58 pages • 1-hour read
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels: A Novel
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Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary: “The End of Days?”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, emotional abuse, and child abuse.
Amanda meets Marie Claire, who neither confirms nor denies that Mark Dunning portrayed her as Celine, an angel who performs “the bureau’s dirty work” (405). Amanda asserts that she has an alternative version of the yellow Mini Clubman story; a couple saw a car veer off the road, but the driver was unhurt, regained control, and rejoined the motorway further on. Don’s discovery of another yellow Mini Clubman was coincidental. The story became a “popular myth,” often retold and embellished with details. Amanda states that Christopher Shenk was never an Alperton Angel. Instead, he was a local drug dealer who realized that Harpinder Singh was an undercover police detective. When Harpinder was murdered, police officers beat Christopher to death while he was unofficially in custody. Dumping Christopher’s body with the Alperton Angels, they concocted the story that he was Raphael, another cult member. When Gabriel survived and escaped, police officers framed him for Harpinder’s murder. Marie Claire switches off Amanda’s recording. Amanda transcribes the meeting to avoid involving Ellie.
A WhatsApp message from Nita reveals that Pippa Deacon has canceled Minnie’s book after learning that it was based on a hoax. Nita warns Amanda to distance herself from Minnie. Amanda ignores Minnie’s messages. She messages Oliver, saying that she needs “to set the record straight” (410), but Oliver is busy.
Amanda receives a message from Rob Jolley, a Cold & Unsolved member. Rob found a 2003 personal ad that reads, “ANGELS FLY INSIDE ERMINTRUDE FENCING” (412). He says that Ermintrude was a cow in the cartoon The Magic Roundabout; the message refers to the Cow & Gate baby food warehouse.
Amanda meets Jess Adesina, who introduces her wife, Georgie Adesina (Lady Georgina/the second Holly). Georgie has two children with Jess and wants to leave her past behind. She has no idea where the baby went. Amanda declines the £300,000 that Georgie offers for a non-disclosure agreement and says that she does not believe Gabriel killed Harpinder. Georgie assures her that Gabriel deserves to be in prison. After her involvement in the Alperton Angels, therapists told her to write down her experiences. She did so in a college creative-writing class, writing a film script as Rowley Wild, but it did not help. However, fictionalizing her experiences with Jess in My Angel Diary allowed her to turn her story into a positive narrative. Amanda realizes that Clive Badham was Georgie’s creative-writing tutor and stole the script.
In a WhatsApp exchange, Ellie advises Amanda to update Oliver since she has “been deceiving him for long enough” (419).
Pages from the Divine script describe events from the Assembly. On the warehouse’s second floor, Elemiah paints a symbol on the floor. (Amanda notes that he is practicing for the symbols in the basement). Holly refuses to give the baby to Michael, asserting that it is her job to protect it until the alignment. In the basement, Gabriel explains that they are waiting for a man to arrive and take the baby. Don arrives with a case of money. When Michael examines the case’s contents, finding blank paper underneath the top bank notes, a single bullet kills him. Holly takes the baby and runs up the fire escape as a “dark force” shoots Elemiah and Gabriel. Jonah clings to Gabriel’s body.
On the second floor, Holly hides the baby in a bag and uses the phone that Ashleigh gave her to call the police. (Amanda notes that Neil Rose and Fareed Khan are then dispatched to the scene.) As she waits, Holly sees “dark forces” cut the throats of Elemiah and Michael and slice open their bodies in the basement. Gabriel is about to meet the same fate when the warehouse door opens, causing the dark forces to disperse into the shadows. A man enters (Amanda identifies him as Gray Graham), takes a photograph of the mutilated bodies, and faints. Officers Rose and Khan see the light that Holly shines from the second-floor window. (Amanda notes that Rose and Khan’s arrival prevents the dark forces from killing Gray.) As Holly is taken to the patrol car, Gray wakes up and makes an anonymous phone call to emergency services.
When Khan and Rose arrive at the hospital, they receive an emergency call declaring that Officer 444 is in trouble. (Amanda notes that this is Jonathan Childs with Mark Dunning). They leave Holly at the entrance. After a nurse checks her and the baby, Holly asks for directions to the bathroom, taking the baby with her. Marie Claire arrives, claiming that she is there to collect Holly and the baby. Holly is looking for the hospital exit when another police officer, Aileen Forsyth, intercepts her. Forsyth explains that they will fetch Jonah and that she will take them to a Children’s Center for the night. Marie Claire sees Forsyth drive away and follows them to the warehouse. Forsyth asks her to watch Holly and the baby while she collects Jonah. Holly screams when she sees Marie Claire, declaring that she is a “dark force.”
While Forsyth goes inside, Marie Claire makes a call saying that they must wait since there are police officers everywhere. Ashleigh appears and tells Holly that 13 years earlier, Gabriel fooled her into believing that she was an angel. (Amanda notes that Ashleigh is the first Holly from 1990 and has been following Gabriel, trying to save the second Holly.) Holly tells Ashleigh that the baby is not hers and that her real name is Georgie. Marie Claire thanks Ashleigh and tells her to go.
Marie Claire takes a phone call and swears. (Amanda notes that Gabriel has fled the scene). Forsyth arrives with Jonah, who accuses dark forces of corrupting Holly. Forsyth disarms Jonah when he pulls out a knife and takes them to the children’s center.
In a WhatsApp exchange with Amanda, Oliver states that Lady Louise Windsor is the antichrist and that it is his purpose to destroy her. Amanda tells Oliver that Holly/Georgina was not the baby’s mother. Gabriel, Michael, and Elemiah were career criminals who met in prison. Gabriel’s scheme involving the first Holly was unsuccessful. His second attempt in 2003 involved taking revenge on Don, who had sent him to jail in the 1980s. Using the second Holly and Jonah, Gabriel kidnapped Don’s baby son for ransom. Gray often arrived at crime scenes first since he had specialist radio equipment to listen to police transmissions. His shorthand notebooks recorded what he heard. She suggests that the painted symbol that Rose saw on the warehouse’s second floor was later removed to reinforce the idea that the Alperton Angels were a suicide cult.
Amanda messages Don, revealing that she knows who the baby is. She meets Connor Makepeace, whose father just told him about his kidnapping as a child. A young woman stole him while his mother went inside the library. Details of where to drop the ransom were published in the local papers. Don told Connor that when he arrived at the warehouse with the money, the gang members had died by suicide.
Amanda’s WhatsApp conversation with Oliver continues as she explains that Don did not trust the police force to deal with the kidnapping. He used his connections with special forces. Amanda reveals that she traced the source of Oliver’s mysterious calls to a decommissioned public toilet accidentally programmed with Oliver’s number. Although the toilet was scrapped, a lightning strike may have recharged the battery, causing it to call Oliver. Oliver is unfazed, asserting that the toilet was struck by lightning to alert him to the antichrist’s danger.
Amanda tries to convince Oliver that the Alperton Angels case revolves around two undercover operations’ collusion, not supernatural phenomena. When undercover officer Harpinder was murdered, police officers assumed that Christopher was responsible and beat him to death in custody. Marie Claire, a former special forces sniper, oversaw concealing Christopher’s death. She was also coordinating Connor’s retrieval and his kidnappers’ assassination and realized that she could combine the two operations. Unexpected complications arose when Holly escaped the scene with Connor and Gabriel survived. Soon after Holly and Jonah were taken to the children’s center, Marie Claire and Don arrived and collected Connor.
Oliver says that Amanda’s story does not explain the strange physical symptoms he experienced at sites associated with the Alperton Angels. Amanda confesses that she remembered that caffeine gave Oliver dizzy spells and dosed him with sweets or drinks before visiting a significant location. She also invented the comment underneath Oliver’s online article claiming that Gabriel’s wounds healed themselves. Amanda reveals that she was attacked when Oliver sent her to the wrong pub 20 years earlier. She lost her possessions, including the portfolio, and her sight was impaired. When Oliver does not apologize, Amanda admits that she is Paul Cole, the spiritual counselor with whom he has been corresponding. Oliver is unaffected, insisting that Gabriel is the resurrected Messiah. Amanda shares Marie Claire’s theory that the bullet that hit Gabriel fractured his skull and rendered him unconscious but did not kill him. By clinging to Gabriel, Jonah unwittingly saved him from having his throat cut while still alive.
Amanda reads Oliver’s last email to Paul, revealing his plan to kill Lady Louise Windsor. Ellie admits that she told Oliver her theory about the baby’s identity. On WhatsApp, Oliver sends Amanda a photograph from the roof of Lady Louise’s school, claiming that he is with the “mad squaddie” and has a gun. Ellie checks the school’s map and discovers that Oliver is on the Orchard Building roof. Amanda tells Ellie that she is driving there to intervene. Ellie calls the police and receives no further reply to her messages.
Chapter 8 Summary: “I Take Over From the Late Amanda Bailey on 8 September 2021”
Ellie receives a key with the address of a safe deposit box. Amanda’s note says that the box contains her Alperton Angels research and that Ellie must decide what to do with it.
When Ellie opens it, she finds the papers that comprise the narrative so far and missing pages from the screenplay Divine. They describe Holly returning to the apartment after following Gabriel to discover an unknown Asian man comforting the crying baby. Jonah appears, grabs a kitchen knife, and stabs the man in the neck. Holly joins in, hitting the stranger in the head with a cricket bat. When Gabriel returns, they say that they have saved the antichrist. Horrified, Gabriel identifies the man as his neighbor and calls Elemiah and Michael.
Amanda’s business card, with two white feathers taped to it, accompanies the research papers. A note reveals that Amanda found the first feather glowing in the isolated location where she waited for Mr. Blue. The second was on Oliver’s shoulder as they waited outside the prison.
Ellie adds recent news articles. Their headlines report that Oliver shot Amanda dead at an Ascot school. One of Lady Louise’s armed security team then killed Oliver. Amanda’s apartment was burglarized shortly after her death. An article by Don Makepeace pays tribute to Amanda.
Ellie texts Don, asking if the thief who stole Amanda’s laptop and phone has been caught. She contacts Clive Badham, instructing him to destroy all copies of Divine unless he wants to face legal action for stealing a student’s work.
Ellie acquires CCTV images of the vandal who recently graffitied an Alperton apartment block with Gabriel’s symbol. After a video meeting with Sonia Brown, Ellie composes an email to her, noting that she was wearing an angel wing pendant when they spoke. Ellie commends Ashleigh Sonia Brown for saving Connor, Holly, and Jonah and continuing to convince Gabriel that she is under his spell. As one of Gabriel’s regular prison visitors, Ashleigh/Sonia feigns loyalty through small acts such as graffitiing his symbol. She passes everything Gabriel says to Don to ensure that he is never freed. Ellie adds that her book on the Alperton Angels will not expose the cover-ups that led to Gabriel’s conviction.
Ellie sends another email, describing how her book will focus on the Alperton Angels’ enduring ability to destroy others, as evidenced by Amanda’s and Oliver’s deaths. She may give the narrative a supernatural slant.
Ellie interviews Brother Jonah. She says that Don and Marie Claire never realized that Christopher Shenk was not responsible for Harpinder Singh’s death. Ellie theorizes that a special forces officer accompanied Oliver to Lady Louise’s school and, when Amanda arrived, killed them both. She concludes that Gabriel is responsible for Harpinder’s death since he convinced Holly and Jonah that dark forces were pursuing them. If she exposed the truth, Gabriel would be released.
Cathy-June Lloyd emails Ellie, observing that Amanda’s and Oliver’s deaths were suspicious. There were no independent witnesses, and Lady Louise was not at school on the day her security team allegedly shot Oliver. Furthermore, the Orchard Building roof was one of the few areas without CCTV.
When Ellie’s book Divine is published, she receives congratulatory flowers from Jess and Georgie Adesina. Chapter 1 of the book describes how 12-year-old Amanda approached a female police officer, revealing that a family member was abusing her and requesting to be placed in care. At 18, she began an apprenticeship for a newspaper, but a coworker’s prank led to a permanent sight impairment. When Amanda learned that the coworker had not changed, years later, she hatched a revenge plan that destroyed them both.
The novel ends with a message from Ellie to the reader. Amanda’s research materials reveal that Gabriel was wrongfully convicted and that Harpinder’s killers escaped justice. They also demonstrate that, if freed, Gabriel poses a danger to other vulnerable individuals. Ellie reveals that she is pregnant and not prepared to put her life in danger. She has replaced the research in the safe deposit box. Now, the reader must decide what to do with it.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
The final chapters mark the climax and resolution of the narrative. As the various missing pieces of the complex mystery fit together, Hallett continues to use innovative techniques, such as Amanda’s sticky notes, to provide further exposition for the reader. The author explores The Elusive Nature of the Truth through the yellow Mini Clubman motif. Amanda’s alternative explanation for the mystery underlines how narratives become distorted deliberately or unintentionally through repetition and retelling. The theory explains how, over time, Christopher Shenk’s identity as an Alperton Angel became an accepted fact despite the lack of verifiable evidence. This theme continues in the climactic scene where Amanda admits the truth to Oliver. The revelation that she posed as Paul Cole, dosed Oliver with caffeine, and fabricated an account of Gabriel’s wounds healing reveals the full extent to which she shaped and distorted his perception of reality, relying on The Exploitation of Vulnerability. However, as Amanda attempts to “set the record straight” (410), it becomes clear that her actions are irreversible. Resistant to all rational explanations for events, Oliver remains fully invested in the narrative that Amanda began and that he has since embellished. The plot takes on the momentum of a Greek tragedy since Amanda is powerless to prevent the events she has set in motion. The fatal confrontation between Amanda and Oliver, which occurs “off stage,” is a twist on the traditional detective fiction trope in which the investigator and perpetrator of the crime finally confront one another.
As Amanda’s and Oliver’s deaths are confirmed in the falling action, Ellie becomes the novel’s protagonist. Stepping into the dead authors’ shoes, Ellie writes the book that Amanda and Oliver failed to complete. The book’s angle, “how the Alperton Angels cult still has the potential to ensnare people” (486), places Amanda and Oliver at the center of the action as, in obsessively pursuing the story, they ultimately “become” the story. After the novel’s final plot twists—the revelation that Holly and Jonah killed Harpinder Singh and that Sonia Brown is Ashleigh—Hallet provides a certain amount of closure. However, while the author ties up most loose ends, elements of the case remain unresolved. Notably, readers are left to ponder whether justice has been served, as Gabriel is shown to be innocent of Harpinder’s murder but nevertheless poses a danger to society.
The narrative hints at a further cover-up, insinuating that special forces operative Marie Claire killed both Amanda and Oliver. Furthermore, while the narrative reveals most aspects of the case to have rational explanations, the possibility of supernatural influences lingers. The narrative does not clarify whether the sudden deaths of a series of witnesses in the case were coincidences, assassinations ordered by Don Makepeace, or the work of paranormal forces. Also unexplained is Gabriel’s knowledge that an orchard would play a role in Oliver’s fate. Finally, Amanda’s inclusion of the white feathers among her research papers suggests that she may have come to believe in the presence of angels despite her logical approach to the case. These ambiguities leave readers to consider their interpretation of events as well as a moral dilemma: “Go ahead and expose the miscarriage of justice or simply slide everything back into its folders, envelopes and files, and walk away” (495). Since Ellie does not want to place her life in danger, she passes the onus onto the reader as the novel ends.
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