City in Shadow-Evan Marshall

City in Shadow
Evan Marshall
Severn, Nov 1 2010, $27.95
ISBN 9780727869210

Recent Cincinnati high school graduate Patti Fairchild is coming to Manhattan to spend time with her older second cousin sanitation garage supervisor Anna Winthrop. Patti has not made any plans for her future so Anna is excited with her relative’s visit.

At the same time that Patti is due in town, Anna’s edgy neighbor Nettie Clouchet, the "ghost blogger" is investigating Winthop for a section in her new book on local women of achievement. To make space for her cuz in her small apartment, Anna sells a desk to Ukrainian Grigori Sidorov. Inside Grigori's truck sits a pretty woman who drops a note onto the sidewalk while the desk is loaded. Anna picks up the message, which pleads: "help me". She gets her boyfriend, NYPD police officer Santos Reyes, who agrees the woman, may be in trouble and they should not ignore that possibility. Nervous Nettie can’t either as a journalist. None of them nor Patti who wanders the avenues at night know yet that their separate inquiries involve trafficking as the Kirkmore Apartments is where Death Is Disposable.

The fourth Hidden Manhattan mystery (see Dark Alley) is a gripping urban mystery in which the four “sleuths” learn where all avenues ends, but may be too late by the time they figure out the horror they investigate. Fast-paced, readers will want to journey the streets of Manhattan along side their tour guides as mean is too soft of a descriptor. This is all lights-on after reading thriller.

Harriet Klausner