The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, and death by suicide.

The novel opens with a challenge. The reader has received a key to a safe deposit box containing research materials for a book. After reviewing them, they must either replace the documents and throw away the key or take everything to the police.

Chapter 1 begins in May 2021 with WhatsApp and email messages between true-crime author Amanda Bailey and her agent, Nita Cawley. The publisher Kronos is launching “Eclipse,” a series examining old crimes from new angles. The editor, Pippa Deacon, wants Amanda to write a book on the Alperton Angels, a case involving the death and mutilation of several male cult members. The baby at the center of the case will soon turn 18, and Pippa wants Amanda to locate them. Pippa describes the other series titles. Craig Turner is presenting Dennis Nilsen’s murders as an omen of the 1980s AIDS crisis, and Minnie Davis has discovered eerie similarities between Myra Hindley and Rose West.

Before she begins researching, Amanda ends her relationship with her boyfriend, Keiron. Amanda makes a list of people to interview, including “The Angels,” police officers, health and social care workers, and people who have produced creative work based on the case.

An old news article states that the great conjunction, a rare phenomenon where Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn align in the sky, will occur on December 10, 2003. A second article reports four deaths in a “mass suicide” at a derelict warehouse in Alperton, London. Another report links the discovery of Harpinder Singh’s body to the Alperton Angels, three men and two teenagers who believed they were angels.

Amanda creates email templates to send out to interview subjects. She devises a script for “phishing” phone calls in which she poses as a police officer.

Amanda and Minnie Davis exchange WhatsApp messages about their projects. Amanda explains that the case is difficult to investigate. Although a teenage couple and their baby survived the Alperton Angels’ mass death by suicide, all information is redacted. A bookstore receipt shows Amanda’s purchase of books inspired by the case, including White Wings by Mark Dunning and My Angel Diary by Jess Adesina.

In emails, Amanda asks social worker Sonia Brown to locate the Alperton Angel teenagers, Holly and Jonah, and their baby. When Sonia says that she cannot do so without losing her job, Amanda suggests that Sonia owes her for keeping quiet about an information leak. Sonia says that she leaked the information to help Amanda.

Amanda sends a Twitter message to Jess Adesina, asking if Jess knew anyone involved in the case. Jess blocks Amanda’s messages. After emailing Mark’s agent, Amanda learns that he died in a car crash. She emails Clive Badham, who won an award for the unproduced screenplay Divine, based on the case. He refuses to send Amanda the script, expressing concerns about plagiarism. Amanda decides to call her book Divine.

In a WhatsApp exchange with Amanda, retired chief superintendent Don Makepeace reveals that Oliver Menzies is also writing a book about the Alperton Angels. Amanda knows Oliver; they were both on a training scheme at The Informer in the 1990s. Amanda left the scheme early. Afterward, Oliver co-authored a police memoir and ghost-wrote the memoir of a soldier accused of war crimes. When Amanda complains that Oliver is pursuing the same story, Pippa stresses the importance of finding the baby first.

In a WhatsApp message to Oliver, Amanda suggests that he lost his well-paid public relations job through incompetence. Oliver says that he left the position after his father died. Amanda lies, saying that she has an exclusive interview with the now-grown baby.

Amanda messages her former assistant, Ellie Cooper, a PhD student in criminology. She will produce transcripts of Amanda’s audio files. The first transcript is of Amanda’s lunch with Don. Don was chief inspector at Wembley Central in 2003. He reveals that the Alperton Angels’ leader, Gabriel Angelis, was born Peter Duffy. Don first arrested Gabriel for fraud. In 2003, Gabriel received a life sentence for murdering Harpinder. Although his fellow “angels” died from self-inflicted cuts to their throats at a meeting that they called “the Assembly,” Gabriel was convicted of mutilating their bodies. Gabriel insisted on his innocence. Cult members Holly and Jonah were not prosecuted since they were vulnerable minors from foster homes and saved the baby. Don never knew where the baby went but believes that a family member received custody. He asks Amanda to speak to his son, Connor, who hopes to become a journalist.

A transcript records Amanda’s meeting with Reverend Barden Hyde at St. Barnabus Church. He recounts how Holly came to church alone one day and told a parishioner that she was an angel. The parishioner guessed that Holly had been brainwashed and suggested that she attend again with her fellow “angels.” The following Sunday, Gabriel, Jonah, and Holly attended together. The reverend confesses that when Gabriel talked about being an angel, he was convincing.

Amanda and Oliver discuss their meetings over WhatsApp. Oliver reveals that Don, who is ex-special forces, recommended him to “the mad squaddie” (43), the soldier whose memoir he ghost-wrote. He believes that Holly and Jonah were stupid for believing Gabriel’s angel story.

Amanda interviews Police Constable Neil Rose. In December 2003, Rose and his partner, Fareed Khan, responded to an emergency call. A teenager named Holly claimed that she had a baby at an abandoned baby food warehouse and needed help. The officers found her covered in blood, with no sign of a baby. They saw strange symbols painted on the floor. Holly was in shock and did not answer their questions. They drove her to the hospital. Rose and Khan received an urgent call to help an officer in trouble and dropped Holly off at the hospital entrance. They later learned that Holly had the baby with her in a plastic bag. Fortunately, the baby was alive and healthy. Afterward, the bodies of the angels were found in the basement of the same warehouse. Rose and Khan were disciplined for their failure to notice the baby. Photographs of the location showed no symbols on the floor, and Khan later retracted his assertion. 

Amanda interviews Police Chief Inspector Mike Dean. Dean suggests that Rose and Khan invented the story about the symbols to detract from their professional negligence. Dean first learned of the Alperton Angels when he joined the police force. A teenager named Holly reported that the archangel Gabriel had tried to involve her in credit card fraud.

Pippa and Oliver’s editor, Jo Li, have agreed that Amanda and Oliver should conduct their research together but write their books from different angles. Amanda messages Oliver, saying that the fictional representations of the Alperton Angels case are interesting. Oliver asserts that he is “only interested in facts” (60). Oliver claims to have an exclusive interview but will not reveal with whom. Amanda’s application to visit Gabriel in HM Prison Tynefield is refused.

Amanda receives an unsolicited email from Rhoda Wisdom, an angel therapist who helps clients communicate with their guardian angels; she claims that a white feather’s unexpected appearance means that an angel is nearby. She also asserts that coincidences and repetitive number sequences, such as 444, are messages from the “divine.” Amanda guesses that Oliver sent Rhoda her contact details as a joke and vows to get revenge.

Police Sergeant Aileen Forsyth recounts that after the angels’ mass death by suicide, she had orders to reunite Holly and the baby with Jonah and take them to Willesden Children’s Center. She picked up Holly and the baby and drove to collect Jonah. On the way, Holly declared that the baby was evil and would destroy humanity. Nevertheless, she held the baby carefully and comforted it. In the warehouse basement, Jonah was clinging to Gabriel’s body, insisting that he could not be dead. Forsyth did not want to leave Holly alone with the baby. Holly refused to leave the car, fearing that someone would kill the baby. When Forsyth asked a Black female officer to watch Holly, the teenager became hysterical, calling the officer, Marie Claire, “a dark angel” (68). Jonah had to be sedated to loosen his grip on Gabriel’s body. At the car, he took out a knife, looking like he intended to stab the baby. After disarming him, Forsyth considered taking Jonah to the police station. However, she drove them to Willesden as planned.

Amanda interviews the staff member on duty at Willesden when Holly and Jonah were admitted with the baby. Ten minutes after they arrived, two police officers (one white man and a Black woman) showed a warrant and took the baby.

Amanda receives an email from David Polneath, an amateur detective. David believes that Gabriel was framed for Harpinder’s murder. He advises Amanda to read news reports and note the discrepancies in the number of people reported dead.

Oliver messages Amanda, revealing that his request to visit Gabriel in prison has been approved. He complains that a silent call woke him early. Amanda learns that the prison governor is Oliver’s father’s friend. His parents’ connections also secured him an apprenticeship at The Informer. In a WhatsApp message to Craig, Amanda reveals that she has never forgiven Oliver for something he did 20 years ago.

Amanda drafts the first chapter of Divine, writing it from police officer Jonathan Childs’s perspective, who is about to discover Harpinder’s body in an empty apartment.