A Bullet for the Angel is a murder mystery set in 1959 San Francisco during the twilight of the Beatnik Era in North Beach and the dawn of urban gentrification in the Fillmore.
Though John Maletesta leads a mostly uneventful life as a white college professor, he walks his foggy city shrouded in thought. He digs Rhythm and Blues, dotes on his teenage daughter Talah and loves a gorgeous Black woman, Cayenne Phillips.
When Homicide Inspector Michael Brennan tries to pin the murder of a North Beach celebrity poet on Talah and Cayenne's brother is shot dead in a Fillmore alley, Maletesta's life flips upside down.
Overnight, he must become a detective, a gumshoe like Dashielle Hammet, his literary hero. He needs to find the evidence to clear his daughter and find out why Cayenne's brother was killed. Are the murders connected? It does not seem likely, but he does not trust the police to pursue honest investigations in either case.

Maletesta still suffers bouts of PTSD stemming from the loss of his left arm in WWII. He has doubts that he can conduct a successful investigation but recruits an odd assortment of allies in his quest: a waitress at Vesuvio's, a Black PI in the Fillmore, an eccentric poet, the president of his college and his maybe-Mafioso uncle. His pursuit takes him to poetry readings and night clubs, pool halls and wrestling matches. Another poet is murdered.
As Maletesta uncovers the diabolical scheme behind the crimes, he and Talah themselves become targets of the murderers.