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Closing Time
It's after midnight and a novice private investigator, out for a late-night run, discovers the battered body of a livery cab driver in downtown Manhattan's meatpacking district. Two days later, he witnesses a bloody explosion at a gala opening at a SoHo art gallery.
Unrelated incidents? Not to Terry Orr. A single father to a remarkable twelve-year-old daughter, Terry is still devoted to his beautiful Italian wife, a painter of immense talent, whose life ended abruptly during a brutal event that also took the life of their infant son. Sparked to action by violence and deception, he begins to understand that he's been given a chance to confront his tragic past by learning the skills of the PI trade, and finding the madman who forever changed his life. And, perhaps, to realize fully what it means to be the father of a young, loving daughter.
But the person who took the life of the cab driver isn't so easy to find, and Terry must chase the killer into the upper reaches of Harlem. Beating back his own demons in both his therapist's office and the basketball courts of Houston Street, he finds that redemption can come in the form of a game of horse with the daughter who views him as a hero. But so focused is he on the world's injustices, he can barely see the girl who will do anything for her hurting, tormented father.
"Jim Fusilli paints a dead-perfect picture of contemporary New York City (and) renders the intricacies of parenthood as few novels have."
- Robert Parker
"Crowded with engaging characters who have things to impart about love, violent death, anger and sacrifice."
- Thomas Perry
"(A) chic modernist tale of a New York writer who performs pro bono detective work as a way of acquiring skills to catch his wife's killer…The wised-up, hollowed-out characters Terry (Orr) encounters may have the sickly look of people who do business under lampposts, but they are vital citizen's of Fusilli's gorgeous nightmare of a city."
- The New York Times Book Review
"(A) powerful and melancholy debut."
- Detroit Free Press
"Fusilli vaults over possible genre clichés with a hurdler's ease, filing up Terry and Bella with real emotions rather than fictional sentimentality."
- Chicago Tribune
"This first novel by the Wall Street Journal music critic mixes a nourish, suspense-packed story and sharply defined characters…Fusilli is an imaginative, daring writer, creating a pulsating, nightmarish Manhattan where position and appearance are deceptive…Readers will anxiously await the sequel to this outstanding debut."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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