A beautifully naive Angel of Death sacrifices her wings to save a teenage gangster from hell in a new urban love story sure to captivate young minds.


Angel Dust, by award-winning author Sarah Mussi, is the 21st century’s answer to The Little Mermaid, full of purest first love and fraught with tragedy.


The passionate English teacher, from Prendergast-Ladywell Fields College in Lewisham, hopes her latest novel – inspired by New Cross - will help teenagers everywhere fall in love with reading.


She told Vibe: “I was driving through New Cross and I thought ‘where’s the cross?’


“I thought ‘maybe it’s not a cross, but a crossing over point where heaven meets hell on earth.’


“Suddenly I got this idea of ‘what would happen if an angel came down to this crossing point, saw some lads, fell in love with one of them and wanted to save him?’”


In the novel, teenage Angel of Death Serafina is tasked with claiming her first soul – gangster Marcus Montague – and taking him straight to hell when he gets shot.


Powerful issues of free will, love, salvation and destiny are explored in the magical tale.


Sarah wants to highlight the importance of embracing everyone in society, including youngsters who have fallen in with the wrong crowds, instead of blaming everything on youth culture.


She added: “It’s her first delivering of death – she’s a teenager and wants to make it sparkly and pretty.


“She thinks of rainbow shaped tears and how she will orchestrate his passing over.


“But then she begins to realise what death means.


“When she delivers it to him he gets it all wrong and thinks she’s there to save him and she’s thrown by that.”


Sarah, who has been an English teacher for more than 20 years, sees her tragic tale as a “huge metaphor” for growing up.


“When you fall in love it’s not all sparkly heart-shaped tears.” She continued.


“It pulls you down.


“Serafina leaves heaven and her wings.


“She ends up becoming human and giving up immortality to try and save his soul.”


Angel Dust, out on August 2, will head up the launch list of new children’s publisher Hot Key Books, part of Bonnier Publishing.


And Sarah is no stranger to success within the publishing world, after winning prestigious awards for her first novel The Door of No Return in 2007 and receiving high acclaim for her second book The Last of the Warrior Kings.


She told Vibe: “Angel Dust is really aimed at teenagers from 13-years-old.


“In my career as an English teacher I find there are some kids who adore reading and will read anything, but there are some who never seem to be able to find the right book and end up being non-readers.


“I want to write the kind of book these teetering on the edge kids pick up and say ‘I want to read that.’


“For me, teaching is about opening kids’ eyes and that’s what good books do.


“It’s not like a text book – in story you can almost deal with anything and open whole new worlds.”


Angel Dust will be available for £6.99 from Amazon.com and all good book shops.