Put an Angel on your tree this Christmas – Angel Murphy, an Irish female action hero!
When I wrote the first draft of what was to become Angel in Flight, it was a very different book, and Angeline Murphy was a very different character. She was a victim, a woman who had run away from an abusive husband who had been beating her up for some time. Angel should have left him long go, but had weakly stayed with him and hoped he would change.
That doesn’t make much of a character to carry a series of thrillers.
I didn’t find a publisher, or not one I could trust, and I put the book away for many years. Then, after I’d found a publisher for Belfast Girls, after its great success, and when the same publisher was very willing to publish my next book, Danger Danger, I took that early draft out again, and asked a writing friend, the very successful Sam Miller, for his advice. Then I rewrote the whole thing.
By now I had a very different idea of Angel’s character. I thought of women central characters like Modesty Blaise and Lara Croft, and I turned Angel from a victim into a strong woman, able to overcome. I gave the book a new, punning title, Angel in Flight. Quite early in the book, Angel changes from someone who is running away – from her abusive husband – into someone who is taking off, flying to the heights, achieving things. This is how I would now describe this character.
Belfast girl, Angeline Murphy (‘Angel’ to her friends, ‘devil’ to her enemies), is a girl who takes control. She breaks out of her abusive marriage and learns how to defend herself. Angel had married an attractive, even fascinating man, clever, good looking, well off; and lived to regret it bitterly. When she walked away from Michael Murphy, the violent man she had been fool enough to marry a year before, the first thing she did was to enrol in an unarmed combat course.
Never again did she intend to be a helpless victim of anger and aggression.
From then on, I showed Angel using these skills, and more, to rescue people, and to catch villains.
In the first book, she goes on holiday to Greece, narrowly avoids bumping into her ex-husband, Michael, and discovers that he’s involved with some very dangerous people. Angel is soon mixed up in the affair, working to expose corruption in big business, specifically a pharmaceutical company exploiting those who are ill. Angel is taking flight, soaring high, no longer a victim. Starting by fleeing from Michael, she overhears him plotting with a crook, and not long afterwards finds him dead. It’s as if a weight has rolled off her. Working with a young American, Josh Smith, from Interpol, she finally exposes the chief of the gang.
With a broken marriage behind her Angel is wary of men, but her meeting with Josh is changing her mind.
In the second Angel thriller, Angel in Belfast, the intrepid Angel Murphy is on home turf.
Fitz, lead singer of the popular band, Raving, is found unconscious, seeming unlikely to survive, and is rushed to hospital. Has he been driven to OD? Or is someone else behind this?
His friends, including Mary Branagh, from Belfast Girls, call in Angel to find out the truth. Angel, true to her nature, helps where help’s needed. But it takes all her courage and skills to survive the dangers she faces and to discover the real villain. A journey to London where she meets up with Josh provides some links in the chain.
In the third book Angel, goes on holiday to Corfu with Josh, to relax and recharge her batteries – and perhaps develop their relationship. But Angel finds it impossible to sit back doing nothing when she learns of the assault and robbery carried out on her parents’ old friend Sophie. Again, her instinct to help leads her into trouble.
Soon Angel is fully involved in tracking down the brutal gang of jewel thieves who are terrorising many of the island’s wealthy, elderly inhabitants. Her intention is, with Josh’s help, to identify and arrest the gang’s leader. But soon Angel is in serious danger herself, from men who don’t hesitate to kill.
Meanwhile, the growing trust she has been feeling for Josh, as they build their relationship carefully, is threatened. When Angel finds Josh left for dead in an olive grove at midnight, it seems that this might be the end for them both … but Josh is tougher than that – and so is Angel. Together they deal with the crooks.
By the fourth book, Angel has realised that if she is to trust Josh, she needs to forgive her first husband, and free herself from her anger and bitterness. With the help of her friend, Mary Branagh, she does this, and learns to forgive as she has been forgiven. But meanwhile she meets a young Polish girl – Elena – near the City Hall. Elena desperately needs help – she has been enticed over from Poland by the promise of a job, to find herself, instead, being used by people traffickers.
Angel is angry and horrified to find this happening in her home town. Determined to put a stop to it, she is soon on a trail which takes her to the city of Krakow, Poland – together with Elena’s friend Magda.
There she meets up again with Josh, also on the trail of people traffickers. After hair’s breadth escapes and rescues – amid the falling snow – they track down the boss of the people trafficking gang, and bring about a happy ending – in more senses than one! For Angel finds that now she has forgiven Michael, she can allow herself to trust Josh, at last.
(c) Gerry McCullough
There are four Angel Murphy thrillers, Angel in Flight, Angel in Belfast, Angel in Paradise and Angel on Guard, available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
About Angel on Guard:
Angeline Murphy – ‘Angel to her friends, devil to her enemies’ – is a feisty wee Belfast girl who works for the local BBC.
She meets a young Polish girl – Elena – near the City Hall. Elena desperately needs help – she has been enticed over from Poland by the promise of a job, to find herself, instead, being used by people traffickers.
Angel is angry and horrified to find this happening in her home town. Determined to put a stop to it, she is soon on a trail which takes her to the city of Krakow, Poland – together with Elena’s friend Magda.
There she meets up again with her friend Josh Smith – of Interpol – and between them, after hair’s breadth escapes, rescues, and thrills – amid the falling snow – they track down the boss of the people trafficking gang, and bring about a happy ending – in more senses than one!
Order your copy online here.
