The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels: A Novel

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

Amanda takes Oliver to the location to which she believes the personal ad referred. They discover the painted symbol for Gabriel. Oliver talks about the antichrist predicting the end of days. After transcribing the audio file, Ellie questions whether Amanda should still be recording Oliver without telling him. She says that Amanda does not question Oliver’s supernatural theories.

Amanda emails Ellie, observing that two fictional works inspired by the Alperton Angels case include a character called Ashleigh and that neither includes an angel called Raphael. She texts Clive Badham, asking if Ashleigh is based on a real person, but he insists that she is purely fictional. Messaging Oliver, Amanda points out that Christopher Shenk (Raphael) had no known connection to the other angels. Oliver states that there must have been four angels, as there are four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Amanda interviews retired police sergeant Nikki Sayle. Nikki interviewed the first Holly in the 1990s after she reported Gabriel’s attempt to involve her in credit card fraud. Gabriel had told Holly that as an angel, her purpose was to wait until the antichrist was born and stop it from destroying the world. Despite leaving Gabriel, Holly continued to believe his angel story. When Nikki drove Holly back to her mother’s cottage, the teenager revealed that her name was Ashleigh. In her transcript, Ellie suggests that Don Makepeace concealed the identity of both Hollys from Amanda. She theorizes that Gabriel never wanted to kill the baby but intended to profit from an illegal adoption.

Sonia Brown warns Amanda that the case “goes all the way up, and no one will break ranks for [her]” (373). She says that if Gabriel were ever freed, he would ruin the lives of more vulnerable people.

Ellie sends Amanda a news article stating that Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of Prince Edward, will soon turn 18. Ellie concludes that the Alperton Angels baby is the Queen’s grandchild.

Amanda receives a package from Mark Dunning’s widow containing his diary entry for December 10, 2003. Mark was in London on a research trip and paid Jonathan Childs to ride in his police car. When Jonathan was called to a dispute between two gangs, a gang member attacked Mark, pinning him to the ground. Jonathan called for backup, and the gangs dispersed. Afterward, Jonathan took a call. He told Mark to lie on the car floor while they waited for a delivery. Mark heard someone arrive and drop an object into the trunk and remained hidden as Jonathan drove to another location. Mark saw Jonathan and a Black female police officer taking a body from the car trunk and carrying it into a warehouse. Mark secretly followed them inside, where the Black officer, Marie Claire, said that she and Jonathan had found the body on the stairs of the warehouse. Exasperated, the other officers instructed her to return the body to its original position. Mark then saw three mutilated dead bodies on the warehouse floor and passed out. When he woke, Jonathan told Mark not to feel bad about the body in the trunk since the dead man had killed his friend, a Sikh police officer. Mark took the first flight home.

Minnie tells Amanda that she has a problem with her book. A proofreader questioned some content’s veracity, and Minnie discovered that the thesis her book was based on was a fictional work. The author invented all its “factual” evidence, including documents and photographs.

Amanda video-calls Jideofor Sani, a paramedic who was called to the Alperton warehouse in 2003. Jideofor reveals that he assumed that the mutilated bodies were the victims of a gang killing since they all had bullet wounds behind the ear, typical of an “execution-style” assassination. Jideofor declared three men dead at the scene but later learned that another body had been found.

Ellie sends a WhatsApp message to Amanda, expressing concern about Oliver, who has sent her a picture of a calendar marked with the end of days. Amanda says that she will “snap him out of it,” but not yet (402).

Amanda’s fourth attempt at the first chapter describes Oliver joining The Informer trainee scheme. Realizing that the other trainees were more talented, he belittled them. He gave a young female trainee the wrong location for after-work drinks. Consequently, she was assaulted and robbed in a dangerous area of London. Her work portfolio was stolen, and the attack permanently injured her left eye. When Amanda met Oliver again years later, it was clear that he had not changed, perceiving victims of manipulation as stupid. However, while writing a book on the Alperton Angels, Oliver learned how it felt to be vulnerable, deceived, and betrayed.