Night in the City: A Novel

Summary

ACCUSED OF THE MURDER OF HIS FORMER LOVER, KOREAN WAR VETERAN SAM MONROE IS FORCED TO ABANDON HIS JOB AS AN ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND FIGHT TO CLEAR HIS NAME.

Sam Monroe thought his steamy love affair with Manhattan socialite Laura Nielson was dead and buried, but when she didn’t show up after unexpectedly calling him late at night and asking to meet, he decides to investigate. He finds her naked on her penthouse balcony, strangled, his dog tags wrapped around her neck. With a bull’s-eye on his back as the prime suspect, Sam begins a search for the killer that reveals Laura’s involvement with several men, some with ties to a well-known crime family.

As circumstantial evidence mounts against him, the cops close in, especially a heavy-handed rogue patrolman carrying a grudge against Sam and looking for serious payback. Forced to operate in the shadows, he relies on the unofficial help of several coworkers in the DA’s office and Debora Jean Ryan, a private investigator who offers to assist but has an agenda that she refuses to disclose. As they probe Laura’s past looking for clues, they must also figure out Laura’s mysterious trip out west, the death of a young man in New Jersey during her childhood, and who is making attempts on Monroe’s life.

From the crime-ridden precincts of Lower Manhattan, the mean streets of Spanish Harlem, and the lofty mansions along Millionaires’ Row, Night in the City is classic crime noir fiction at its best that wonderfully evokes the vibrant world of 1950s New York. Michael McGarrity again proves himself to be one of the most accomplished writers of mysteries working today.

“Night in the City is an enthralling crime novel that has it all—evocative writing, indelible characters, a propulsive plot, and plenty of action. Michael McGarrity portrays noir New York of the 1950s as evocatively as James Ellroy depicts noir L.A. Night in the City is a page-turner and a highly entertaining read."—Miles Corwin, author of Homicide Special and Kind of Blue