Dark Angel

At the start of "Dark Angel" we are introduced to Tom Sedley who is 17 years old in 1948. At the end of the book Tom Sedley is 72. During these 55 years of Tom's life there is one overriding factor on his mind: an uncertainty as to who killed his younger sister back in 1948. "Dark Angel" is basically a murder mystery or whodunnit. But it is a murder mystery that spans 55 years and is recounted in terms of the impact it has on Tom Sedley and a few other people that were close to the crime when it was committed. Approximately half of the story takes place in 1950 while Tom and his (former) best friend Marcus are serving in the British Army in Korea during the start of the Korean War. In this section of the book we are told a lot about the Korean War (sometimes called "The Forgotten War") and the inhumanity of war in general. Tom and Marcus are no longer best friends, and Tom is troubled by doubts that Marcus may be the person who killed his sister. The remaining half of the story takes place in 1982. Tom's mother has died and during his emptying of the childhood house Tom finds a secret diary that belonged to his sister. Once again there are indications that Marcus may have been the killer. At the same time another childhood friend gets involved, and a very unexpected person arrives in England and gets in touch with Marcus (and Tom). But once again there is no clear resolution, and we are still unsure of who killed Tom's sister so many years ago. At the end of the book there is an epilogue that takes place in 2004. Tom Sedley is 72, and is still haunted by the events that took place 55 years ago. Will there finally be a resolution to this mystery that has traumatized him so much? I liked "Dark Angel" a lot because of the interesting story and the interesting people who are involved. None of the main characters are average; they are all special in one way or another. Many of these people have secret motives and all of them are affected in various ways by the murder in 1948. This makes the story very gripping - we want to learn what will happen to Tom and the others, and, like Tom, we want to learn the truth about what happened to his sister. Incidentally, this book is quite unlike the other books that Geoffrey Archer has written. This is a murder mystery, not a military action thriller like Mr. Archer's previous books, despite part of the story taking place on the battlefield of the Korean War, and despite the 1982 events having some connections to the Falklands War. Highly recommended if you like murder mysteries told in terms of the long-term effects the murder has on the people involved, and if you like being teased about who the murderer was until the very last page. Rennie Petersen