The hero of this tale is Nik Kane, a former policeman newly released from prison where he had served time for a crime that he did not commit. No longer officially a policeman, Nik is hired by the elders in a religious community in Alaska to investigate the disappearance of a young woman. In the course of that investigation, the hired investigator also discovers the truth about the crime for which he was unjustly convicted.

So, here we have a mystery that is set within a rather mysterious community, in a very mysterious part of the United States, investigated by a man whose entire background is – guess what – mysterious! Nik is a many–faceted person. Very human, and subject to the usual human faults and frailties, he approaches the girl's disappearance intelligently and without the usual flash and flamboyance of most literary "heroes". He assimilates into the Alaskan village, and in encountering all the problems that thrive in such an isolated and insular place he reveals himself to the reader as a thoughtful seeker of truth and a man who can accomplish whatever he sets out to do. He is clearly drawn by this author as a so-called "hard man" with the compassion and understanding of human nature that allows him to fit in with bar fighters as well as the people of a religious society.

This reader, who has always had a secret yearning for a visit to Alaska, found Mr. Doogan's first novel a refreshing change from the "city style" mysteries that are so prevalent today, complete with super-cop versus celebrity criminal plots. His prose is, at times, a little too simple, perhaps, but Mr. Doogan definitely knows how to tell a story. One can almost smell the smoke from the woodstoves and feel the snow beneath the boots, and Lost Angel leaves the reader asking for more.
Review by Litera Scripta