By: Colin Harrison Publisher: Picador Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Picador Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: April 01, 2008 Release Date: April 01, 2008
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her husband, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Manhattan Nocturne is a brilliantly drawn tableau of the gritty, gaudy city, and a thrilling literary noir.
Amazon.com: In this full-bore detective tale of scandal and mayhem in the Big Apple, Colin Harrison whips up noir for the 90s, complete with a jaded newspaperman protagonist, a mysterious femme fatale, exhaustive travelogues of the meat-grinder labyrinth of Manhattan, and an elusive jade figurine. Harrison weds a literary sensibility to this tangled tale, but the pleasures of the novel come mainly from the conventional elements of all detective fiction: the assembling of apparently disconnected pieces into a coherent puzzle.
Great story well told Harrison is quite a good writer. He paints very vivid characters and scenes.
This book about a famous columnist who gets caught up in muddle as several storylines all come together on top of him.
Parts of the story are a bit of a stretch and though I read the ending twice, I couldn't quite understand how the columnist knows what to do in the steps leading up to the finale.
But whatever - the ride is quite fun and worth a few gimmes. The characters are interesting and engaging. The storylines clever and different from the run of the mill.
Definitely recommend it.
Note: This book is not as violent as the other book I read of his - Afterburn. I'm not particularly squeamish, but that story had some seriously violent scenes. This one has none of that - good family entertainment. Well maybe not quite, but not violent.
Well-plotted intense story Porter Wren lives off the grime and guts of the city: he sells violence, pathos and vicarious thrills through his newspaper column, and he searches for the human side of Manhattan's underworld-the story of a girl shot while holding her wedding dress, the story of a man who jumps out of a building holding a baby... or
But when Wren runs into a beautiful woman, Caroline Crowley, at a billionaire's party, he is led off on a trail of sexual obsession and blackmail. Caroline's husband, brilliant young playwright Simon Crowley, was found dead under a demolished building, murdered under mysterious circumstances. But before he died, he hid an incriminating tape of his wife and the billionaire Hobbs, which Hobbs wants back, no matter what the cost. And so in helping Caroline, and being seduced by her, Wren leads us into a twisted tale of unsolved murder and bizarre acts.
Harrison does a masterful job blending characters and storyline. He tells us about Porter Wren in Wren's own words-normally a loving husband and devoted father, he falls easily under Caroline's spell-and tells us why, in a way that explains why normal men stray. We also meet the playwright Simon Crowley, post-mortem, with his penchant for filming everything about the city, from the conversations of ordinary people to extraordinary things-include his own murder. Caroline has set a bloodhound loose on the trail of more than one missing film, and despite his obsession with her, Wren will not stop until he unearths every last clue.
Harrison has written other thriller like The Finder and Afterburn, and his style is so intense, his works so well-plotted, that he deserves his international bestselling status. He's a new author for me, and all I can say is that I want to get hold of more of his books and dive in for the sheer pleasure of losing myself in the story.
Armchair Interviews says: If you are not familiar with this author, then get started reading him. He's worth your attention.
Author's Web site under construction: www.ColinHarrison.com
Harrison exploits classic noir archetypes Porter Wren, prominent New York tabloid columnist, is approached by a beautiful woman while attending a society party. The woman, Caroline Crowley, entices Wren with bait he cannot resist--she has a story to tell. Wren's decision to listen to that story has fateful consequences, placing his marriage and his life at risk.
Caroline is the widow of Simon Crowley, an up and coming movie director who died under mysterious circumstances. Over the years, Simon, a devoted student of the bizarre, compiled a collection of covertly filmed videos chronicling hundreds of strange and disturbing examples of human behavior. Since Simon's death, Caroline has been threatened by corpulent billionaire Hobbs, an Aussie press lord who believes she possesses a tape which may be damaging to his interests. Caroline, professing to know nothing about the tape, asks Wren to find it. Seduced by the woman and her story, Wren agrees, altering his life forever.
Harrison exploits classic noir archetypes--the femme fatale, the evil "Fat Man", and the protagonist in over his head--and successfully updates them. In Manhattan Nocturne, these stock characters are edgier, more three dimensional. The seductive female is more complex than the scheming sirens of yesteryear, the villain feels pain, and the hero, often the victim in these pieces, is savy and resourceful, although not enough to completely salvage the situation. Their interaction propels the narrative; their believabilty gives the book its credibility.
As narrator, Wren, a trained observer, misses very little. Painfully self aware, he describes the outer depravity he sees and the inner turmoil he feels. Readers are treated to a variety of stunning imagery, rendered in telling detail. This imagery, especially vivid when Wren describes the city and the events assayed in Simon's videos, sometimes threatens to overwhelm the ongoing storyline. But Harrison maintains control, unraveling the web he creates with great skill.
Manhattan Nocturne works on several levels--equal parts memoir, hard boiled crime novel, and reflection on the dark side of New York City, the book is compelling reading. Put it on your list.
Extreme Art and Filmmaking in 1970's NYC The artistic temperment in NYC gone wild and why not?, This novel portrays art with myriad consorting muses taken to the extremes of passion and enabled at every moment for this creation to create and finalize itself whatever the cost. Where but in 1970's Manhatten, partly staged and choreographed in the bowels and skylights of a multi storied modernized early 1900 Bowery warehouse, with elevators, like grilled ornate cages (see Bladerunner or Last Tango) and the artist maddened wild delirious, or is it rather, the artist committed to his obsessively well planned spontaneous yet not quite illogical living creations. Yet all is foiled by love! Very last minute-y of course by a mere human gallant though rottweilers be in hot pursuit. Read it! Particularly if you like anything Colin Harrison wrote, read this one. I think it to be his true masterpiece! Beware! NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART! Manhatten Nocturne has a good great fine and elegant ending. Pure suspense involving an artist whose perversions are shown to be truly part of creation's logic. To quote a noir writer.....First you dream then you die....... If this is based on a true situation, the NYC police have shredded the police records/ reports if indeed they were even notified. A Fine thriller you won't put down easily. I read it 3 times and will again!
Do read it if only for the small story told at the end; an exhausted North Dakota father finally gives a young girl her much sought after horse.
FABULOUS STORY AND WRITING! I loved this author's writing. So poetic at times. Great story. I got depressed when the book ended. Really depressed. Had to order all of his other books immediately. This man writes like a dream!!!!!
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