About the Book
A pulse-pounding novel of class, privilege, sex, and murder, from the New York Times bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon and The Expats.
Chicky Diaz is everyone's favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York's cultural elite.
Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she'd quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can't bring herself to leave him. Yet.
And downstairs in 2A, Julian Sonnenberg--who has carved himself a successful niche in the art world, and led a good half-century of a full and satisfying, cosmopolitan life--has just received a devastating phone call that does nothing at all to alleviate his sense that, probably for better and worse, he has aged out and he's just not that useful to anyone any more.
Meanwhile, gathered in the Bohemia's bowels, the building's almost entirely Black and Hispanic, working-class staff is taking in the news that that just a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city.
As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight's shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he'll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, but before he knew of the pandemonium taking over the city. Chicky knows that there's more going on in his patch of sidewalk in front of the Bohemia than anyone's aware of. Tonight in the city, enemies will clash, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be revealed--and lives will be lost.
About the Author :
Chris Pavone is the author of Two Nights in Lisbon, The Paris Diversion, The Travelers, The Accident, and The Expats. His novels have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, USA Today, and The Wall Street Journal; have won both the Edgar and Anthony awards; are in development for film and television; and have been translated into two dozen languages. Chris grew up in Brooklyn, graduated from Cornell, and worked as a book editor for nearly two decades. He lives in New York City and on the North Fork of Long Island with his family.
Review :
"With its laser-sharp satire, its delicious set pieces in both rich and poor neighborhoods--a co-op board meeting, a Harlem food pantry and more--and its portrait of a restive city torn apart by inequality, resentment and excess, The Doorman naturally invites comparison to The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe's lacerating dissection of New York in the 1980s . . . But Pavone's humor is more humane, his sympathy for the characters' struggles and contradictions more acute. With his eye for absurdity and ear for nuance, he seems as if he's writing not from some elevated place high above the city, but from within it."
--Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
"Mr. Pavone has written an outstanding book full of sociological detail and pulsing with the passions and prejudices of the times in which we live."
--Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal
"[A] politically attuned thriller . . . Pavone deploys signifiers of the contemporary culture wars to conjure a relentlessly polarized New York City, where race, class, and politics suffuse every interaction. Embracing a diverse cast of characters--including society ladies, defense contractors, and a Ukrainian super who spends his evenings on Grindr--the novel ultimately turns on a festering marriage, an ill-fated affair, and a business relationship gone sour, all of which combine to trap the 'unerringly patient and unfailingly nice' doorman in a cataclysm."
--The New Yorker
"This adrenaline-pumping thriller from bestseller Pavone delivers a lacerating, Tom Wolfe-worthy dissection of Manhattan society in the post-Covid era . . . Page-turning from the opening paragraph to its killer finale, the narrative combines noirish atmosphere with a sharp attunement to the particular depravities of ultrawealthy urbanites. Pavone's provocative look at the city that never sleeps will keep readers up well into the wee hours."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Chris Pavone has always been good, but this novel is way better than good. The kind of novel that wins book awards. Cynical, tender, sharp, dense, funny, and loaded with inside dope about how New York works (and how it doesn't). The Doorman is a Bonfire of the Vanities for the twenty-first century. He gives it to both sides of the culture wars, and with both smoking barrels."
--Stephen King
"The Doorman is a near-perfect blend of clever plotting, wicked social commentary, irresistible setting, truly memorable characters, and old-fashioned, page-turning fun. What a romp!"
--John Grisham
"The Doorman pits the privileged gentry of Manhattan against the serfs they fear will breach their moats and scale the walls of their high rise co-ops. Pavone's depiction of present-day New York City is a callback to Bonfire of the Vanities, but his telling is too real to be satirical."
--Griffin Dunne, author of The Friday Afternoon Club
"A tense, pulse-pounding thriller!"
--S. A. Cosby, author of King of Ashes
"Sensationally good, wise, wry, and perceptive--this era's great state-of-the-city novel, up there with the very best of Tom Wolfe and Jay McInerney."
--Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher novels
"Smart, twisty, and sharply written, The Doorman is hard to put down and harder to forget. A delight."
--Karin Slaughter, New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of This Is Why We Lied
"Like the New York City subway, Chris Pavone's novel moves at breakneck speed, twisting and turning, jostling together those who might otherwise live worlds apart, intertwining their secrets, their private heartaches, and their fates as The Doorman hurtles to its shocking conclusion."
-Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street
"Chris Pavone swings big with The Doorman, a wise, expansive, and extravagantly readable thriller that keeps us guessing until the last page. A searing and hilarious social satire, The Doorman unflinchingly takes on New York in this moment--class, race, social justice--with an eye as wicked as it is compassionate."
--Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette
"In this superb novel, Chris Pavone artfully blends the murk and glitter of Manhattan, both rich and poor, into one combustible tale of greed, lust, and crime. An irresistible read that captures, in personal terms, this terribly fraught moment in our nation's cultural politics."
--Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton
