Booklist Reviews
As a writer of crime fiction, Will Ford was very good, but as a drunk he's spectacular. When the cash-strapped author offers to sell his collection of papers (letters, manuscripts, etc.) to the New York Public Library, Raymond Ambler, the crime-fiction curator at the library's landmark 42nd Street location, is on the fence. How much interest will there be in a once-acclaimed, now disgraced, writer? As it turns out, while perusing the papers, Ambler makes a discovery that could rock the New York Police Department to its core—if he survives long enough to confirm what Ford only hinted at. The fourth in Lehane's 42nd Street Library series is a treat. Aside from its numerous nods to the mystery genre (its protagonist's name is an amalgam of Raymond Chandler and Eric Ambler), the novel rests on a solid, conspiracy-based premise, boasts a tantalizing cast of characters, and takes advantage of the author's amiably laid-back writing style, which draws us in and keeps us firmly glued to the page. Lots of fun. Copyright 2022 Booklist Reviews.
Library Journal Reviews
Raymond Ambler, curator of the crime-fiction collection at New York City's 42nd Street Library, puts the library in a difficult position when he wants to purchase five boxes of author Will Ford's personal papers. Ford has a reputation as a drunk and scandalous womanizer. The news of the library's planned purchase brings out women's groups to protest, so the 42nd Street Library is forced to strike their big celebratory event for Ford and replace it with a quiet reception. Despite the trouble he's already caused, Ray can't resist digging into the truth behind one of Ford's unpublished stories that was supposedly based on an actual incident in New York City 30 years earlier, when a corrupt plainclothes cop allegedly murdered two people and got off scot-free. Ford insists that story might get him killed if it surfaces, but Ray decides to investigate the truth behind it with the help of NYPD homicide detective Mike Cosgrove and bartender Brian McNulty. Ford turns out to be right, as the investigation into the cold case leads to two more murders and the attempted murder of one of Ray's friends, leaving him to wonder what compels him to meddle in murder cases.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Lehane's intriguing fourth 42nd Street Library mystery (after 2019's