μοτίβα με τα οποία καταπιάνεται ο Barron. Ωστόσο, κάτι άλλο φαίνεται πως κρύβεται, αν και ούτε φαίνεται αλλά ούτε και διατυπώνεται ξεκάθαρα. Μην περιμένετε, πάντως, κάποια μεγάλη κάθαρση στο τέλος. Σ' ενα σκοτεινό μέρος, το φως αχνοφαίνεται για λίγο, μέχρι να νυχτώσει.
Έχω διαβάσει πως κάποιοι προβληματίστηκαν μ' αυτό τον τόμο. Λένε, για παράδειγμα, πως αναλώνεται σε κάποιες περιγραφές ή μονολόγους που δεν είναι ξεκάθαρο τι εξυπηρετούν. Είστε παλαβοί; Ο τύπος ποτέ δεν χαλάει γραμμή για κάτι που δεν εξυπηρετεί την ιστορία του. Τέτοια αντιμετώπιση είναι αχαριστία. Είναι ένας σπάνιος συγγραφέας κι αυτό το βιβλίο είναι με διαφορά ο καλύτερος τόμος της σειράς και ένα από τα καλύτερα κράματα περιπέτειας, τρόμου και υψηλής τεστοστερόνης ντετέκτιβ ιστορίας, που έχω διαβάσει.
Κάνετε την χάρη στον εαυτό σας και πιάστε ένα βιβλίο του Barron. Θα συνειδητοποιήσετε πόσες ανοησίες κυκλοφορούν. Θα είναι θλιβερή συνειδητοποίηση, αλλά τουλάχιστον θα ξέρετε.
Έχετε διαβάσει εσείς Barron; Όχι; Σας αρέσουν τα αστυνομικά; Ο τρίτος τόμος, είναι ο καλύτερος της σειράς. Σ' αυτόν ο Barron έχει αποδεχθεί ποιος είναι ο ίδιος και που βαδίζει ο πρωταγωνιστής του. Οι δύο πρώτοι τόμοι ήταν πιο καθαρές crime ιστορίες. Εδώ υπάρχει μια μετατόπιση, και ό,τι υπαινισσόταν προηγουμένως, εδώ γίνεται λίγο πιο ξεκάθαρο: ο κόσμος του Κόλεριτζ δεν είναι αυτός μιας αστυνομικής ιστορίας. Είναι κάτι πιο φρικαλέο. Υπάρχει, η μίξη κβαντικής τεχνολογίας, ψυχοτρόπων ουσιών και ύπνωσης, που μπορεί να μεταλλάξει την νευρομυϊκή απόκριση ενός σώματος, τα οποία είναι κάποια από τα μοτίβα με τα οποία καταπιάνεται ο Barron. Ωστόσο, κάτι άλλο φαίνεται πως κρύβεται, αν και ούτε φαίνεται αλλά ούτε και διατυπώνεται ξεκάθαρα. Μην περιμένετε, πάντως, κάποια μεγάλη κάθαρση στο τέλος. Σ' ενα σκοτεινό μέρος, το φως αχνοφαίνεται για λίγο, μέχρι να νυχτώσει.
Έχω διαβάσει πως κάποιοι προβληματίστηκαν μ' αυτό τον τόμο. Λένε, για παράδειγμα, πως αναλώνεται σε κάποιες περιγραφές ή μονολόγους που δεν είναι ξεκάθαρο τι εξυπηρετούν. Είστε παλαβοί; Ο τύπος ποτέ δεν χαλάει γραμμή για κάτι που δεν εξυπηρετεί την ιστορία του. Τέτοια αντιμετώπιση είναι αχαριστία. Είναι ένας σπάνιος συγγραφέας κι αυτό το βιβλίο είναι με διαφορά ο καλύτερος τόμος της σειράς και ένα από τα καλύτερα κράματα περιπέτειας, τρόμου και υψηλής τεστοστερόνης ντετέκτιβ ιστορίας, που έχω διαβάσει.
Κάνετε την χάρη στον εαυτό σας και πιάστε ένα βιβλίο του Barron. Θα συνειδητοποιήσετε πόσες ανοησίες κυκλοφορούν. Θα είναι θλιβερή συνειδητοποίηση, αλλά τουλάχιστον θα ξέρετε.
April 25, 2024
Isaiah Coleridge. I kind of love this guy now. I wouldn't have said that within the span of the first two books, and that does not mean that I didn't like him as a character, cause I did. He's complicated - meaning: intelligent (depth of personality), a bruiser, sometimes a thug (as necessary, you know?), and in ways his heart is bigger than the job. Short summary: he'll go the extra mile for what's right. All that to say, getting to know the whole Isaiah takes time. Like an onion, there are layers.
Coleridge being a product of the author, Laird Barron, means Coleridge's intelligence is Barron's. These novels do take tangents, including lots of character discussions. Getting is never a straight line. During the middle of this novel, I had my doubts as to where it was headed, but the ending was clear and I know that without the meandering there is less satisfaction.
The question now becomes what's next for Isaiah. Plenty of enemies remain in the periphery, including the mob and the recent past. His position as an investigator continues to open because he goes where others will or cannot. At the same time, he's taking a literal beating. I've purposely avoided reading the blurb for the one novella remaining, but I've heard it's one of Laird's best. Looking forward to it.
Coleridge being a product of the author, Laird Barron, means Coleridge's intelligence is Barron's. These novels do take tangents, including lots of character discussions. Getting is never a straight line. During the middle of this novel, I had my doubts as to where it was headed, but the ending was clear and I know that without the meandering there is less satisfaction.
The question now becomes what's next for Isaiah. Plenty of enemies remain in the periphery, including the mob and the recent past. His position as an investigator continues to open because he goes where others will or cannot. At the same time, he's taking a literal beating. I've purposely avoided reading the blurb for the one novella remaining, but I've heard it's one of Laird's best. Looking forward to it.
May 26, 2020
ANGELS is an frenetic, bruising, mind-tilting ride through bonkersville and man it's a blast. Can't give anything away, but I'd strongly advise reading the first two novels in the Coleridge series then grabbing ANGELS on release day and settling in for the show.
I really don't want to spoil anything so I'll keep it to myself but if you want your crime noir dipped in black horror honey with a slice of supernatural hijinks on the side then this is your jam.
I really don't want to spoil anything so I'll keep it to myself but if you want your crime noir dipped in black horror honey with a slice of supernatural hijinks on the side then this is your jam.
March 16, 2022
Isaiah Coleridge’s third investigation since he relocated to the Hudson Valley cranks the darkness factor a solid notch, and had me reading way past my bedtime. It also had me chuckling: this investigation takes Isaiah to Western New York, and I never thought I’d read a references to “white hots” is a mystery horror novel…
Still reeling from the fallout of his investigation about the Croatoan, Isaiah is trying to figure out two things: how to handle the possibility of moving in with Meg, and how to make a lot of dirty cash a bit less dirty. But he’s not given much time to mull those things over: an ex-cop turned bodyguard for a senator with a weird background gives him a retainer to look into the death of his nephew. While it was ruled a suicide by the powers that be, the bereaved mother is not so sure, and a quick look at the original inquiry shows that some corners were cut rather sloppily. Isaiah’s curiosity is snared further by the dramatic setting of the death: a shaft on the construction site of a large particle collider, the building of which was halted rather abruptly soon after the so-called suicide took place with zero explanation for the workers or the community. Not that the community is anything less eerie without factoring in the strange abandoned site…
More intelligent, and certainly very carefully and thoughtfully written that your average murder mystery, the Isaiah Coleridge novels bring to mind eating dark chocolate and chasing it down with some smokey bourbon: not everyone will like it, but those who do will relish it. If you have read some Laird Barron short stories before, you know that very rarely do any of his characters fall into holes by accident… As usual, his distrust of large corporations (which he obviously sees are carnivorous monsters) and corrupt and insane politicians is on full display here, along with his wordy dialogue and unnerving side-characters. He had cracked the door open for his cosmic mythology in “Black Mountain”, and here, they push the door wide open and made themselves comfortable just at the corner of Isaiah’s vision – and I loved it!
This installment also has Isaiah confronting something potentially scarier than cheerleaders who like to eat rancid meat: his own inevitable vulnerability. He is not getting any younger, and a life of violence and abuse has taken a massive toll on his body, which he finally has to recon with. For the first time in a long time, his future – both having one and having to prepare for it – becomes a real concern to Isaiah, and I appreciate that in spite of the intense masculinity of his work, Barron has enough guts to admit that big tough guys also have softer spots, whether or not they are any good at dealing with them.
If you have enjoyed this series so far, and if you like it weird AF, this third installment won't let you down!
Still reeling from the fallout of his investigation about the Croatoan, Isaiah is trying to figure out two things: how to handle the possibility of moving in with Meg, and how to make a lot of dirty cash a bit less dirty. But he’s not given much time to mull those things over: an ex-cop turned bodyguard for a senator with a weird background gives him a retainer to look into the death of his nephew. While it was ruled a suicide by the powers that be, the bereaved mother is not so sure, and a quick look at the original inquiry shows that some corners were cut rather sloppily. Isaiah’s curiosity is snared further by the dramatic setting of the death: a shaft on the construction site of a large particle collider, the building of which was halted rather abruptly soon after the so-called suicide took place with zero explanation for the workers or the community. Not that the community is anything less eerie without factoring in the strange abandoned site…
More intelligent, and certainly very carefully and thoughtfully written that your average murder mystery, the Isaiah Coleridge novels bring to mind eating dark chocolate and chasing it down with some smokey bourbon: not everyone will like it, but those who do will relish it. If you have read some Laird Barron short stories before, you know that very rarely do any of his characters fall into holes by accident… As usual, his distrust of large corporations (which he obviously sees are carnivorous monsters) and corrupt and insane politicians is on full display here, along with his wordy dialogue and unnerving side-characters. He had cracked the door open for his cosmic mythology in “Black Mountain”, and here, they push the door wide open and made themselves comfortable just at the corner of Isaiah’s vision – and I loved it!
This installment also has Isaiah confronting something potentially scarier than cheerleaders who like to eat rancid meat: his own inevitable vulnerability. He is not getting any younger, and a life of violence and abuse has taken a massive toll on his body, which he finally has to recon with. For the first time in a long time, his future – both having one and having to prepare for it – becomes a real concern to Isaiah, and I appreciate that in spite of the intense masculinity of his work, Barron has enough guts to admit that big tough guys also have softer spots, whether or not they are any good at dealing with them.
If you have enjoyed this series so far, and if you like it weird AF, this third installment won't let you down!
August 7, 2020
When Laird Barron first announced Blood Standard as his first straight crime novel I had a friend who is just a horror reader complain to me that he was not happy about it. He argued that Barron had a talent for unsettling cosmic dread and that should be what he is writing. I laughed at the notion that unsettling cosmic dread had no place in crime. True Detective which was understandably influenced by Barron's work proved that. Who better to infect crime novels with a rusty jagged edge. These books have a nasty feel to them that few straight crime writers could do.
We now have a trilogy of Isaiah Coleridge novels and I hope many more. I get the feeling that Barron wanted to establish and ground the first novel quickly. The first book is a violent and dark affair but it is pretty straight forward that mixed tough guy brutality with pondering on the nature of violence. Coleridge as a character is an ugly, harsh guy, but in those moments when he gets philosophical you get a glimpse of something deeper in his nature. His observations add a certain class to the character like a beautiful diamond shining in the bottom of a week old porta-potty.
Certainly, Black Mountain the sequel about a cult and a serial killer was darker and weirder. It wasn't a rehash either, it felt familiar character-wise, but the story was different in tone. The first book didn't highlight the Liggoti or cosmic horror elements. So the question for me was when I closed book two was this - was that a fluke or are we getting weirder.
I am excited to say that Worse Angels does get darker and weirder still.
I wouldn't say that Worse Angels is weird cranked to 11 but the guitar has a lot more distortion if I can beat this analogy to death. This novel is like that moment when the peanut butter and jelly slices of bread are pushed together. I can see some of your traditional crime readers might be thinking what the fuck am I reading? You are reading a crime novel spun in the brain of a deep-thinking cosmic horror writer. It is what True Detective keeps trying to capture that comes out pretty effortlessly in the worlds of Laird Barron.
Isaiah Coleridge is a weird character raised in Alaska, with native roots in New Zealand. Any book with him as a hero is going to feel rough around the edges. By this book, he has a girlfriend, who has a kid to give him softer moments. That said he has not changed much. The story kicks off when an ex-cop Badja Adeyemi who was a bodyguard to a senator asks Isaiah to investigate his nephew's suicide. He was a part of a major construction project and the family doesn't buy the story behind his death.
The project is a large particle collider, the senator a UFO nut, and the suicide shady. These are all weird elements, and while they are not as obvious as the serial killer in the last book, they are the right pieces in the hands of this author. I love the weird and dark moments as much as the hilarious banter. All the fun elements are there.
Each book has at least one huge action set piece in this book that happens underground and I love how Barron has found a way in each book to have the action parallel the characters in interesting ways. in the final act, all the elements come together and the stakes get higher than this trilogy has gotten to before. Worse Angeles strikes that balance between the familiar of a series with the rising stakes.
The Isaiah Coleridge novels are excellent tough guy crime and the best part is that they are intelligent and thoughtful. I consider this series a must-read for me, I think it should be on your list if you like crime fiction if you are a hard-boiled fiction fan if you like Laird Barron's cosmic horror you might have to give these books a little more rope as you wade through the mist. There are monsters in there, they may not be rooted in mythos but no less nasty, no less entertaining.
I am interviewing the author for my podcast and will add the link here to this review once it is available:
We now have a trilogy of Isaiah Coleridge novels and I hope many more. I get the feeling that Barron wanted to establish and ground the first novel quickly. The first book is a violent and dark affair but it is pretty straight forward that mixed tough guy brutality with pondering on the nature of violence. Coleridge as a character is an ugly, harsh guy, but in those moments when he gets philosophical you get a glimpse of something deeper in his nature. His observations add a certain class to the character like a beautiful diamond shining in the bottom of a week old porta-potty.
Certainly, Black Mountain the sequel about a cult and a serial killer was darker and weirder. It wasn't a rehash either, it felt familiar character-wise, but the story was different in tone. The first book didn't highlight the Liggoti or cosmic horror elements. So the question for me was when I closed book two was this - was that a fluke or are we getting weirder.
I am excited to say that Worse Angels does get darker and weirder still.
I wouldn't say that Worse Angels is weird cranked to 11 but the guitar has a lot more distortion if I can beat this analogy to death. This novel is like that moment when the peanut butter and jelly slices of bread are pushed together. I can see some of your traditional crime readers might be thinking what the fuck am I reading? You are reading a crime novel spun in the brain of a deep-thinking cosmic horror writer. It is what True Detective keeps trying to capture that comes out pretty effortlessly in the worlds of Laird Barron.
Isaiah Coleridge is a weird character raised in Alaska, with native roots in New Zealand. Any book with him as a hero is going to feel rough around the edges. By this book, he has a girlfriend, who has a kid to give him softer moments. That said he has not changed much. The story kicks off when an ex-cop Badja Adeyemi who was a bodyguard to a senator asks Isaiah to investigate his nephew's suicide. He was a part of a major construction project and the family doesn't buy the story behind his death.
The project is a large particle collider, the senator a UFO nut, and the suicide shady. These are all weird elements, and while they are not as obvious as the serial killer in the last book, they are the right pieces in the hands of this author. I love the weird and dark moments as much as the hilarious banter. All the fun elements are there.
Each book has at least one huge action set piece in this book that happens underground and I love how Barron has found a way in each book to have the action parallel the characters in interesting ways. in the final act, all the elements come together and the stakes get higher than this trilogy has gotten to before. Worse Angeles strikes that balance between the familiar of a series with the rising stakes.
The Isaiah Coleridge novels are excellent tough guy crime and the best part is that they are intelligent and thoughtful. I consider this series a must-read for me, I think it should be on your list if you like crime fiction if you are a hard-boiled fiction fan if you like Laird Barron's cosmic horror you might have to give these books a little more rope as you wade through the mist. There are monsters in there, they may not be rooted in mythos but no less nasty, no less entertaining.
I am interviewing the author for my podcast and will add the link here to this review once it is available:
July 15, 2022
Laird Barron got his start with Lovecraft-inspired horror, so while the Isaiah Coleridge series is a hard-boiled noir detective series, you can see Barron's roots manifesting frequently in Coleridge's grimdark existentialist observations, and the way the story constantly flirts with the supernatural without actually bringing out bogies and Cthulhu.
Isaiah Coleridge is an ex-mob enforcer who's gone straight and now works as a PI in upstate New York. A half-Maori killing machine who grew up in Alaska (it's complicated, his backstory was all explained in the first book), he's now getting a little long in the tooth and feeling it. Those old bones don't take a beating like they used to, even if he can still deliver one.
In this third book, the series is also starting to get a bit long in the tooth. It can still deliver a beating, but I can see Coleridge's story starting to get played out. Will he settle down with his darling Meg, or will Barron maybe pull the rug out from under us and have her get offed? Isaiah's buddy Lionel, a wisecracking hick with an unhealthy penchant for ordnance, returns, as does his squeeze, a rich bitch who likes fucking Lionel because it pisses off daddy (okay, maybe she actually likes him a little too).
Isaiah is asked to investigate the untimely death of a young man who supposedly committed suicide by throwing himself down a mineshaft. The guy had some issues, but he did not seem suicidal, and there is a whole lot of sketchiness around the construction site and the town where he died. The guy hiring Isaiah is an ex-cop and current minion of a corrupt U.S. senator who's at the center of a lot of corruption and conspiracy charges. The dead man is his nephew, and he wants to get some peace of mind for his sister before he gets a bullet in the head or a long prison sentence.
Isaiah dutifully goes about stirring up hornets. The senator doesn't want him nosing around. The town's elite (who among other things run some weird cult/social club called the "Mares of Thrace") don't want him nosing around. Lots of people don't want Coleridge nosing around. There are threats, fights, bloody beat-downs, and weird creepy aged sorority chicks cosplaying as Lovecraftian cultists. The boss, in the boss fight, pulls some borderline-supernatural tricks out of his sleeve.
I like Barron's writing, but book three did not have the same gritty, grimdark edge as the first two, and the clever banter and pseudo-poetic narratives actually began to feel kind of like Barron's schtick. I'll read more books in the series — Coleridge is getting a bit banged up but he's probably got a few more years left in him. But this volume felt like Barron had to fill in what was a pretty standard investigative potboiler with some horror-adjacent flavor, and I wish he'd either go ahead and do it — let Coleridge start fighting actual monsters — or go back to what I personally think he does best, which is supernatural horror.
Isaiah Coleridge is an ex-mob enforcer who's gone straight and now works as a PI in upstate New York. A half-Maori killing machine who grew up in Alaska (it's complicated, his backstory was all explained in the first book), he's now getting a little long in the tooth and feeling it. Those old bones don't take a beating like they used to, even if he can still deliver one.
In this third book, the series is also starting to get a bit long in the tooth. It can still deliver a beating, but I can see Coleridge's story starting to get played out. Will he settle down with his darling Meg, or will Barron maybe pull the rug out from under us and have her get offed? Isaiah's buddy Lionel, a wisecracking hick with an unhealthy penchant for ordnance, returns, as does his squeeze, a rich bitch who likes fucking Lionel because it pisses off daddy (okay, maybe she actually likes him a little too).
Isaiah is asked to investigate the untimely death of a young man who supposedly committed suicide by throwing himself down a mineshaft. The guy had some issues, but he did not seem suicidal, and there is a whole lot of sketchiness around the construction site and the town where he died. The guy hiring Isaiah is an ex-cop and current minion of a corrupt U.S. senator who's at the center of a lot of corruption and conspiracy charges. The dead man is his nephew, and he wants to get some peace of mind for his sister before he gets a bullet in the head or a long prison sentence.
Isaiah dutifully goes about stirring up hornets. The senator doesn't want him nosing around. The town's elite (who among other things run some weird cult/social club called the "Mares of Thrace") don't want him nosing around. Lots of people don't want Coleridge nosing around. There are threats, fights, bloody beat-downs, and weird creepy aged sorority chicks cosplaying as Lovecraftian cultists. The boss, in the boss fight, pulls some borderline-supernatural tricks out of his sleeve.
I like Barron's writing, but book three did not have the same gritty, grimdark edge as the first two, and the clever banter and pseudo-poetic narratives actually began to feel kind of like Barron's schtick. I'll read more books in the series — Coleridge is getting a bit banged up but he's probably got a few more years left in him. But this volume felt like Barron had to fill in what was a pretty standard investigative potboiler with some horror-adjacent flavor, and I wish he'd either go ahead and do it — let Coleridge start fighting actual monsters — or go back to what I personally think he does best, which is supernatural horror.
August 7, 2020
Isaiah Coleridge, the former Mafia fixer-turned-private-eye, returns in “Worse Angels”, Laird Barron’s third novel to feature the likable new action hero that is as bad-ass as Lee Child’s Jack Reacher and as lovable as Robert B. Parker’s Spenser.
Barron, perhaps best known for his weird cosmic horror stories, has turned his sights on the crime/mystery/action genre, and he’s done a pretty decent turn of it. He can’t seem to let go, though, of the cosmic horrors in his New Weird stuff. Some readers looking for a straightforward crime thriller may not dig his foray into monsters and magic mixed with mafiosi and gunfights, but I love it.
Imagine Jack Reacher stuck in a world of slimy Lovecraftian monsters, or Parker’s Spenser having to investigate an X-Files and you’ll get an idea of how weird this book is.
It starts out normal enough: Coleridge is hired by Badja Adeyemi, a former bodyguard to a rich industrialist who is now a U.S. Senator. Years ago, Adeyemi’s nephew was hired on by the industrialist to work on the Jeffers Project, a super-expensive attempt to create a supercollider in the middle of nowhere in New England. When funds petered out, the project ended. Adeyemi’s nephew died in what police thought was an accident, possibly a suicide. Adeyemi always had his doubts.
Coleridge, intrigued by a good mystery and somewhat smitten by the idea of looking into what happened to the Jeffers Project, heads to upstate New York.
It turns out that the supercollider may not have been a supercollider after all. It may have been an attempt to find something deep underground; something powerful and ancient. Coleridge finds evidence that work on the project never actually ended, despite the official story.
Hindering his search for the truth is a town in which a cabal of cultists calling themselves the Mares of Thrace dress in ‘50s teenager clothes and like to eat rancid meat. Then there’s the giant spider robot-monster.
Oh, and there’s some pretty gruesome death scenes, including someone being pulled apart like a wishbone. Stuff not for the squeamish. Of course, if Barron’s name is on the cover, you probably already knew that.
Barron, perhaps best known for his weird cosmic horror stories, has turned his sights on the crime/mystery/action genre, and he’s done a pretty decent turn of it. He can’t seem to let go, though, of the cosmic horrors in his New Weird stuff. Some readers looking for a straightforward crime thriller may not dig his foray into monsters and magic mixed with mafiosi and gunfights, but I love it.
Imagine Jack Reacher stuck in a world of slimy Lovecraftian monsters, or Parker’s Spenser having to investigate an X-Files and you’ll get an idea of how weird this book is.
It starts out normal enough: Coleridge is hired by Badja Adeyemi, a former bodyguard to a rich industrialist who is now a U.S. Senator. Years ago, Adeyemi’s nephew was hired on by the industrialist to work on the Jeffers Project, a super-expensive attempt to create a supercollider in the middle of nowhere in New England. When funds petered out, the project ended. Adeyemi’s nephew died in what police thought was an accident, possibly a suicide. Adeyemi always had his doubts.
Coleridge, intrigued by a good mystery and somewhat smitten by the idea of looking into what happened to the Jeffers Project, heads to upstate New York.
It turns out that the supercollider may not have been a supercollider after all. It may have been an attempt to find something deep underground; something powerful and ancient. Coleridge finds evidence that work on the project never actually ended, despite the official story.
Hindering his search for the truth is a town in which a cabal of cultists calling themselves the Mares of Thrace dress in ‘50s teenager clothes and like to eat rancid meat. Then there’s the giant spider robot-monster.
Oh, and there’s some pretty gruesome death scenes, including someone being pulled apart like a wishbone. Stuff not for the squeamish. Of course, if Barron’s name is on the cover, you probably already knew that.
June 8, 2020
A pre-emptive td;lr: this is my favorite book in the Coleridge series and it is probably due to the fact that Barron directly, rather than indirectly, taps into his horror "roots" while still maintaining the crime/dick genre and slightly downplays the machissimo elements or at least frames them into a more human character.
Now, for the review itself:
I tend to write reviews nearly immediately (within 24-ish hours of finishing a book), and I tend to avoid taking review-notes, so this gives many of my reviews a kind of "off the cuff" element: a kaleidoscope of impressions and ideas and brainflows that have been stewing across the hours spent in reading. If I waited a week or two, really mull over lingering impressions, maybe even re-read the book in question: no doubt many of my reviews would be different but also less living entities. This does put me in a paradoxical place, where it is easier for me to respond to the existing conversation (the other books that I have read by the author, other books that feel relevant, other ideas) than to the more immediate dialogue between the current book and myself. It makes it easier to express the the place of things rather than the things. There are other considerations of course, such as my personal take on the author, or the personal questions/impressions of theme, that might otherwise override pieces of the critique that will better surface later down the road when time has given a better overall picture.
Why am I bringing this up? Because in this book I feel that aspect is important to understand my feelings towards it. I have generally rated the other two books in the Isiah Coleridge series fairly high. I gave the first book a five-star review and the second a four star review despite saying, in that review, "[Black Mountain] is mostly better [than Blood Standard]." That, you see, is a glitch in this process. Nowadays, I think I might actually put the first book at something like a four-star review and the second something more like three-and-half-star. The second book, for going harder at the theme, somewhat washes out the theme mechanically in how it wears its masculine-horror cloak.
Coleridge is a man of violence, no doubt, but literary violence tends to beget lacunae if it does not properly connect to the reader (or, in the pulpier versions, excise all pretense of reason and exist only for its own sake). The reader must supply the ultimate judgement of violence, embrace it in themselves, and give birth to it in their headspace while reading. This is why Jim Thompson so regularly drifts high up in masculine violence literature lists, ditto for Cormac McCarthy. They, at their bleakest (or, in Thomspon's case, perhaps at his wittiest), invite you in to marvel at the failure of the moral contract. You become complicit with the world they share with you and the ultimate apathy of their universe. Barron in his true horror mode shouts about the malignant universe, where doom breeds in his well-honed writing skills. In the Coleridge novels, however, he tempers this with a general sense that Coleridge-and-pals' violence is something like deserved, an earned form of retribution against a caring-to-harm cosmos. This, perhaps unintentionally, aligns them with the ickier aspects of conservative-horror, where males (and it is nearly always masculine, this sense of vengeance-as-redemption) stand atop a crumbling spire of failed liberalism and provide truth through blood.
This is why I think this book succeeds in ways the first two do not. Barron circles Coleridge around to someone living not in a new Barron-verse, but one where the old still somewhat exists (to what degree is not entirely plumbed, here). Coleridge is more fragile, more emotionally open, more aware of the consequences and ultimate futility of his actions (something more true of the ending of the first book than the second). We no longer feel like Coleridge is meant to succeed in his squishing of minor evils while leaving the great evils alive, even profiting off of their existence, we feel that Coleridge is ultimately a literary avatar of punching up. The mystery and the mayhem before him in this novel is not something he can conquer, merely something he can slightly bruise. He is the hero on the way to see the goddess and his changes are worn deep in the aching of his bones and the misfirings of his mind. While the tragic quest has been explicit throughout, here it is acknowledged as the mode of the novel. It is perhaps only after finishing it do you realize how little he has done on the page besides give witness to the horrors. In the end, his true power is the ability to understand the humanity of the victims, and the lack of it in the oppressors, not to conquer like some ancient, bloodied king.
Barron continues to hold out from making Coleridge a mere cog in a paradigm of bloodshed, and here finds generally the voice that better tells that aspect that he has, before. Similar heroes before him would have went in, with posse, guns blazing and came out victorious and magically unscarred. But what good are guns against the ultimate outer dark?
The use of strange dialogue and seeming nonsequiturs helps, I think, to build upon this story. This is as much a rumination of all of the horror that he has presented to date as it is a central mystery. That the climatic showdown takes place in 10% of the novel when the previous 20% was a side-quest to discuss man's place in the cosmos is fitting. Coleridge, here, is more like Kurt Wallander, who plays his part in bringing the story to an end but there is no real ending as long as he lives to give witness to even greater horror underneath.
Maybe that's just me.
Down the road, I imagine I will consider this more a four-star book on the way to even better Coleridge stories yet to come. But that's a different review, and a different Doug who will think that.
Now, for the review itself:
I tend to write reviews nearly immediately (within 24-ish hours of finishing a book), and I tend to avoid taking review-notes, so this gives many of my reviews a kind of "off the cuff" element: a kaleidoscope of impressions and ideas and brainflows that have been stewing across the hours spent in reading. If I waited a week or two, really mull over lingering impressions, maybe even re-read the book in question: no doubt many of my reviews would be different but also less living entities. This does put me in a paradoxical place, where it is easier for me to respond to the existing conversation (the other books that I have read by the author, other books that feel relevant, other ideas) than to the more immediate dialogue between the current book and myself. It makes it easier to express the the place of things rather than the things. There are other considerations of course, such as my personal take on the author, or the personal questions/impressions of theme, that might otherwise override pieces of the critique that will better surface later down the road when time has given a better overall picture.
Why am I bringing this up? Because in this book I feel that aspect is important to understand my feelings towards it. I have generally rated the other two books in the Isiah Coleridge series fairly high. I gave the first book a five-star review and the second a four star review despite saying, in that review, "[Black Mountain] is mostly better [than Blood Standard]." That, you see, is a glitch in this process. Nowadays, I think I might actually put the first book at something like a four-star review and the second something more like three-and-half-star. The second book, for going harder at the theme, somewhat washes out the theme mechanically in how it wears its masculine-horror cloak.
Coleridge is a man of violence, no doubt, but literary violence tends to beget lacunae if it does not properly connect to the reader (or, in the pulpier versions, excise all pretense of reason and exist only for its own sake). The reader must supply the ultimate judgement of violence, embrace it in themselves, and give birth to it in their headspace while reading. This is why Jim Thompson so regularly drifts high up in masculine violence literature lists, ditto for Cormac McCarthy. They, at their bleakest (or, in Thomspon's case, perhaps at his wittiest), invite you in to marvel at the failure of the moral contract. You become complicit with the world they share with you and the ultimate apathy of their universe. Barron in his true horror mode shouts about the malignant universe, where doom breeds in his well-honed writing skills. In the Coleridge novels, however, he tempers this with a general sense that Coleridge-and-pals' violence is something like deserved, an earned form of retribution against a caring-to-harm cosmos. This, perhaps unintentionally, aligns them with the ickier aspects of conservative-horror, where males (and it is nearly always masculine, this sense of vengeance-as-redemption) stand atop a crumbling spire of failed liberalism and provide truth through blood.
This is why I think this book succeeds in ways the first two do not. Barron circles Coleridge around to someone living not in a new Barron-verse, but one where the old still somewhat exists (to what degree is not entirely plumbed, here). Coleridge is more fragile, more emotionally open, more aware of the consequences and ultimate futility of his actions (something more true of the ending of the first book than the second). We no longer feel like Coleridge is meant to succeed in his squishing of minor evils while leaving the great evils alive, even profiting off of their existence, we feel that Coleridge is ultimately a literary avatar of punching up. The mystery and the mayhem before him in this novel is not something he can conquer, merely something he can slightly bruise. He is the hero on the way to see the goddess and his changes are worn deep in the aching of his bones and the misfirings of his mind. While the tragic quest has been explicit throughout, here it is acknowledged as the mode of the novel. It is perhaps only after finishing it do you realize how little he has done on the page besides give witness to the horrors. In the end, his true power is the ability to understand the humanity of the victims, and the lack of it in the oppressors, not to conquer like some ancient, bloodied king.
Barron continues to hold out from making Coleridge a mere cog in a paradigm of bloodshed, and here finds generally the voice that better tells that aspect that he has, before. Similar heroes before him would have went in, with posse, guns blazing and came out victorious and magically unscarred. But what good are guns against the ultimate outer dark?
The use of strange dialogue and seeming nonsequiturs helps, I think, to build upon this story. This is as much a rumination of all of the horror that he has presented to date as it is a central mystery. That the climatic showdown takes place in 10% of the novel when the previous 20% was a side-quest to discuss man's place in the cosmos is fitting. Coleridge, here, is more like Kurt Wallander, who plays his part in bringing the story to an end but there is no real ending as long as he lives to give witness to even greater horror underneath.
Maybe that's just me.
Down the road, I imagine I will consider this more a four-star book on the way to even better Coleridge stories yet to come. But that's a different review, and a different Doug who will think that.
June 8, 2020
Laird Barron is very well known in horror and dark fantasy circles. Over the course of two decades, he has received multiple accolades for his shorter fiction and collections. In the past few years, Barron has turned his hand to what are known as full-length works (though, if a short story tells the full story, isn’t that full-length, too? Just asking). Barron has been slowly constructing an ongoing story arc involving a private investigator named Isaiah Coleridge. The newly published WORSE ANGELS is the third and by far the best of these, a book that straddles the detective and horror genres to great effect.
This latest entry builds on its predecessors, BLOOD STANDARD and BLACK MOUNTAIN. Barron drops enough info-nuggets throughout the novel to ensure that newcomers aren’t lost at sea, though these folks likely will want to duck back to see what they have missed. Coleridge has an interesting background: the short version is that he is a one-time mob enforcer who has evolved, if you will, into a private investigator in upstate New York.
While handling the humdrum cases that one might expect, Coleridge sometimes finds himself involved in something meatier. In WORSE ANGELS, he is retained by a shady ex-cop who is a few days away from either cuffs or a coffin, depending on his luck. Coleridge is tasked with investigating the death of the man’s nephew four years earlier on the site of a now-defunct supercollider project. The case was officially ruled a suicide to the satisfaction of everyone except Coleridge’s client and his sister, the mother of the deceased.
Coleridge takes his occasional partner, Lionel Robard, in tow to investigate the very cold trail. They receive strong resistance from a number of strange individuals on behalf of some powerful people with a vested interest in keeping things the way they are until they can control the outcome. There are also deadly supernatural forces at work behind the scenes, and the result is something akin to Philip Marlowe encountering the minions of the Cthulhu Mythos.
More often than not, Coleridge gets soundly beaten, but somehow gives better than he gets --- and thanks to doctors, duct tape and antibiotics, he lives to fight another day. The same is also true of his adversaries, who will continue to manifest themselves in future installments of the series even as he stands in their way. The bad guys here are the type of people who are just unsettling enough in the vibe they give off that you would cross the street --- or move to another neighborhood --- if you came across them, even though they appear to be perfectly normal (whatever that might be these days). It’s one of two neat tricks that Barron pulls off quite well.
What is the other neat trick? At times, Coleridge’s interior first-person narration tends to prattle on for just a bit too long. However, just when you think that Barron is veering off the narrative highway into the weeds (sometimes he seems to think he’s on Facebook), he comes up with the most memorable sentences and passages. We’re talking underlining/highlighting/writing in the notebook lines, the ones that other authors will be using for epigraphs in their own stories.
It is this quality alone that makes WORSE ANGELS worth reading and recommending as we await the next entry --- and hopefully the return of some of the nightmares that we experience here.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
This latest entry builds on its predecessors, BLOOD STANDARD and BLACK MOUNTAIN. Barron drops enough info-nuggets throughout the novel to ensure that newcomers aren’t lost at sea, though these folks likely will want to duck back to see what they have missed. Coleridge has an interesting background: the short version is that he is a one-time mob enforcer who has evolved, if you will, into a private investigator in upstate New York.
While handling the humdrum cases that one might expect, Coleridge sometimes finds himself involved in something meatier. In WORSE ANGELS, he is retained by a shady ex-cop who is a few days away from either cuffs or a coffin, depending on his luck. Coleridge is tasked with investigating the death of the man’s nephew four years earlier on the site of a now-defunct supercollider project. The case was officially ruled a suicide to the satisfaction of everyone except Coleridge’s client and his sister, the mother of the deceased.
Coleridge takes his occasional partner, Lionel Robard, in tow to investigate the very cold trail. They receive strong resistance from a number of strange individuals on behalf of some powerful people with a vested interest in keeping things the way they are until they can control the outcome. There are also deadly supernatural forces at work behind the scenes, and the result is something akin to Philip Marlowe encountering the minions of the Cthulhu Mythos.
More often than not, Coleridge gets soundly beaten, but somehow gives better than he gets --- and thanks to doctors, duct tape and antibiotics, he lives to fight another day. The same is also true of his adversaries, who will continue to manifest themselves in future installments of the series even as he stands in their way. The bad guys here are the type of people who are just unsettling enough in the vibe they give off that you would cross the street --- or move to another neighborhood --- if you came across them, even though they appear to be perfectly normal (whatever that might be these days). It’s one of two neat tricks that Barron pulls off quite well.
What is the other neat trick? At times, Coleridge’s interior first-person narration tends to prattle on for just a bit too long. However, just when you think that Barron is veering off the narrative highway into the weeds (sometimes he seems to think he’s on Facebook), he comes up with the most memorable sentences and passages. We’re talking underlining/highlighting/writing in the notebook lines, the ones that other authors will be using for epigraphs in their own stories.
It is this quality alone that makes WORSE ANGELS worth reading and recommending as we await the next entry --- and hopefully the return of some of the nightmares that we experience here.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
August 15, 2020
Isaiah Coleridge is back in action after being hired by a former, and very corrupt, police officer to investigate the death of his nephew four years earlier. Ruled a suicide, Sean Pruitt's body was found at the bottom of a shaft on the construction site of a large hadron collider in upstate New York. While there's enough evidence to support the claims of death by suicide, there's just as much evidence - or lack thereof, like Sean's missing wedding ring and an ex-wife whose MIA after collecting the insurance payout - to point toward homicide.
Laird Barron laid some very solid foundations to point this series toward the supernatural with his inflections of cosmic horror laid against the background of a savage serial killer story in Coleridge's second case, Black Mountain, so I was giddy to see how things evolved with the presence of a particle collider. While Barron is best known for his horror stories, the Coleridge books are more grounded in reality, with a focus on human evils. Despite the shadings of occasional horror elements to remind us of Barron's background, the Isaiah Coleridge books are pure, hard-boiled noir, albeit with distinctively weird, maybe fortean, elements to help separate it from the pack.
And mind you, Worse Angels has plenty of weirdness. While Barron is wading deeply into noir territory with this series, you aren't likely to confuse these books with the canon of Michael Connelly or James Ellroy. Beyond the hadron collider, we get some high-tech elements to parry the low-tech, Old World elements of cults, magic, and sacrificial killings. All this adds up to a rich thriller that will keep Barron's horror fans happy, while mystery readers will keep focused on how all these puzzle pieces fit together.
For some bonus fun, we again get to see the hulking, half-Maori Coleridge lay a smackdown on some racists. I have to admit, these moments are some of my favorites of the series, and while it doesn't quite meet the high bar set by Coleridge putting a serious hurt on an Aryan biker at the opening of Black Mountain, it is still pretty damn satisfying to read about these emboldened, loud-mouthed bastards getting their just desserts, especially in this day and age. I could eat up a whole book of nothing but Coleridge busting bigot's heads all day long, especially if he brings along his jade war club!
Worse Angels shows there's still plenty of mileage left in the Coleridge character and sets up a few tantalizing threads for future exploration, while also tying off some dangling plot threads from the last book. As far as Coleridge goes, he's in top form here, and I really love his style. He's a thinking man's brawler, as well-read as he is well-armed, and his brains are just as important an instrument as everything else in his arsenal. I'm certainly hopeful Barron and his publisher keep these books coming, and Isaiah Coleridge is an important and welcome voice in the pantheon of literary gumshoes whom I look forward to reading about for many more years to come.
Laird Barron laid some very solid foundations to point this series toward the supernatural with his inflections of cosmic horror laid against the background of a savage serial killer story in Coleridge's second case, Black Mountain, so I was giddy to see how things evolved with the presence of a particle collider. While Barron is best known for his horror stories, the Coleridge books are more grounded in reality, with a focus on human evils. Despite the shadings of occasional horror elements to remind us of Barron's background, the Isaiah Coleridge books are pure, hard-boiled noir, albeit with distinctively weird, maybe fortean, elements to help separate it from the pack.
And mind you, Worse Angels has plenty of weirdness. While Barron is wading deeply into noir territory with this series, you aren't likely to confuse these books with the canon of Michael Connelly or James Ellroy. Beyond the hadron collider, we get some high-tech elements to parry the low-tech, Old World elements of cults, magic, and sacrificial killings. All this adds up to a rich thriller that will keep Barron's horror fans happy, while mystery readers will keep focused on how all these puzzle pieces fit together.
For some bonus fun, we again get to see the hulking, half-Maori Coleridge lay a smackdown on some racists. I have to admit, these moments are some of my favorites of the series, and while it doesn't quite meet the high bar set by Coleridge putting a serious hurt on an Aryan biker at the opening of Black Mountain, it is still pretty damn satisfying to read about these emboldened, loud-mouthed bastards getting their just desserts, especially in this day and age. I could eat up a whole book of nothing but Coleridge busting bigot's heads all day long, especially if he brings along his jade war club!
Worse Angels shows there's still plenty of mileage left in the Coleridge character and sets up a few tantalizing threads for future exploration, while also tying off some dangling plot threads from the last book. As far as Coleridge goes, he's in top form here, and I really love his style. He's a thinking man's brawler, as well-read as he is well-armed, and his brains are just as important an instrument as everything else in his arsenal. I'm certainly hopeful Barron and his publisher keep these books coming, and Isaiah Coleridge is an important and welcome voice in the pantheon of literary gumshoes whom I look forward to reading about for many more years to come.
June 6, 2020
Isaiah Coleridge is a character who keeps jumping that raised bar, at every opportunity. In this third installment, Barron dips Coleridge's toe deeper into the pool of the unexplained, edging the series closer to a horror/noir mashup. Relationships are fleshed out, side characters enhanced, and we get more of Coleridge's past.
I'd have been along for the ride just for all of those benefits, but the story arc in Worse Angels has everything. A creepy cult, an abandoned super collider, and the last guy to take the case came away with injuries bad enough to end his private eye career. So naturally Coleridge is the man for the job, and we're taken along a beautifully paced, intense story.
And if all that wasn't enough to sell you on it, I can't say enough about the quality of Barron's writing. So many lines in this book that made me stop and soak them in, that felt like truths even before I knew where they fit. This is an author who gets people, and has spent a long time living in his humanity, to be able to paint such a clear picture. I can't wait for more Coleridge.
I'd have been along for the ride just for all of those benefits, but the story arc in Worse Angels has everything. A creepy cult, an abandoned super collider, and the last guy to take the case came away with injuries bad enough to end his private eye career. So naturally Coleridge is the man for the job, and we're taken along a beautifully paced, intense story.
And if all that wasn't enough to sell you on it, I can't say enough about the quality of Barron's writing. So many lines in this book that made me stop and soak them in, that felt like truths even before I knew where they fit. This is an author who gets people, and has spent a long time living in his humanity, to be able to paint such a clear picture. I can't wait for more Coleridge.
February 21, 2021
4.25/5
I am almost completely finished with Laird Barron's entire catalog (only lacking a handful of short stories and 2 novellas). He's cemented himself as one of my favorite authors, originally starting as a weird horror writer but has show to be very versatile, mastering genres such as crime fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy as well. It's like he's just a damn good writer or something....
His latest novel, the third in his Isaiah Coleridge series, further dips a crime fiction foot into the proverbial horror pool. This makes for an ideal combination in my mind as the two genres lend a lot to each type. In this one, we're talking particle colliders, alternate earths, cults, and Lovecraftian nods. There are also tons of callbacks to his Old Leech mythos, firmly planting Coleridge into that universe...long time readers will definitely be rewarded.
As always, Barron has poetic prose reinforced with burnt chrome. I love how liquid his prose is; it's not flowery but remains beautiful and succinct. Not to mention, his wrtiting is tailor-made for me with callbacks to old myths (Hercules, Odysseus, Thor), pulp action heroes, action films, and comic books. At the end of the day, Coleridge is a send up to these characters, synthesizing them into one "ultimate" adventurer.
Coleridge is a standout but the side characters are no slouches either. I particularly have a lot of love for Coleridge's partner in crime, Lionel. He's the perfect friend for Coleridge, providing humor and heart along with being very capable.
I think there are more books planned in this series and they will be day one buys. I can't wait for more in this world and I hope the genre crossover of crime and horror continues.
I am almost completely finished with Laird Barron's entire catalog (only lacking a handful of short stories and 2 novellas). He's cemented himself as one of my favorite authors, originally starting as a weird horror writer but has show to be very versatile, mastering genres such as crime fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy as well. It's like he's just a damn good writer or something....
His latest novel, the third in his Isaiah Coleridge series, further dips a crime fiction foot into the proverbial horror pool. This makes for an ideal combination in my mind as the two genres lend a lot to each type. In this one, we're talking particle colliders, alternate earths, cults, and Lovecraftian nods. There are also tons of callbacks to his Old Leech mythos, firmly planting Coleridge into that universe...long time readers will definitely be rewarded.
As always, Barron has poetic prose reinforced with burnt chrome. I love how liquid his prose is; it's not flowery but remains beautiful and succinct. Not to mention, his wrtiting is tailor-made for me with callbacks to old myths (Hercules, Odysseus, Thor), pulp action heroes, action films, and comic books. At the end of the day, Coleridge is a send up to these characters, synthesizing them into one "ultimate" adventurer.
Coleridge is a standout but the side characters are no slouches either. I particularly have a lot of love for Coleridge's partner in crime, Lionel. He's the perfect friend for Coleridge, providing humor and heart along with being very capable.
I think there are more books planned in this series and they will be day one buys. I can't wait for more in this world and I hope the genre crossover of crime and horror continues.
June 9, 2020
This series just keeps getting better.
Read
March 6, 2022We had our last read along discussion with Laird last night (on his birthday)
https://youtu.be/Sb8NHiCmcq8
https://youtu.be/Sb8NHiCmcq8
June 25, 2020
This series is a new favourite of mine. I love the characters, especially Isaiah and Lionel. Their banter can be comedic. The stories themselves, however, become darker and darker as the series progresses. Worse Angels is no exception.
Isaiah is hired by the body guard of an industrial tycoon to look into the suicide of his nephew. One thing that fascinates me is how this initial investigation is like the tip of the iceberg to some much darker and, yes indeed, creepy. The mix of modern noir detective and sinister cosmic horror work perfectly here.
If you haven’t read Isaiah Coleridge yet, I would recommend starting at the beginning with Blood Standard, but these books do read well as standalones as well.
Isaiah is hired by the body guard of an industrial tycoon to look into the suicide of his nephew. One thing that fascinates me is how this initial investigation is like the tip of the iceberg to some much darker and, yes indeed, creepy. The mix of modern noir detective and sinister cosmic horror work perfectly here.
If you haven’t read Isaiah Coleridge yet, I would recommend starting at the beginning with Blood Standard, but these books do read well as standalones as well.
August 28, 2023
I'm one of those who prefers Barron's cosmic horror to his crime novels, but I have really liked the previous two entries in his Coleridge series, as well. That said, I am happy to see the series slowly moving into weirder, possibly supernatural territory. WTF level cultists, conspiracies involving powerful elites with some seriously freaky, off-kilter beliefs, and just enough ambiguity to leave you with an uncertain dread; wondering if the supernatural explanation is actually preferable to the more mundane one. I'm definitely riding this train to the end of the line.
April 17, 2021
See review of Black Mountain - Barron edging just a tad more cosmic horror into the crime action (those familiar with earlier work may recognize some things), and still keeping that TRUE DETECTIVE S01 vibe going.
August 24, 2024
Understandably not everyone's cup of tea but for me a nearly perfect book. A hard as nails protagonist with intelligence, dry wit and his heart in the right place. Fortean speculative science meets Barron's Lovecraftian Old Leech mythos. I could read a hundred more volumes of this series.
November 28, 2022
And that is, so far, all he wrote. The last of the Coleridge series (for now, only, I hope?) lays on more of the occult and horror stuff the second novel was starting to nod at from Barron's more well worn path of a horror writer. I approve highly. It plays well with Coleridge. Hopefully they play together more at some future point.
September 13, 2020
Took a while to write a review. Lots of stuff going on, lots of stuff I'm trying to avoid doing or thinking about. I have been thinking about this book though.
First off, I don't understand anyone who thinks this book in the series went off the rails. Far from it. Laird Barron is a horror writer first and foremost. In my opinion he is one of the few writers I know that can embed a deep foreboding into a story that builds as it goes. With that said, this series was a bit strange for me when I started it. The first book was dark, but natural dark, as in the darkness that is in men's souls. It was violent and dark in the way mobsters are dark and violent.
But Isaiah Coleridge is no longer a mobster, he's a private investigator who generally gets his jobs because he's known for being stubborn and knocking heads with ANYBODY. Almost to the point of suicidal, he doesn't back down from any hardass who takes a shot at him, even if they're rich and have deep ties to the bizarre and occult.
The second book started to touch on this aspect of preternatural evil, and I had more than a feeling that Laird Barron was not just writing a rough mob hitter turned P.I. story. No no no.
The third book starts to delve into the darkness and we see similar themes from Barron's horror anthologies and other works. That dark foreboding is building up and I expect, I hope, that the next book takes it up another notch.
Coleridge was a tough character for me to like in the first book, but he's grown on me. But unlike some other series' characters I won't bother to mention; Coleridge is actually trying to evolve from emotionless thug to better person. The darkness in these stories is also evolving from natural to preternatural.
There's something sinister hiding in the shadows and Coleridge's no prisoners attitude has probably gotten its attention at this point. I am definitely looking forward to continuing this series.
First off, I don't understand anyone who thinks this book in the series went off the rails. Far from it. Laird Barron is a horror writer first and foremost. In my opinion he is one of the few writers I know that can embed a deep foreboding into a story that builds as it goes. With that said, this series was a bit strange for me when I started it. The first book was dark, but natural dark, as in the darkness that is in men's souls. It was violent and dark in the way mobsters are dark and violent.
But Isaiah Coleridge is no longer a mobster, he's a private investigator who generally gets his jobs because he's known for being stubborn and knocking heads with ANYBODY. Almost to the point of suicidal, he doesn't back down from any hardass who takes a shot at him, even if they're rich and have deep ties to the bizarre and occult.
The second book started to touch on this aspect of preternatural evil, and I had more than a feeling that Laird Barron was not just writing a rough mob hitter turned P.I. story. No no no.
The third book starts to delve into the darkness and we see similar themes from Barron's horror anthologies and other works. That dark foreboding is building up and I expect, I hope, that the next book takes it up another notch.
Coleridge was a tough character for me to like in the first book, but he's grown on me. But unlike some other series' characters I won't bother to mention; Coleridge is actually trying to evolve from emotionless thug to better person. The darkness in these stories is also evolving from natural to preternatural.
There's something sinister hiding in the shadows and Coleridge's no prisoners attitude has probably gotten its attention at this point. I am definitely looking forward to continuing this series.
June 8, 2020
Wow. I really liked the first two Isaiah Coleridge novels, and this is my favorite one yet. Barron amps up the weird/horror quotient in this one and it features some truly creepy scenes. I don't want to spoil anything but fans of his horror stories may recognize a name or two in here... A ton of bruised and battered fun.
I'd also like to mention that the audiobook edition is great. It has the same narrator as the first two Coleridge novels -- William DeMeritt is a great fit for these stories. Read the book first, then listen to the audiobook.
I'd also like to mention that the audiobook edition is great. It has the same narrator as the first two Coleridge novels -- William DeMeritt is a great fit for these stories. Read the book first, then listen to the audiobook.
April 6, 2020
Worst Angels(Isaiah Coleridge #3)by Laird Barron- Known mostly for dark horror, this is the third outing for his half-Maroi reformed mob enforcer(thug!) turned PI. After leaving the Alaskan mob under a cloud and forcibly relocated in upstate New York, Isaiah begins a more simple life as a private detective only to find out life is never that simple. Here he is tasked by a retired cop, who was evil incarnate on the force, and asked to look in on the recent suicide of his nephew. Of course there are questions about the death, about the victim, and about the slip-shod investigation that closed it. Isaiah travels to Horsehead, NY, where everything is dark and creepy and people will do everything in there power to keep it that way. At once there is a cloud of menace hanging over Coleridge's head, and though he recognizes its danger, he can't help but intrude. The byplay is the thing here, dialog between Isaiah and just about everyone he meets. Not ordinary PI punch lines, but literary responses filled with demons, dragons, and history. Sometimes a bit verbose, but exceptionally entertaining. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC and a different detective read.
January 22, 2023
Isaiah Coleridge’s saga only continues to grow more compelling and unsettling. I’ve looked at some reviews who seem annoyed by some of the voice choices, as well as the dreamyness, or perhaps psychedelic aspects of the story.
To me, this is all satisfyingly Barron-esque.
Laird Barron’s deftness with pulling the curtain back on the cosmic abyss (at times, shoving the reader into deep end, and dragging them under) shows even more here than it does in the preceding novel.
In fact, I feel as though this is a calculated build to the world he has already created in dozens of other stories. Tom Mandibole’s name, and a likeness, also appeared in X’s For Eyes, which is cosmic cartoony Johnny Quest psychedelic weirdness turned up to 11.
The seamless and compelling continuity in Coleridge’s character development and experiences start in the first novel as a slow burn to this place we come to in Worse Angel.
And, while the very earliest scenes of Coleridge defending nature against members of the Outfit in the first novel may seem like an earnest liberation of his truest moral compass, it may also serve to show the cards he will continue to play, defending the sanctity of an innocent and pure existence against the horrific unknown that is the eternal abyss.
I love it.
To me, this is all satisfyingly Barron-esque.
Laird Barron’s deftness with pulling the curtain back on the cosmic abyss (at times, shoving the reader into deep end, and dragging them under) shows even more here than it does in the preceding novel.
In fact, I feel as though this is a calculated build to the world he has already created in dozens of other stories. Tom Mandibole’s name, and a likeness, also appeared in X’s For Eyes, which is cosmic cartoony Johnny Quest psychedelic weirdness turned up to 11.
The seamless and compelling continuity in Coleridge’s character development and experiences start in the first novel as a slow burn to this place we come to in Worse Angel.
And, while the very earliest scenes of Coleridge defending nature against members of the Outfit in the first novel may seem like an earnest liberation of his truest moral compass, it may also serve to show the cards he will continue to play, defending the sanctity of an innocent and pure existence against the horrific unknown that is the eternal abyss.
I love it.
May 16, 2022
WORSE ANGELS is another exceptional novel in author Laird Barron's Isaiah Coleridge series. Tasked with determining whether a death that was ruled a suicide might actually be a murder, Coleridge finds himself at odds with yet another shady corporation, the Redlick Group, and their secretive supercollider project that may have a darker purpose than scientific research.
In the course of his investigation, Coleridge runs up against Redlick's spokesman/enforcer Tom Mandibole, who also happens to be a recurring devilish character in Barron's horror fiction. (I last encountered Mandibole in the 2015 novella X'S FOR EYES.) It makes for a fun Easter egg, creating a link between Barron's cosmic horror tales and his more mainstream Isaiah Coleridge novels, and positing, perhaps, that they exist in the same shared world.
I don't know if more Isaiah Coleridge novels are on the way -- as of this writing, I haven't heard anything -- but I eagerly await more. These novels are witty, brutally violent at times, brimming with a barely glimpsed darkness, and highly enjoyable.
In the course of his investigation, Coleridge runs up against Redlick's spokesman/enforcer Tom Mandibole, who also happens to be a recurring devilish character in Barron's horror fiction. (I last encountered Mandibole in the 2015 novella X'S FOR EYES.) It makes for a fun Easter egg, creating a link between Barron's cosmic horror tales and his more mainstream Isaiah Coleridge novels, and positing, perhaps, that they exist in the same shared world.
I don't know if more Isaiah Coleridge novels are on the way -- as of this writing, I haven't heard anything -- but I eagerly await more. These novels are witty, brutally violent at times, brimming with a barely glimpsed darkness, and highly enjoyable.
August 14, 2021
Reads like a slick piece of ice. While layering in a bit more creep and horror, this entry feels more like a noir novel than the previous entries since Isaiah, and his compatriots, have already had their backstories explained Mr. Barron dives straight into the mystery. His action sequences are snappy and descriptive while the dialogue throughout feels realistic too.
Hopin there is more to come in this series and definitely would like to see more of the reoccurring villians.
Hopin there is more to come in this series and definitely would like to see more of the reoccurring villians.
May 24, 2023
Feel like I wanted more from this, but it was honestly still solid. Barron's characters are just winners as far as being real and authentic, even if they are rough around the edges. The bits of cosmic horror and just straight horror was delightful and elevated this from your usual thriller to something that lets you chew on things after. Great series and thrilled there's a novella coming out from Bad Hand Books that continues Coleridge's story.
April 5, 2021
This is my favorite of the three novels. It brings in characters from his horror stories.
This gives me hope that Laird Barron will find his way back to horror. This series has elements that are horrific, but miss his cosmic horror. I hope this novel portends more horrific tales to come.
This gives me hope that Laird Barron will find his way back to horror. This series has elements that are horrific, but miss his cosmic horror. I hope this novel portends more horrific tales to come.
November 28, 2023
Weird. But in a good way.
Third entry in Isaiah Coleridge series and its best to think of it less as a PI series (retired mob hitter wearing a slightly tarnished white hat — and more grey than white or black) since each book gets weirder. This time Coleridge tackles a cold case, investigating the death of a client’s nephew that was ruled a suicide but left questions due to a shoddy investigation. Possible corporate shenanigans mix with backwoods folklore around a supposedly abandoned supercollider project.
Made me wish this had turned into yearly installments because Coleridge is a breath of fresh air. There is a short novel — The Wind Began To Howl — from a small press and its cover (visible on Amazon) indicates the strangeness continues.
Third entry in Isaiah Coleridge series and its best to think of it less as a PI series (retired mob hitter wearing a slightly tarnished white hat — and more grey than white or black) since each book gets weirder. This time Coleridge tackles a cold case, investigating the death of a client’s nephew that was ruled a suicide but left questions due to a shoddy investigation. Possible corporate shenanigans mix with backwoods folklore around a supposedly abandoned supercollider project.
Made me wish this had turned into yearly installments because Coleridge is a breath of fresh air. There is a short novel — The Wind Began To Howl — from a small press and its cover (visible on Amazon) indicates the strangeness continues.
May 4, 2021
Tom Mandibole is back! And so are Toshi, Campbell and Beasley! I love that Barron keeps leaving behind these tidbits for avid fans of his short work.
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