Three novellas, three generations of women, and three angels converge in one mystical novel, The Third Angel, by noted author Alice Hoffman.

The Heron’s Wife

In The Heron’s Wife, we meet two sisters: Madeline, a 34-year-old New York attorney and Allie, the writer of one very successful children’s book.

In the spring of 1999, Maddy, the insecure younger sibling, flies to London for a long weekend to help with Allie’s upcoming wedding.  In this short period of time, the successful real estate lawyer attracts and beds Paul,  a handsome film editor and more importantly her sister’s fiancé.

Is Madeline solely to blame for this grand act of  betrayal?  Does some ulterior motive drive Paul’s unexplainable behavior or is he really just a self-proclaimed selfish bastard?

Some of these questions are answered in August of the same year, when Maddy returns for the wedding, Paul is hospitalized with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and the ghost at the Lion Park Hotel makes another appearance outside room 707.

Lion Park

Paul’s mother, a bit player in the beginning story, steps center stage in Lion Park, the second installment in this series of three.  In 1966, the headstrong 19-year-old leaves behind the small town of Reading to clean rooms in a London hotel.

Even though Freida had developed a real aptitude for dealing with the sick and dying while accompanying her doctor father on his rounds, she wants to break free of her parents’ expectation and find life on her own.

Thinking herself in love with a rock star wanna be, Jamie Dunn, she not only pens lyrics for his songs, but also sleeps with him.

Before returning to her small town life, Freida befriends Teddy Healy, an alcoholic who frequents the hotel bar and  hears the ghost in 707;  both of which will be  fully explained in  part three.

The Rules of Love

Skipping backward in time again to 1952, the future mother of Madeline and Allie, embarks on a transatlantic cruise with her father and step-mother, Charlotte.

While staying at the Lion Park Hotel, Lucy Green unwittingly becomes a go-between for Charlotte’s sister, Bryn, and her handsome but disreputable ex-husband.  Through this 12-year-old eyewitness, Hoffman reveals the origin of the haunted seventh floor and explains the continuous presence of  Teddy Healy.

Some reviewers expressed their displeasure with the dreariness of the three stories filled with unhappy people making stupid choices.

True, The Third Angel included the typical Hoffman trademarks of rival sisters, love gone wrong, redemption, and  ghosts, but some felt that it failed to measure up to previous novels by this esteemed author.

Still others called the story magical and vowed to read it once a year to relive the plot right along with the characters.

Book club discussion questions can be found here.

Additional information regarding the author, Alice Hoffman, and her works can be found here.

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