Love the Stranger: (2 A Queens Mystery)

Ted Molloy, a Queens attorney with a troublesome penchant for noble causes, investigates the murder of a corrupt immigration lawyer in the sharply observed follow-up to the 2022 Nero Award winner Tower of Babel. Ted Molloy has hit his stride with a foreclosure investment scheme that brings him into contact with a cast of shady characters across New York’s most diverse borough, from Hollis to Howard Beach. On the side, he helps his activist girlfriend, Kenzie, with her work to halt construction on “the Spike”—a corporate-backed development project in Corona that would displace the largely immigrant communities surrounding it. Stop the Spike is heating up: Kenzie spends most of her waking hours fending off smear campaigns and touring community spaces in Queens to spread the word, which she can do thanks to Mohammed, Ted and Kenzie’s close friend, a recent Yemeni immigrant and most expedient cab driver. But when Kenzie learns that Mohammed’s immigration lawyer may be taking advantage of him financially, she decides to snoop around at the law offices—and comes face to face with a dead body as a shadowy figure flees the scene. Now Kenzie is the sole witness to a potential murder. Can Ted and his team get to the bottom of the murder so they can stop the Spike once and for all? Explore every shady corner of Queens in this keen mystery, the second installment of award-winning author Michael Sears’s critically acclaimed series.

About the Author :
Michael Sears spent over twenty years on Wall Street, rising to become a managing director for Paine Webber and Jeffries & Co. before leaving the business in 2005 to pursue writing full-time. His books, a number of which are national bestsellers, have been nominated for—and received—numerous awards, including the Edgar. An avid sailor, he lives in Sea Cliff, New York, with his wife, poet and artist Barbara Segal, and the cat Penelope.

Review :
Praise for Love the Stranger “Sears delivers an action-packed Love the Stranger, deftly moving the plot from a financial thriller to a story about a vulnerable immigrant community easily exploited.” —Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel “Michael Sears’s sense of character and place is utterly absorbing; he provides a dark tapestry of city voices and sounds. The plot barrels forward like an express train. Love the Stranger is a thrilling and vital New York City crime novel.” —William Boyle, author of Saint of the Narrows Street, City of Margins, and Gravesend “In Love the Stranger, Michael Sears has conjured this decade’s Bonfire of the Vanities. Instead of Manhattan, it’s an outer borough where grassroots activists clash with deadly forces and where immigrants—America’s strangers—are the collateral damage, exposing the underbelly of the American Dream. A triumph.” —Tom Straw, author of The Accidental Joe “Entertaining . . . Fans of Dennis Lehane’s Boston-based Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series will enjoy following the gritty adventures of a flawed but appealing sleuthing couple.” —First Clue “A winning combination of intelligent writing incorporating action, suspense and humor with complex likable characters, Love the Stranger is the perfect choice for any book clubs that include crime thrillers and mysteries.” —BookTrib “An arresting sequel . . . with sharp characters and noirish atmosphere to spare. This series deserves a long run.” —Publishers Weekly “A walk on the seamy side of contemporary New York social policy . . . Sears finds dirt on every bite of the Big Apple.” —Kirkus Reviews Praise for Tower of Babel Winner of the 2022 Nero Award “Sears’s Tower of Babel is a fascinating bit of alchemy brewed of real estate, money, murder and betrayal.” —Reed Farrel Coleman, New York Times bestselling author “Tower of Babel is so full of New York characters and locations that you'd swear it was written on asphalt. It has no potholes, though, just a fast-moving and, because it involves corrupt politicians and shady real estate developers, completely believable plot. If you live here, you'll love it. If you don't, read it to see what makes us the way we are.” —SJ Rozan, bestselling author of Paper Son “A contemporary Philip Marlowe comes to Queens in this wonderfully engaging caper . . . Sears absolutely nails the voice of his endearingly vulnerable tarnished-lawyer turned sleuth—Tower of Babel is a terrific book.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, bestselling and award-winning author of The Murder List “Michael Sears launches a bold action-packed series that delves into ambition, redemption, morality and the changing landscape of Queens . . . [An] action-packed financial thriller.” —Oline Cogdill, Shelf Awareness “If one word can be used to describe a trait predominant in Sears’s world, it is hunger. His characters, full of energy and street smarts, pulse with appetite, a sense of want, and he wastes no time using food and eating as a motif to exemplify this want . . . Queens comes alive in this book in all its diversity.” —Criminal Element “Sears introduces a new hero to his world of high-finance thrillers: a soiled, likable Queens ex-lawyer whose highly questionable business practices are radically challenged by the murder of his partner . . . Even if you’re not already sold on Queens, Sears makes real estate law as sexy and dangerous as international intrigue.” —Kirkus Reviews “Razor-edged prose, sharply defined characters, and a fast-paced plot boost this noir-wrought drama. Fans of Raymond Chandler and classic gangster films will be rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly “The first in a new series by Shamus Award–winner Sears is full of terrific writing and richly developed characters . . . [Sears's] Jason Stafford financial thrillers have made quite an impression with critics and readers, and this new series promises to be just as strong.” —Booklist