Review of Reviewer: Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott

Updated with additional links.

I'm late to the party finding Black Wings Has My Angel. As I said in my review here, it blew my socks off as a perfect piece of noir crime fiction. I try to avoid reading other reviews while I'm composing my own but now, with my review in the wild, I've taken a look at what others wrote. I might make this a regular for selected titles.

The reviews I've selected differ or expand on what I wrote in a number of ways:

• They provide quotes from the book, something I didn't do. I'm considering going back and rectifying this omission.
• They provide history and context for the book discuss the importance of Gold Medal, the publisher of hardboiled and noir.
• You'll find much more about Virginia as a femme fatale.
• One blog goes into an analysis of the protagonist's views of society and what motivates him.
• Several blogs look at the New Orleans part in more detail and shows the aftermath of the heist.
• many of the blogs discuss the author in detail.

I hope you'll read these discussions of Black Wings Has My Angel. You'll find excellent analysis and what you read might increase your admiration even more. I also hope you'll discover some new blogs to read. I certainly did.

Something I found amusing is the Gold Medal edition cover displayed in several of the reviews. It shows a blond wearing a red headscarf, sitting in the grass, holding a gun in one hand and with the other is covering the mouth of a man. The situation on the cover is not in the book nor does it relate to anything in the book. It is a cool image though. Also, it it just occurred to me that the cover makes Virginia the dominate one.

Commercial Reviews

New life for a noir masterpiece: 'Black Wings Has My Angel'  A 2016 Washington Post review by Michael Dirda. This review has a good summary and some well chosen quotes. The last paragraph describes exactly what I enjoyed about the book. The Washington Post has a paywall and limits you to a limited number of articles a month.

'Black Wings' Is A Devilish Trip Worth Taking  2016 review on NPR by Michael Schaub. Why this novel features everything we love about noir crime fiction.

The Telltale Novel 2016 Los Angeles Review of Books review by Phil McCausland. This review goes into detail about the publication history and also the noir genre.

Elliott Chaze's Black Wings Has My Angel is a perfect crime novel 2016 review on Vulture by Christian Lorentzen. Looks at the author and where he was coming from.

Blog Reviewers

Black Wings Has My Angel: Elliott Chaze (1953) 2012 review on His Futile Preoccupations ... 
The blog re-reviewed the book in 2016
Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze 2016 review on His Futile Preoccupations ... With the re-review, the blog post author looks the protagonist's views of society and what made him the way he is.

Book Review: Elliott Chaze, Black Wings Has My Angel (1953) 2013 review on Noirboiled Notes. This is short but the blogger makes a neat point about noir cliches.

Black Wings Has My Angel — Eliott Chaze 2014 review on Battered, Tattered, Yellowed, & Creased Discusses the prose, plotting, relationship between Tim and Virginia.

Black wings Has My Angel by Eliott Chaze 2014 review on Black Guys Do Read OK, the blog title caught my eye but he does very good analysis and I've added him to my feed reader. He focuses on Tim's and Virginia's relationship and a little about the writing and atmosphere.

Black Wings Has My Angel by Eliott Chaze 2014 review on Irresistable Targets Brings pulp into the mix, discusses the prose, and has interesting observations about noir and the time Tim and Virginia spend living in the suburbs.

Black Wings Has My Angel by Eliott Chaze 2016 review by David Curcio on Bookslut A long and excellent assessment of the book. David goes into the femme fatale aspects more than other reviews.

Black Wings Has My Angel 2016 mini review by Peter Rozovsky Detectives Beyond Borders. Peter compares Chaz to Jim Thompson and Charles Williams, two writers I enjoy very much.
And another from peter
Black Wings Has My Angel 2015 mini review by Peter Rozovsky on Detectives Beyond Borders. He has a quote from the book that also caught my attention.