Book review of Night in the city by Michael McGarrity

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Type of book: Detective, mystery, 1950s, New York, murder, lawyers, mafia, life threatening, ex boyfriends, 

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Summary:

Characters:

Main characters would be Deborah "D.J" Ryan and Sam Monroe as well as the dead socialite Laura Nielson. Sam is a Korean War Vet turned lawyer who is perhaps looking for something long term and has high hopes in getting back with Laura. He is methodical, a risk taker, and often impulsive. He also desires to do things himself and involve other people as little as possible. D.J Ryan definitely matches Sam in stubbornness and is good at looking possibilities as well as providing necessary resources and money. Laura, well, I can't talk a lot about her without spoiling the story, but there is a whole ton that she hides underneath, namely trauma and how trauma has affected her. 

Theme:

Do you really know that person beyond their labels? 

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Sam's point of view. While I enjoyed the mystery and intrigue, I definitely felt that the character of Laura needs to be worked on a little more. She is a  strong and well written woman but I felt something lacking, especially when it came to her personality.  Or more like Laura let's certain part of her dominate her legacy after her death, and I think I wanted to see her beyond the label assigned to her in a book. The scenes between Sam and Deborah are definitely sweet, especially as Sam struggles to accept help from Deborah, and Deborah also has a big role in the book instead of just a side character as expected.  

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Opinion:

From the first sentence, this book promises an awesome and memorable read, which it has delivered in spades, from the memorable characters to the setting of 1950s New York, which I have been intrigued by. For a read with intriguing characters and memorable setting as well as the "good old days", then this should fit the bill.  I definitely am crossing my fingers for future sequels. 

This was given for review 

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)