Falling Angel

The true first is the US edition: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York, 1978 — the census publisher and year are confirmed, as is the book's status as the basis for the 1987 film Angel Heart. The census claim that a UK Century edition "followed much later" is UNCONFIRMED: no Century issue was located in the sources consulted, Wikipedia records no British publication, and at least one dealer copy bears a "New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978" imprint, suggesting HBJ handled any contemporaneous UK distribution itself. Treat the UK-Century assertion as unsupported until a copy is examined. The 1979 paperback release — which is what carried the book to a wide audience — and the later Open Road reissue (ISBN 9781453271131) are "first thus" traps, not firsts.