An Honest Living: A Novel by Dwyer Murphy

Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom-bitten characters . . . Murphy's hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite . . . For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly. --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice n n? A Best Book of the Year from The New Yorker, LitHub, CrimeReads, and more! n nA sharp and stylish debut from the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads in which an unwitting private eye gets caught up in a crime of obsession between a reclusive literary superstar and her bookseller husband, paying homage to the noir genre just as smartly as it reinvents it n nAfter leaving behind the comforts and the shackles of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney makes ends meet in mid-2000s Brooklyn by picking up odd jobs from a colorful assortment of clients. When a mysterious woman named Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband Newton, an antiquarian bookseller who she believes has been pilfering rare true crime volumes from her collection, he trusts it will be a quick and easy case. But when the real Anna Reddick--a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy--lands on his doorstep with a few bones to pick, he finds himself out of his depth, drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers, aspiring flneurs, and seedy real estate developers. n nSet against the backdrop of New York at the tail end of the analog era and immersed in the worlds of literature and bookselling, An Honest Living is a gripping story of artistic ambition, obsession, and the small crimes we commit against one another every day. n nEditorial Reviews n n05/09/2022 n nThe New York attorney who narrates Murphy's uneven debut--who is unnamed but hints he has a name similar to the author's--gave up a career with a prestigious law firm to make an honest living in a solo practice doing odd jobs, contract work, and document reviews, but his earnings have been slim of late. Then a wealthy woman calling herself Anna Rennick approaches him, claiming that her much older estranged husband, a former antiquarian book dealer, is stealing rare books from her library. The narrator can't resist her $10,000 fee as well as a potential bonus if he can catch her husband offering any of her books for sale. Something about the case bothers him, but he manages to put it out of mind and he winds it up with little effort. The trouble begins when the real Anna Rennick shows up, threatening to sue. Murphy, the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads, writes with authority about the New York book world and literary references abound, from Edith Wharton to Cormac McCarthy, but the novel's digressive first half drags and the plot never picks up much speed. This is destined to amuse a niche audience at best. Agent: Duvall Osteen, Aragi. (July) n- Publishers Weekly n n05/01/2022 n nDEBUT An impressive debut noir from the CrimeReads website's editor in chief. In mid-2000s Brooklyn, a disillusioned lawyer gets by with any odd jobs thrown his way, including a quick $10,000 payday involving one Anna Reddick, who asks him to dig up some dirt on her much older husband Newton, a rare book dealer who she claims sold off valuable titles from the family collection, to fund their divorce. Easy enough, until the real Anna Reddick, a celebrated novelist, shows up on the lawyer's doorstep looking for the man who slandered her husband. Who set him up, and where is Newton now? To answer those questions, the unnamed protagonist is drawn into a world of antiquarian booksellers, among other quintessential New York characters, as well as the world of the elusive, brilliant woman who's spending more and more time at his apartment. VERDICT Murphy's writing is smart, ruminative, and referential. His narrator knows he's in a story that mirrors the plot of the film Chinatown, and though the mystery itself is light on twists, it's all worth it for this lovingly rendered snapshot of an already-bygone city, with details reeking of authenticity, down to the last barstool.--Michael Pucci n- Library Journal n n2022-05-11 nWhen a lawyer's investigation leads him into the New York rare book world, he finds himself embroiled in a drama of corruption and lies. n nHired by wealthy Anna Reddick to prove that her husband, whom she's about to divorce, has been selling her rare books, the unnamed narrator infiltrates the Poquelin Society, a scholarly society dedicated to the art, science and preservation of the book, whatever that meant, in order to entrap him into a controlled buy. This seemingly easy job will lead the narrator to a second one that involves a probable suicide wrapped in a convoluted web of impersonation and misdirection and book auctions, and then leads him to a small-time crook who's suddenly hit it big with waterfront development in Brooklyn. The investigation also puts him in the path of an eccentric female novelist who seems to have stepped out of the pages of Hemingway or Chandler with an edgy charm and casual cruelty that only make her more fascinating. The novel is set in 2005, but the style and the narrative voice feel comfortably rooted in earlier decades. The self-conscious tone and the nostalgia--characters go see old movies and talk about old books--render the plot almost secondary to the setting. In the end, not that much happens, but the characters live and love and fight and die against a backdrop of New York City, its seasons and its landmarks, its underbelly and its flaws. The lawyer/detective ends his quest a little more jaded, a little sadder than he began. To quote a movie that is frequently invoked here, Forget it...it's Chinatown. A bittersweet love letter to New York and times gone by. n nMore style than substance, but fans of noir fiction will feel right at home. n- Kirkus Reviews n nIt is precisely style and atmosphere that give An Honest Living so much electricity and dimension. Like the best noir practitioners, Murphy uses the mystery as scaffolding to assemble a world of fallen dreams and doom bitten characters . . . Murphy's hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite . . . For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly. For those who demand a straightforward mystery without any humor, romance and ambience, well, forget it, Jake, it's literature. --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice n nSet amid New York's rare-book trade, this slow-burning dbut crime novel is also an atmospheric homage to the film Chinatown. n--The New Yorker, Best Books of 2022 n nMurphy's engrossing debut is a book made for summer reading. It's a smart, leisurely read, richly layered with movie references and philosophical reflections. n--Minneapolis Star-Tribune n n[Murphy] knows not just where the bodies are buried but how readers want them to be discovered. n--Boston Globe n nThis territory-marking debut is seductively steeped in motifs reminiscent of the golden age of noir. Fans of the genre will likely be nodding appreciatively from the introduction of a mysterious woman out to get her husband, which launches this story, to the concluding shot of a vintage car. n--Shelf Awareness n nA rain-spattered love letter to a bygone New York, a wry homage to a classic of the genre, and a delightfully meta work of neo-noir . . . [B]rilliantly assured . . . The mystery is beautifully constructed, the writing crackles on every page, and Murphy's portrait of early 2000s New York City is nothing short of exquisite. If you're looking to lose yourself inside a smart, atmospheric literary crime novel, An Honest Living will not disappoint. n--LitHub, Our 38 Favorite Books of 2022 n nA lyrical valentine to New York City and literature. n--Oline Cogdill, South Florida Sun-Sentinel n nQuietly brilliant . . . The novel explores the ways in which we're nothing without our curiosities--even if those curiosities, in the end, undo us. n--Los Angeles Review of Books n nAn Honest Living is a novel about ambition and obsession, shadow and light, smoke and mirrors--a shimmering, often surprising, exploration of how fact and fiction reflect one another until the boundaries disappear. n--BookTrib n nIf Cara Black's Aimee Leduc smoked pot, or if Michael Connelly was from Paris, their books might read a little something like Dwyer Murphy's absurdly entertaining and extremely literary debut. n--CrimeReads, Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2022 n nAn Honest Living hits all the right notes . . . [a] smart and seductive page-turner. n--Fine Books & Collections n nFor those who covet 'reading in a bar with lousy lighting and good air conditioning,' this one is pure pleasure. n--Booklist n nAn Honest Living is a smartly updated literary noir set in pre-financial crisis Manhattan; it's suffused not only with risk-taking and critical thinking, but with Murphy's generosity of spirit. The novel is playful and welcoming, coaching the reader to think the best of its cast of oddballs and misfits. n--Study Hall n nAn impressive debut noir from the CrimeReads website's editor in chief . . . Murphy's writing is smart, ruminative, and referential . . . [A] lovingly rendered snapshot of an already-bygone city, with details reeking of authenticity, down to the last barstool. n--Library Journal n nA bittersweet love letter to New York and times gone by . . . fans of noir fiction will feel right at home. n--Kirkus Reviews n nMurphy, the editor-in-chief of CrimeReads, writes with authority about the New York book world and literary references abound, from Edith Wharton to Cormac McCarthy . . . n--Publishers Weekly n nDwyer Murphy's debut novel, An Honest Living, is a noir love letter to New York City. It is a sublime trip through a city teeming with professional idlers, hustlers, poets, politicians, insurance scammers, and real estate developers, all vying for their share of New York's divinity. n--Walter Mosley, author of Blood Grove n nAn Honest Living is an electrically good time meted out in fine, sharp, crackling prose that somehow manages to be an homage, a send-up, and a reinvention all at once. n--Ta Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife and Inland n nA witty, observant debut that's as much a love letter to New York as it is a slick noir. n--Andrea Bartz, author of We Were Never Here n nDwyer Murphy's An Honest Living is a deliciously smart PI novel set in New York's antiquarian book world that channels Chandler and Chinatown to take us into a recent past that already feels like a bygone era. A brisk, funny, and fabulous debut. n--Adrian McKinty, author of The Island n nDwyer Murphy's An Honest Living is the lawyer-book-collector noir you never knew you craved. Evocative and suspenseful, the book hums along in an unusual space somewhere in the constellation of Roberto Bolao, Julio Cortzar, and the Coen Brothers--an ontological puzzle nested inside a shaggy dog story, or the reverse. n--Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn n nA terrific book. n--Don Winslow, author of City on Fire n nDwyer Murphy beautifully intertwines a noir mystery with the lore of New York. A captivating, beguiling novel right up to its shocking conclusion. n--Samantha Downing, author of My Lovely Wife n nAn Honest Living feels like an instant classic--a polished gem of a PI novel that's wonderfully atmospheric and full of wit. Fast-paced as this book is, it's also a smart read you'll want to savor. n--Alison Gaylin, author of The Collective n nAn Honest Living is a sublimely literate, literary, and crafty novel--an homage to PI fiction that transcends the genre with style and inspiration to spare. Lovers of crime fiction and lovers of books of all types (as well as those of us who miss the old Brooklyn) will be equally transported. n--Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women n nA many-layered, fascinating novel about the collisions that come with city living, of people devoted to old books and those determined to construct new buildings. In this swift-moving noir debut, Dwyer Murphy has conjured a fantastically vivid homage to New York. n--Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew n nAn Honest Living is a superb debut novel by a supremely gifted writer. It's as if Roberto Bolao and Lawrence Osborne got together to reimagine Chinatown. I was as gripped by the mystery at the heart of this book as I was by Dwyer Murphy's perfect prose. n--Jonathan Lee, author of The Great Mistake n nThe best kind of private eye novel--one that feels wholly modern but timeless. Dwyer Murphy evokes the greats like Elmore Leonard and George V. Higgins without losing his own sharp voice. A stylish, memorable debut. n--Alex Segura, author of Secret Identity n- From the Publisher n nAri Fliakos is an ideal performer for this noir pastiche. He's mastered the world-weary Bogartian rhythm that Murphy's prose imitates, and he's good at shifting his timbre and accents for waitresses in bagel shops and all the other New York characters Murphy cooks up for atmosphere. You don't want to try to follow the plot too closely, nor is there extra credit for guessing that this is an homage to Roman Polanski's classic film CHINATOWN-the characters point it out for you. If you want a thriller that thrills, this is not for you. But if you have an appetite for metafiction aspiring to the style of an earlier period and art form, or you just loved CHINATOWN, Fliakos will show you a very good time. B.G. AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine n- SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile n nAri Fliakos is an ideal performer for this noir pastiche. He's mastered the world-weary Bogartian rhythm that Murphy's prose imitates, and he's good at shifting his timbre and accents for waitresses in bagel shops and all the other New York characters Murphy cooks up for atmosphere. You don't want to try to follow the plot too closely, nor is there extra credit for guessing that this is an homage to Roman Polanski's classic film CHINATOWN-the characters point it out for you. If you want a thriller that thrills, this is not for you. But if you have an appetite for metafiction aspiring to the style of an earlier period and art form, or you just loved CHINATOWN, Fliakos will show you a very good time. B.G. AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine n- SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile