‘Angel’ flashback: ‘Redemption’ (2000) (Book review)

Thus far in my re-read, I haven’t encountered another author who makes such an improvement between his first and second Buffyverse novel as Mel Odom. After the weak “Buffy” entry “Unnatural Selection,” he bounces back with the “Angel” novel “Redemption” (June 2000). Also considering the unevenness of his next “Buffy” book, “Revenant,” he’s clearly much more at home in the Angel Investigations offices than in Sunnydale.

“Redemption” could’ve been a Season 1 “Angel” episode, as it predicts some things the TV series would later get to. The intriguing victim is Whitney Tyler, a Hollywood actress whom Cordelia naturally knows all about. It calls to mind the April 2000 episode “Eternity” (1.17), which Odom probably had not seen when writing this book, about an actress who wants to become a vampire. Whitney, on the other hand, plays a vampire on a hit TV show, and is being hunted by people who believe she actually is a vampire.

Intriguingly, these might not be a bunch of crazed fans, because as we see in flashbacks, Angel and Darla encounter a woman who looks very much like Whitney in the 1700s. In an evocative sequence set amid two ships sinking off the Irish coast, Angel seems to kill this woman, known as Moira. Later, in a brawl bar, Darla seems to kill her. But Moira keeps coming back, part of a vampire-hunting group called the Blood Cadre.

The comics would later introduce a vampire hunter in the “Buffy”/“Angel” crossover “Past Lives” and the TV show would broach the concept with Holtz in Season 3. Holtz jumps through time, but I’d argue the family of Angel-haters in “Past Lives” and the Blood Cadre are more interesting. The latter is a secret society that passes down its hatred of vampires through the generations.

Whitney is the biggest page-turning element of “Redemption,” and the payoff is decent – and a precursor to yet another TV series element: The idea of two entities sharing the same body, as with Ben and Glory in Season 5 of “Buffy.” It turns out both solutions to the mystery are correct: Whitney is the same woman from Angel’s past, yet she is not.

Odom is sometimes a bit blunt with the “redemption” theme, but since this is only the second “Angel” novel, I’ll forgive the broadness. Everyone is in character, with Angel helping Whitney while being confused by his Angelus-days memories of trying to kill her as well as the mystery of her identity. Doyle has gambling problems, while Cordy is hooked by the case’s Hollywood connection. When Angel and Kate chat, the rhythm of the dialog is appropriately clipped – they need each other’s help, but neither is willing to offer the entirety of their knowledge.

The author nicely peppers in humor, even leading up to the climax, as Cordelia realizes Angel has deliberately left her alone with the villain. He had drugged Whitney’s coffee, and he is mostly sure this would keep her docile – but he isn’t 100 percent sure. When he admits this to Cordy, she wonders about how much he values her safety, and he insists he would’ve felt really bad if she had gotten hurt – possibly even the most bad he had ever felt. The exchange is funny on its own, in addition to being a light jab at Angel’s perpetual inner guilt.

Suffice it to say that Odom redeems himself from “Unnatural Selection,” and I’ll be looking forward to his future “Angel” works.

Click here for an index of all of John’s “Buffy” and “Angel” reviews.

My rating: