“Time of the Angels” is a novel about life without God—life when “the connection between the times has been broken,” when people cannot hear or understand one another. Karl, the head of the family, his daughter, and his niece—Patty, a Black maid—along with the concierge Evgeny Peshkov and his son Leo: each of these characters has his or her own drama, and Murdoch, like a skillful director, directs the spotlight beam to one person, then another, to bring that drama to the reader.