Someone is impersonating Angel and the vampire with a soul is not happy about it. Soon, the whole team of Angel Investigations is worried.

Angel is acting even broodier than usual, the Fake Angel is a becoming a danger to himself and others and his new mysterious client is hiding something important.

It starts to become clear to Angel, Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia that the night-time darkness of LA is getting worse. Angel is close to reverting to Angelus behaviour, even peaceful demons are attacking humans and Cordelia's visions are getting more frequent.

They can't help thinking that the False Angel and his client are involved in some way. The team struggle to keep up with the visions whilst at the same time trying to solve this latest mystery.

It all cumulates one night and Angel and the others must, as usual, stop the darkness before it's too late. Something is drawing all the darkness of the city and its non-human inhabitants to the forefront and Angel Investigations must use all their strength to stop it spreading.

Durguin is a newcomer to Angel Tie-Ins but does a good job of conveying the dark side of Angel's LA and the show's characters. There is much exploration of the characters and especially of Angel's struggle against his demon side. It is somewhat slow in places but the action picks up towards the end and comes to a satisfactory ending.

It makes an interesting change to see a tie-in here which focuses more on the tension and occasional distrust between the characters. It is set close to the time of Angel's meeting with Darla in season three of the series and fits in well with this storyline.

Durguin even goes so far as to have Gunn suspect Angel of attacking him. Of course, in true Angel style, friendship and trust win and Angel regains his belief that he is no longer Angelus.

The fact that for once it is not Angel's curse that is in danger of making Angel revert back to his dark side but rather an outside influence is also an intriguing use of part of the show's mythology. The tone and style of the story and writing work well for this type of storyline and with this side of the show's ethos.

Whilst I personally believe that the plot strands are a little too predictable and convenient in places, this is nevertheless an entertaining enough read and a passable addition to the cast of Angel tie-in books.

Laura Kayne