AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile
This audiobook of obsession in contemporary New York, featuring finely drawn characters, a twisty plot, and a glitzy setting, is ably narrated by Robert Petkoff. Immigration attorney and map collector Paul Reeves is drawn into a domestic conflict with violent overtones. When Reeves’s pretty neighbor accompanies him to an auction, she reconnects with a former beau, threatening her marriage to a rich, powerful, and jealous Middle Eastern businessman. Petkoff smoothly navigates the dramatic clash of cultures depicted in bestselling author Harrison’s affecting narrative. He shifts his tone and pacing with ease in the aftermath of violent acts that affect the lives of all involved. R.O. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/03/2017
In his latest New York-centered crime thriller, Harrison (Manhattan Nocturne) spins a tightly wound tale of obsession and betrayal. When middle-aged immigration attorney and New York City map connoisseur Paul Reeves attends an auction with his beautiful neighbor, both are confronted by mysterious figures who will dramatically alter the course of their futures. Losing an auction at the last second to an unknown bidder, Paul becomes fixated on obtaining a rare, highly desired map—regardless of cost or the dubiously moral actions required to complete its acquisition. Meanwhile, small-town-girl-turned-trophy-wife Jennifer Mehraz reignites a passionate romance from her past after a man in military fatigues appears at the auction, risking potentially violent repercussions from her wealthy husband if he discovers her infidelity. An attempted abduction results in two unforeseen deaths, which send carefully crafted plans spiraling out of control. As bodies pile up and Jennifer’s fear for her safety reaches a crescendo, Paul attempts to help his friend while advancing his own interests. The narrative is as impressively constructed as the maps in Paul’s collection: each section laid out in seamless order to allow for a satisfyingly neat conclusion. What the narrative has in plotting it lacks in characterization, often relying on overused noir conventions—particularly with regards to women—which ultimately allows the city itself to emerge as the most memorable character. New York, in its glory and historical complexity, defies any who would attempt to possess it and dwarfs the ambitions of this intricate cast of ruthless characters. (June)
From the Publisher
PRAISE FOR YOU BELONG TO ME
“A classic noir triangle [that] widens quickly to introduce a roundelay of characters with volatile tempers and conflicting agendas . . . The common denominator among them seems to be a voracious hunger: for money, power, revenge . . . deliciously twisty . . . startlingly violent . . . The hard, hot beat of noir goes on.” —Megan Abbott, The New York Times Book Review
"Chilling and difficult and funny, horrifying and smart. Noir depends on bad decisions, and the novel has plenty of them." —Sam Sifton, The New York Times
"Terrific . . . A lapel-grabber . . . Spare, economical and hard-boiled . . . Hard not to be hooked. And you will be . . . Harrison’s noir isn’t what noir used to be. It’s high-tech, sophisticated and ready-made for the multiplex. That being said, Harrison’s prose is terse and nicely lurid. Plus, timely and caustic." —Brooklyn Daily Eagle
“Every book-reviewing cliche about a good thriller is not just true about Colin Harrison’s latest novel, but literally true. It really is riveting in the sense that you are not likely to move from your location once you start it. It really is a page-turner, and those pages turn fast. It really does grab you from the first sentence and never let you go . . . All very satisfying, and highly recommended.” —Buffalo News
"Brilliant . . . a fast-paced, unexpected hunt—one that includes hitmen, black-market business dealings, and one very valuable map—underscored by Harrison’s profound interrogation of the dynamics between generations, lovers, chasers, and history. The novel is deliciously satisfying, and you come away from it savoring New York of the past and present and all the twisted, nefarious, driven, and even good people—those who think they know where they’re walking—on its many storied streets." —Vogue
"You Belong to Me is an intriguing, moody tale of love, lust and avarice—and great summer reading." —BookPage
“A tightly wound tale of obsession and betrayal.” —Publishers Weekly
“Harrison’s ostensibly straightforward fable of obsession and manipulation becomes twisted . . . reaps unexpected rewards.” —Booklist
“Gritty whodunit by thriller-meister Harrison, the bard of Gotham mayhem . . . an elaborate story with many moving parts, some of them involving large piles of money, hit men of a decidedly murderous bent, wealthy expats and players from shadowy sultanates, map thieves . . . and an assortment of other people you probably wouldn't want to know. Harrison’s story moves nimbly. . . For fans of the Larsson/Ludlum flavor of action-packed, cynical thriller, where no good deed goes unpunished.” —Kirkus
PRAISE FOR COLIN HARRISON
“Colin Harrison’s New York is an eye-for-an-eye, dog-eat-dog Darwinian world with similar map coordinates to Tom Wolfe’s Manhattan and the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy . . . Mr. Harrison combines a Balzacian eye for social detail and a poet’s sense of mood with a sleazily sensationalistic plot . . . He succeeds in giving us a chilling, high-speed roller coaster of a ride that doubles as a sardonic sightseeing tour of the seamier side of New York City.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“Colin Harrison will have you gasping for breath.” —Jocelyn McClurg, USA Today
“With the narrative drive of a hurtling subway express, Harrison . . . plunges readers into a scary subterranean world in which the only comfort comes from the neon flashes of his prose.” —People
“You don’t read Harrison; you devour him.” —Karen Heller, The Philadelphia Inquirer
“[Colin Harrison is] the class act of the urban thriller.” —Entertainment Weekly
Library Journal
02/01/2017
Immigration lawyer Paul Reeves is attending an auction with Jennifer Mehraz, wife of an Iranian financier-lawyer, when she is snatched by a former lover. A rare invaluable map goes missing, too. From Los Angeles Book Prize finalist Harrison.
AUGUST 2017 - AudioFile
This audiobook of obsession in contemporary New York, featuring finely drawn characters, a twisty plot, and a glitzy setting, is ably narrated by Robert Petkoff. Immigration attorney and map collector Paul Reeves is drawn into a domestic conflict with violent overtones. When Reeves’s pretty neighbor accompanies him to an auction, she reconnects with a former beau, threatening her marriage to a rich, powerful, and jealous Middle Eastern businessman. Petkoff smoothly navigates the dramatic clash of cultures depicted in bestselling author Harrison’s affecting narrative. He shifts his tone and pacing with ease in the aftermath of violent acts that affect the lives of all involved. R.O. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2017-03-21
Gritty whodunit by thriller-meister Harrison (Risk, 2009, etc.), the bard of Gotham mayhem.Map collectors are mild-mannered nerds, right? Maybe, unless, like the typophiles of William Hallahan's long-out-of-print 1973 mystery, The Ross Forgery, they conceal a rough edge. So it is with Paul Reeves, an immigration attorney—"a mere immigration attorney," one character ruefully thinks, late into the proceedings—who is not in the least bit shy of chucking aside professional ethics to get what he wants. One of the things he wants is a fabulously rare, fabulously expensive, utterly idiosyncratic map of 19th-century Manhattan. How does a mere immigration attorney secure the bread for such a goodie? Well, therein hangs Harrison's tale, which involves an Iranian-American entrepreneur, his trailer-park-come-to-the-big-city wife ("The more beautiful the girls," thinks Reeves, "the more volatile their destinies"), and a strapping soldier who, fatigue-clad, interrupts a well-heeled auction to whisk said young woman away. "I know I seem like some crazy motherfucker cowboy who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground," says the perp to Paul, "but it's a lot more complicated than that, mister." So it is. The kidnapping, its victim not in the least unwilling, sets in motion an elaborate story with many moving parts, some of them involving large piles of money, hit men of a decidedly murderous bent, wealthy expats and players from shadowy sultanates, map thieves, drug dealers and crackheads, and an assortment of other people you probably wouldn't want to know. When the body count starts to rise, it's up to Paul to save his skin while trying to figure out how to grab the object of his dreams, to say nothing of luscious Jennifer Mehraz. Harrison's story moves nimbly across a populous, MacGuffin-strewn landscape, and though it doesn't paint a nice picture of rural America, it doesn't spare the worst of New York, either.For fans of the Larsson/Ludlum flavor of action-packed, cynical thriller, where no good deed goes unpunished.
