Angel Under-Ground by
Mike Ripley
A very funny writer indeed! Master of the one-liner and the quips which we all wish we
had thought of ourselves. There have been a whole string of Angel books featuring Mike
Ripley's serial anti-hero Fitzroy Maclean Angel. He is a former archeologist turned
playboy, who has a gorgeous, but stroppy girl-friend Amy, who seems to keep him in the
luxury to which he has become accustomed. An eccentric, who drives an old London taxi
named Armstrong, Angel gets conned by his equally eccentic mother into joining a dig in
Suffolk, where an old boy who has won the Lottery, is hacking up his estate with a JCB,
convinced that the mint of Queen Boadicea lies beneath. The author is himself an
archeologist, but finds time for writing novels, scripts and reviews on what seems to be a
full-time basis.
The highly amusing text and dialogue seems bereft of any sign of a plot until about half-
way through the book, but with such delightful writing, who cares? Anyway, slowly, the
story appears, though as an alleged crime book, there is not a policemen to be seen and
the only body is a skeleton. Pure farce, but so skilfully done. For once I fully agree with
the plaudits on the dust-jacket - as one of these reviewers says, 'I never read Ripley on the
train, as laughing out loud annoys the other passengers.'
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