Angel Time by Anne Rice

Lucky was born and raised in New Orleans by 2 alcoholic parents, one who was a crooked cop that ended up going to jail and being killed when he was very young. Lucky's mother never got off the booze, so he was left to bring in all the money and take care of his 2 younger siblings. The only comfort he finds is when he plays his lute. After a shocking tragedy, Lucky goes to New York to start over. There he finds company with an unlikely man, and ends up becoming what we meet him as, a hit man. He calls his boss, The Right Man, finds out the particulars, and kills with frightening accuracy. He has record with Interpol, the CIA and the FBI but no one knows who he really is. He's a ghost, and he likes it that way. The next job he gets he has to kill a Russian banker in the hotel room in California that Lucky himself always stays in when he needs to get away. He is himself whenever he's there; no disguises, no false names.

"There were omens from the beginning"

Lucky didn't feel good about this assignment. It was a part of his life that he kept away from The Right Man, so he had no idea that this was Lucky's personal place to go and be himself, but it was still a job and had to be done, whether he liked it or not. After completing the job, Lucky is approached in the room by Malchiah. Malchiah is an angel, not a guardian angel, but one of the Seraph, who took an interest in Lucky's life early on. He takes Lucky back to his past, to the tragedy that still haunts him to this day, shows him how he became what he is now, and asks for his help. He wants Lucky to start working for him, using his skills for good instead of bad. With Lucky's consent, they travel back in time and Lucky tries to complete the task given to him. But his past continues to haunt him, the things he has done and seen continue to haunt him, and he wonders if anything he does will make a difference to anything. What happens if he completes this great task given to him? And what happens if he fails?

I was never an Anne Rice fan. I didn't get into the vampire books or the witch books, in fact the only 2 books of hers I really enjoyed were Memnoch the Devil and The Mummy. I fell in love with this book. Her writing is beautiful, the characters are engaging, and as we went back in time with Lucky to see what tragedy befell him when he was 18, the angel Malchiah turned and wept, and I found myself weeping as well. I am thoroughly looking forward to the second book in this series, and can only hope for more wonderful things.

5 stars