Awards
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Synopses & Reviews
Manhattan tabloid reporter Porter Wren has an appetite for the city's dirtiest scandals. On the beat, he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he's happily married with two kids. Then one clandestine night, he risks everything he has on the seduction of a stranger...
Her name is Caroline Crowley, widowed by the unsolved murder of her late husband a man with a nasty little hobby. Caroline has the videos to prove it. A ruthless billionaire who indulged in her husband's sordid games wants the evidence buried along with anyone who has it.
But the enigmatic Caroline wants more than Porter's help. She knows he can't refuse. He's already crossed the line and on the run in an escalating nightmare of blackmail, deception, and sexual obsession. For Porter, the only way out is murder if the truth doesn't kill him first.
Review
"Harrison...deftly connects dozens of far-flung characters...into a breathtaking collage. His prose brims with the anguish and joy...of the city's voices. He proves that it is all one story and one that will keep readers enthralled." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Sordid stuff sure to tickle any voyeur's fancy, written with skill and considerable visceral force even if occasionally straying beyond the credible." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"[B]riskly paced, intricately plotted splatter-noir....[Harrison's] ability to move his labyrinthine plot swiftly along makes this novel a heart-racing adventure. (Grade: B+)" Entertainment Weekly
Review
"[A] thriller that seems to want to be equal parts Raymond Chandler, William Styron and Tom Wolfe....When Porter Wren scales back from sexual athlete and social satirist to homebody, Manhattan Nocturne soars." Jim Shepard, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"[A] complex and compelling story...filled with deeply etched characterizations....Harrison...is an elegant and insightful writer, but there's a dissonance between style and story here that calls to mind John Grisham trying to become John Updike." Booklist
Review
"Incessant name-dropping and an anticlimactic ending shave some points from what is otherwise a well-written, very entertaining story peopled by intriguing and fully fleshed characters." Library Journal
Synopsis
The author of Bodies Electric and Break and Enter takes the classic noir novel and elevates it into a literary portrait of a soul divided. A columnist for a New York tabloid finds the precarious balance of his life threatened by a woman who comes out of the Manhattan night to lure him with a promise he can't resist a chance to see even deeper into the dark night of the city he is compelled to know.
Synopsis
As a columnist for a New York City tabloid, Porter Wren digs through the detritus of New York's most horrific murders and sensational crimes, searching for the twist that the TV reporters missed, the illuminating irony, the romantic detail that may add meaning to the relentless wreckage of human appetite and folly. He can't resist a good story especially when an intriguing and beautiful woman is involved.
Caroline Crowley, the young widow of the brilliant film director Simon Crowley, seeks out Porter in a crowded cocktail party because as she says she has "a little problem." The problem is neither little nor exactly as Caroline describes it, yet it would appear Porter is the perfect man for the job: smart, curious, and willing. From the party he telephones his wife and lies about why he'll be late coming home something he's never done before but will do again. That night, Porter finds himself in Caroline's Fifth Avenue apartment, drawn ever deeper into the life of a dangerous woman, and further into the dark heart of the city. Who was Simon Crowley and what led to his mysterious death? What clues did he leave behind perhaps intentionally? Who, unknown to Porter, is threatening Caroline? And how does the columnist's inquisitiveness endanger his own family?
Set against the great tableau of New York City, Manhattan Nocturne masterfully portrays the collision of a man's desire and a woman's past.
About the Author
Colin Harrison is the deputy editor of Harper's Magazine and the author of two previous novels: Break and Enter and Bodies Electric. He is a graduate of Haverford College and the Iowa Writer's Workshop. He and his wife, writer Kathryn Harrison, live in Brooklyn.