Description:
Tragedy colors Terry Orr's every move, nearly his every thought. Five years ago his infant son's stroller rolled off a subway platform, his wife dove after it, and both died under a train. Since then, Terry has focused on pursuing the madman who pushed the stroller, a crusade that led him to get a private investigator's license (as fans know from his first two books, Closing Time and A Well-Known Secret). In Tribeca Blues, the death of a close friend, bar owner Leo Mallard, leads Terry into a case with roots stretching back to Leo's twisted family in New Orleans. But, as always, Terry's quest for justice and closure in his own life takes center stage, and this time his obsessive digging turns up profound surprises, altering his picture of what happened that fateful day. Jim Fusilli's fine writing paints a vivid, noir-tinged portrait of New York's streets and people, and only the most cold-hearted reader could fail to care about Terry, his daughter Bella, and many other vividly drawn, often damaged characters. Fusilli's sense of place and pacing falter a bit in New Orleans--including a section near the end, which sags noticeably--but most of the story is set in the Big Apple, and is pitch-perfect. This is one of the most powerful, enjoyable crime tales of the season. --Nicholas H. Allison
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