I wanna wake up in that city that doesn’t sleep…
New York City has many faces. It’s the city of Broadway dreams, financial prosperity, stunning nature in an urban center, and world-class museums. But the city isn’t all bright lights and big dreams—it has a grimmer, seedier side. It’s also the city of graffiti vandalism and urban decay, organized crime, domestic violence, carjackings, and homicides. This is the New York City so often used in mystery and thriller novels.
It’s fascinating to dive into novel in a location familiar to so many. It’s easy to feel like you’re walking the streets of the city along with a novel’s protagonist, and when the location comes alive, so too does the story.
Terminal Impasse, the fourth book in my NYPD Negotiators series, highlights one of New York City’s most iconic historical buildings—Grand Central Terminal. NYPD Detectives Gemma Capello and Sean Logan are passing through the Main Concourse on their way to their first date when gunmen storm in and take hostages, including Gemma and Logan. They both know if their identities as cops are revealed—Gemma as a hostage negotiator and Logan as a tactical officer—they’ll be instantly killed, so they try to lay low. But when a bomber joins their ranks and it’s clear their plan is to bring down Grand Central Terminal and likely most of the surrounding skyscrapers, Gemma sells herself to the hostage takers as an experienced business negotiator, offering to be their voice to the NYPD, knowing she’ll be talking to her own Hostage Negotiation Team colleagues. As Gemma sends code messages to her team, Logan plots how to free first himself and then the rest of the hostages in a bid to bring everyone to safety. Now if they can just pull off their plan without getting themselves or everyone else killed…
New York City has something for everyone, as do these mysteries and thrillers set in the “city that never sleeps”. And that makes for a very satisfying read!
Here is just a small selection of novels set in New York City through the decades (and into the future) to get the blood pumping:
Radha Vatsal, No. 10 Doyers Street
Set in 1907, No. 10 Doyers Street by Radha Vatsal follows the story of Archana Morley, an Indian-born journalist, now settled in New York City and married to an American doctor. Following an investigation into a gang-style shooting in Chinatown, “Archie” meets Mock Duck and is drawn into his struggles to keep his family intact and to fight the city as it plans to demolish Chinatown to build a park, entirely without concern for the neighborhood’s existing residents. Using real historical figures as part of the story, Vatsal waves a fascinating tale of the pressures of immigrant life and the drive of Manhattan politics at the turn of the twentieth century.
L.A. Chandlar, The Silver Gun
The Silver Gun by L.A. Chandlar transports us to the heart of the Great Depression, 1936 New York City, toward the beginning of Fiorello LaGuardia’s twelve-year role as mayor. Lane Sanders works as LaGuardia’s personal assistant and is constantly kept on her toes by her firecracker of a boss, a character who is one of the books highlights. However, following an attack, Lane is drawn into a world of 1930s gangsters and political rivals who target LaGuardia as he struggles to reform a corrupt political system. The author has done her research, and the considerable historical detail firmly grounds the story in a fascinating time in New York City’s storied history, allowing it to truly shine.
J. D. Robb, Bonded In Death
Bonded In Death by J.D. Robb is the sixtieth book in the In Death series. Over the years, this series, which started as a trilogy in 1995, has expanded from the initial small cast of characters to a fully-fleshed ensemble. In Bonded in Death, NYPSD Lieutenant Eve Dallas is called in to investigate the death of an Italian visitor to New York City—a murder that seems to have left no clues, not even an obvious cause of death. However, the murder surfaces a complex web of lies when it’s revealed that Summerset, majordomo to Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, once knew the man, and could be the key to solving his murder. Set in the near future of 2061, Robb has created a futuristic world all her own, including the Urban Wars of the 2020s, the echoes of which play heavily throughout this story. Sixty books in, the series shows no signs of slowing down, for which millions of fans are truly grateful.
Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching
When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole is a terrifying dive into the darker aspect of the real-life issue of big city gentrification. Set in Brooklyn, the book follows Sydney Green’s struggle to hold onto her mother’s house as her neighbourhood changes around her, and her longtime Black community begins to disappear. In an attempt to hold onto the history of her neighborhood, she starts a local walking tour. But when neighbors begin to disappear, Syndey knows darker forces are at play. An inexorable building of tension explodes in a stunning climax, one that leaves the reader contemplating the social pressures that could drive a similar scenario in real life.
Jeffery Deaver, The Watchmaker’s Hand
Reminiscent of Josephine Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant in The Daughter of Time, Jeffery Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme is a brilliant man who solves crimes remotely with the help of others following a devastating injury that left him a quadriplegic. In The Watchmaker’s Hand, the latest, sixteenth outing in the series, Rhyme matches wits once again with his nemesis, The Watchmaker, when construction cranes on high rise building sites around New York City start to crash to the ground, injuring and killing innocents. A political group takes credit and lists demands to be met to avoid repeat performances, but Rhyme sees through the evidence to the twisted truth beneath. Deaver continues his excellent series, now with an expanded cast that only ratchets of up the thrills.
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