City of Lies: A Thriller

by R. J. Ellory

Overview

A struggling writer is drawn into his estranged father’s life in the New York underworld in this thriller by the author of A Quiet Belief in Angels.

Miami Herald reporter John Harper is about to go on assignment when he received word that his father has been shot—the father who disappeared when John was two years old. Returning home to New York brings memories of childhood, many of them painful, yet nothing could prepare John for the truth.

Confronted with his father's notorious identity, John finds himself seduced by an underworld lifestyle of power, treachery, and menace. As he desperately tries to uncover the facts of his own past, he is faced with one lie after another. And with each new discovery he becomes more and more entangled in a dark and shocking conspiracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468308457
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	451
Sales rank:	911,087
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

R.J. Ellory is the author of twelve novels, including the bestselling A Quiet Belief in Angels, which was Strand Magazine's Thriller of the Year, shortlisted for the Barry Award, and a finalist for the SIBA Award. He is also the author of City of Lies, Candlemoth, A Quiet Vendetta, A Simple Act of Violence, and the e-book original series Three Days in Chicagoland.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for A Quiet Belief in Angels:

"There aren't nearly enough beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Smilla's Sense of Snow, A Quiet Belief in Angels is one of them." --James Patterson

"R. J. Ellory is a uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer, and the quality of his prose--every word, every sentence--hits A Quiet Belief in Angels far above its genre." --Alan Furst

"A Quiet Belief in Angels is a rich, powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth." --Jonathan Kellerman

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/30/2013
In this outstanding noir from British author Ellory (A Quiet Belief in Angels), Miami hack journalist John Harper, drinking less, believing in God less, but still unable to recapture the muse that inspired his first and only novel eight years earlier, is called back to New York City, scene of his bitter childhood and now the Faustian arena for a deadly gangland game where everyone but Harper knows the rules. While Edward “Lenny” Bernstein, the father Harper never knew, lies near death, shot trying to stop a holdup, Frank Duchaunak, a cop obsessed with nabbing Bernstein for financing mafia-style crimes, prowls the hospital, like a good angel, warning Harper to leave—immediately. Covertly bribing him to stay are Walt Freiburg, Bernstein’s consigliere with his own plans for gang leadership, and Freiburg’s crony, the secretive, beautiful Cathy Hollander. Ellory’s burning insights into Harper’s everyman insecurities drive this thriller beyond sordid crime fiction into the darkest recesses of the human heart. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for A Quiet Belief in Angels:

"There aren't nearly enough beautifully written novels that are also great mysteries. Like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Smilla's Sense of Snow, A Quiet Belief in Angels is one of them." —James Patterson

"R. J. Ellory is a uniquely gifted, passionate, and powerful writer, and the quality of his prose—every word, every sentence—hits A Quiet Belief in Angels far above its genre." —Alan Furst

"A Quiet Belief in Angels is a rich, powerful, evocative novel of great psychological depth." —Jonathan Kellerman

"Outstanding noir…Ellory's burning insight into Harper's everyman insecurities drive this triller beyond sordid crime fiction into the darkess recesses of the human heart." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

From the Publisher

2013-09-15
An operatic, excessively serious thriller about an angry, feckless, blocked writer lured back to New York City to learn that there is more, much more, to his past than he thought. The most verbose gangsters that ever lived populate Ellory's latest novel (A Quiet Belief in Angels, 2009, etc.). The story has more plot points than a star map. John Harper has a lousy job with the Miami Herald. He's written one book and can't figure out how to write more. About to go on assignment, he's called back to the office. Evelyn Sawyer, the aunt who raised him, calls to tell him his father has been shot--the father who left the family when John was 2. He flies to the Big Apple, and Aunt Evelyn starts the "everything you know is wrong" story. Turns out, John's absent father is the underworld big shot Edward "Lenny" Bernstein. While visiting his father in the hospital, Lenny wakes up in the ICU long enough to tell John to leave, and John meets Frank Duchaunak, a haunted NYPD detective long obsessed with Lenny and his dark doings. Soon, Walt Freiberg and his femme fatale sidekick Cathy Hollander are squiring John around the city, buying him clothes, putting him up in a posh hotel, calling him "Sonny." Walt was a sort of uncle to John back in the day, before he left for Miami. Things get curiouser and curiouser. Bodies pile up. John ends up "caught between darkness and its shadow." The action is brisk and bloody. But John and a half dozen other characters must have their identity crises, and they talk the reader half to death. If garrulous gangsters appeal, this is the thriller for you.

Kirkus Reviews