First, let me make it clear that I’m a Christopher Moore fan. He won me over with Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. So, when I discovered The Stupidest Angel on the table at the front of the bookstore, I was compelled to pick it up. As most folks with favorite authors, I hoped and prayed for lightning to strike twice. With that in mind, I can see that I was at the least not disappointed, and in fact was quite entertained.
The Stupidest Angel is a quick read, solidly constructed, with fun characters. Moore has crafted a love letter to the Hollywood zombie film, that pokes fun at itself. The book is a character reunion story for Moore — reminiscent to books like Heinlein’s The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, the story features characters from Moore’s past novels coming together for a revisit.
• • • • • SPOILER ALERT • • • • •
Preparations for Christmas are underway In the tiny fictional town of Pine Cove, California. The town, as described in several passages, is as impermanent as Hollywood set dressing. (This is emphasized as the town is ravaged by storms on Christmas Eve.) Theophilus Crowe, the town constable, has sold the last of his marijuana paraphernalia to purchase a Japanese sword for his wife Molly Michon’s meditative practice. Molly, who fancies herself a mutant-slaying warrior woman (a character she had played in a series of B-movies), has given up her psych meds so that she can afford a new bhang for him, in true Gift of the Magi fashion.
Meanwhile, Dale Pearson, the stingiest man in town, is accidental murdered in Santa-garb by his ex-wife Lena with a shovel when he catches her harvesting a Christmas tree on his property. Tucker Case — a pilot with a giant talking fruit bat named Roberto and an overdeveloped sense of heroism — happens along to help Lena hide the dead Santa, and promptly falls for her.
But supernatural events are placed in motion when the Archangel Raziel grants the Christmas wish of Josh Barker, the boy who witnessed Santa’s murder, to bring Santa back to life. The result is an entire graveyard of Zombies wreaking mayhem on a church Christmas dinner.
The Stupidest Angel is a fun read. The character driven plot has a deus ex machina ending, which, because the hand of deus sets the plot in motion, works well in the context of the story. Even the zombies are atypical, although their love of brains remains the same.
