Book review: Worse Angels (Isaiah Coleridge #3) by Laird Barron

Worse Angels (Isaiah Coleridge #3) by Laird Barron

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published May 26th 2020 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

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: