"Flawless ... beyond perfection." — New York Magazine"An astonishingly well-written literary novel that just happened to be about (or roundabout) a crime." — Barry Gifford"Black Wings Has My Angel is an indisputable noir classic … Elliott Chaze was a fine prose stylist, witty, insightful, nostalgic, and irreverent, and a first-class storyteller." — Bill Pronzini An escaped convict encounters an enterprising prostitute at the start of this hard-boiled masterpiece. When Timothy Sunblade opens the door of his blue Packard to Virginia, their fates are forever intertwined. "Maybe if you saw her you'd understand," he reminisces. "Face by Michelangelo, clothes they drape on those models in Vogue, and a past out of a tabloid front page … Virginia, who came for one paid hour — and stayed for all eternity." After double-crossing and beating each other black-and-blue, the pair conspire to rob an armored car. But pulling off the ultimate heist is only the beginning of their troubles. Written during the golden age of American pulp fiction, this unforgettable novel pulses with energy, atmosphere, and dark humor.

Black Wings Has My Angel

Humor & Entertainment

Chaze, Elliott

Humor

Dover Publications

When John Robinson, the detested general manager of the "Catherine Call" is found murdered, managing editor Kiel St. James undertakes his own investigation to keep the newspaper going

Goodbye Goliath

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Scribner

"In 'Little David,' newsman Kiel St. James helps the local police track down a killer who has both a political grudge and a passion for biblical weaponry. Two members of the city council of Catherine, Alabama, are found slain in a bizarre fashion---by small stones, apparently fired from a slingshot. With no clues except the peculiar choice of weapon, Chief of Detectives Orson Boles gets nowhere fast He finally resorts to staging a slingshot contest as one of the events at the Catherine town picnic--a tactic ridiculed by St. James........"

Little David

Literature & Fiction

United States

J. Curley

One of the best crime novels of the 50’s, and a sublime example of American Noir, is BLACK WINGS HAS MY ANGEL by Elliott Chaze, whose earlier war novel, THE STAINLESS STEEL KIMONO, was much admired by Ernest Hemmingway. Chaze took the standard dime store crime novel and turned it into an edgy piece of literature. His use of complex sentences, long descriptive passages, and characters who continue to surprise us throughout the narrative prove that the American crime novel was capable of greater depths. The story follows the turbulent love affair of a pair of uprooted misfits, an ex-hooker and an ex-con, who are brought together by a mutual love of money. Adrift between the cracks of society, they form a bond that is less like love and more like fate. Left on their own they would have led lives of criminal mischief, misdemeanor and petty crime, but together, embarking on a dark journey across the American landscape, they create absolute mayhem.

Bruin Books, LLC

She had the face of a madonna--and a heart of dollar bills... Black Wings Has My Angel is the dreamlike tale of a man after a jailbreak who meets up with the woman of his dreams--and his nightmares. A phenomenal work of the period and a legend among noir buffs, Chaze's pulp classic is back in print for the first time in more than half a century.

Classics

Blackstone Audiobooks

"Flawless ... beyond perfection." -- New York Magazine"An astonishingly well-written literary novel that just happened to be about (or roundabout) a crime." -- Barry Gifford"Black Wings Has My Angel is an indisputable noir classic ... Elliott Chaze was a fine prose stylist, witty, insightful, nostalgic, and irreverent, and a first-class storyteller." -- Bill Pronzini An escaped convict encounters an enterprising prostitute at the start of this hard-boiled masterpiece. When Timothy Sunblade opens the door of his blue Packard to Virginia, their fates are forever intertwined. "Maybe if you saw her you'd understand," he reminisces. "Face by Michelangelo, clothes they drape on those models in Vogue,  and a past out of a tabloid front page ... Virginia, who came for one paid hour -- and stayed for all eternity." After double-crossing and beating each other black-and-blue, the pair conspire to rob an armored car. But pulling off the ultimate heist is only the beginning of their troubles. Written during the golden age of American pulp fiction, this unforgettable novel pulses with energy, atmosphere, and dark humor.

Literary

Black Curtain Press

During the 1950s, Gold Medal Books introduced authors like Jim Thompson, Chester Himes, and David Goodis to a mass readership eager for stories of lowlife and sordid crime. Today many of these writers are admired members of the literary canon, but one of the finest of them of all, Elliott Chaze, remains unjustly obscure. Now, for the first time in half a century, Chaze’s story of doomed love on the run returns to print in a trade paperback edition. When Tim Sunblade escapes from prison, his sole possession is an infallible plan for the ultimate heist. Trouble is it’s a two-person job. So when he meets Virginia, a curiously well-spoken “ten-dollar tramp,” and discovers that the only thing she cares for is “drifts of money, lumps of it,” he knows he’s met his partner. What he doesn’t suspect is that this lavender-eyed angel might just prove to be his match. Black Wings Has My Angel careens through a landscape of desperate passion and wild reversals. It is a journey you will never forget.

Black Wings Has My Angel (New York Review Books Classics)

NYRB Classics

She had the face of a madonna and a heart made of dollar bills. She was sitting on the floor, naked, in a skitter of green bills. Beyond her was the custodian, still simpering in death. She was scooping up handfuls of the green money and dropping it on top of her head so that it came sliding down along the cream-colored hair, slipping down along her shoulders and body. She was making a noise I never heard come out of a human being. It was a scream that was a whisper and a laugh that was a cry. Over and over. The noise and the scooping. The slippery, sliding bills against the rigid body.

Two pitch-black noirs from the early 1950's, the first one a story of an escaped con who gets tragically caught up in the lives of a small town, and the second one the story of destructive lovers who pull off an armored car heist with disastrous results.

One is a Lonely Number / Black Wings Has My Angel

Elliott, Bruce

Stark House Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chaze, Elliott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Chaze, Elliott

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chaze, Elliott. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Black Wings Has My Angel

Goodbye Goliath

Little David

Little David

Black Wings Has My Angel

Black Wings Has My Angel

Black Wings Has My Angel

Black Wings Has My Angel (New York Review Books Classics)

Black Wings Has My Angel

One is a Lonely Number / Black Wings Has My Angel