Wake of the Bloody Angel is the fourth book in the Eddie LaCrosse series, set after all the previous ones (but with mostly new characters, aside from Eddie).
It starts when Eddie gets hired by Angelina, owner of the tavern which he frequents (and which his office is above). She wants him to determine the fate of Edward Tew, a notorious pirate who, twenty years ago, happened to be Angelina's lover. Nobody knows what happened to him, but lots of people have tried to find out, since wherever he went, he supposedly took a huge treasure with him. To figure it out, Eddie teams up with Jane Argo, a former colleague now captaining an anti-piracy patrol ship, and sets out to sea.
Wake of the Bloody Angel provides examples of:
- Double-Meaning Title: While "Wake of the Bloody Angel" most obviously refers to following the trail of the so-named pirate ship, the book is also about the less-than-noble past of Angelina, who sets Eddie on the mission to start with.
- Sea Monster: A lot of ships are going missing, and people think it's either pirates or this. It turns out to be a bit of both, with pirates having figured out a way to use a sea monster to set a trap.
- Pirate: Whereas the other books are broadly detective stories, this one could be considered a pirate story. Aside from Edward Tew, whose fate (and treasure) is the object of many people's searches, there are also other pirates still active, too.
- Replacement Goldfish: Near the end, Eddie meets a woman who Edward Tew held captive because she resembled Angelina, who was no longer with him.
