Review: A Well-Known Secret

How to describe the pleasure of finding a new author whom you know you will want to read again and again? And what factors amplify this pleasure? Well, of course a well told and intriguing mystery to be solved, but first and foremost, characters who have appeal, whom you want to know more about, whose activities interest you and who become real in a way that is not limited by the printed page. Of course, mystery & suspense fiction often presents characters who fit that description, but are despicable in nature. In the case of this series - the main characters are nice people, appealing in their strengths and weaknesses. In this book and "Closing Time" which preceded it, we meet Terry Orr, a widower, raising his delightful teenaged daughter on his own. Their friends include a eccentric musician, a restaurant owner, assistant district attorneys, and a sympathetic cop.

The author, Jim Fusilli, is a journalist, and has turned his hand to mystery fiction. This is his second published novel. The story is set in the New York City of April 2002, in the neighborhood close to where the twin towers had stood, and filled with the aftermath of the terrible day of eight months earlier.

Orr is still reeling from the murder of his wife and infant son four years before. He has abandoned an earlier career, and in part to help him come to terms with his own tragedy, he now works as a private investigator. He is approached by an elderly woman, a friend of his housekeeper, to locate the woman's missing daughter who has recently been released from serving a long prison sentence.

The investigation takes him through a great deal of New York real estate in several very atmospheric journeys - from Spanish Harlem to the auto graveyards near Shea Stadium in Queens, with quite a few other stops at parts of New York well known and not so well known. A very strong sense of place invigorates the story from start to finish.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Woodstock - RAM

Book Review: A Well-Known Secret