Here are 10 reasons to put Colin Harrison’s literary thriller on your reading list:1. The Voice – A cross between Dashiell Hammett hardboiled and Upton Sinclair social commentary. Mr. Harrison has the literary virtuosity to pull it off. You’d have to go a long way to find a writer with a greater command of language. Here’s a quick sample from the first-person narrator and main character, newspaper reporter Porter Wren: “When the column was done my thoughts returned to the previous afternoon, and I suppose that if my marital guilt were a cave, then I meant now to feel along the dark, damp walls for the sharp places and for the size of the cavity I had opened within myself.”2. The City – As in Manhattan; all the fast-paced action takes place in the Big Apple – it’s as if the streets, subways and all those multistory buildings inject the characters with super-charged vim.3. The Beautiful Babe – Porter Wren first encounters her at a publishing party. “Her face was no less beautiful as it approached, but I could see a certain determination in her features. Dark brows, blonde hair lifted off her neck. The rope of pearls. Her breasts moved heavily against the silky materials of her gown, which, I now saw, was not white but, more alluringly, the color of the flesh of a peach.” Meet Caroline Crowley, a femme fatale if there ever was one. 4. The Artist – Filmmaker Simon Crowley, Caroline’s dead husband who died a tragic death but left tons of video footage, including a number of very hot clips people in high places would love to get their hands on. In a series of Carolyn’s flashbacks along with Wren’s commentary on Simon appearing in his own videos, we are given a riveting picture of the filmmaker’s character. 5. The Tycoon – Owner of a series of multinational publishing and media companies, a big, fat Australian by the name of Hobbs who visits NYC to establish his presence and oversee the deals. At one point in the story Hobbs anticipates a deal-making phone-call from Rupert Murdoch. Surely it is more than coincidence the tycoon shares his name with 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbs, author of his famous book, ‘The Leviathan’, wherein he wrote how, prior to political community, the natural state of man is nasty, brutish and short. Ironically, as Porter Wren narrates, modern urban life can still be, if not so short, than quite nasty and brutish. 6. The Cop – Hal Fitzgerald is a hard-talking, high-level NYC policeman who deals with Porter Wren and stands for truth and justice, particularly when it comes to a police officer killed in the line of duty. Video footage Wren comes across is high-stakes; even Major Giuliani makes a cameo appearance in the novel.7. The Family – Porter Wren lives in NYC with his brilliant surgeon wife and their young children, all of whom play an important role as the story unfolds and winds around Manhattan’s sharp corners.8. The Mood – As in nocturne; a pensive, dreamy mood pervades the novel, especially Porter Wren’s nighttime relationship with Caroline Crowley.9. The Pleasure – This novel is a page-turner. Once you get several pages in you’ll want to keep reading and reading. If you like your literary fiction with a bite, you’ve found your book of the month.10. The Movie – IMDb’s internet site provides an update on the film being made from Harrison’s novel. Usually I don’t go to films, but this is one I will make a point of seeing.
Porter Wren is a columnist for a New York city newspaper. He's been at this awhile and his stories never get cut. Wren knows how to listen to people and can intuit the heartbeat of any story. An then, there are people who just need to talk, especially to him.Porter is the first to admit that maybe he should have gone straight home to Lisa and their two kids. If he had just skipped the after work party hosted by the immense Australian publishing magnate, then it all would not have happened. But he didn't and here he first encounters femme fatale, Caroline Crowley, the widow of the mysteriously murdered film maker, Simon Crowley. And she wants to share her story. Not since Sherman McCoy in Bonfire of the Vanities has there been a man in NYC so sorry that he didn't go straight home after work.This is a classic detective novel - full of suspense, intelligently and excellently written. Harrison uses very traditional literary techniques to keep the suspense and to craft the characters and plot. The foreboding is so loud that you can almost hear the background music warning "don't go there!" "don't do that!" or "now you've done it!"
What do You think about Manhattan Nocturne (2004)?
This is a new author and a departure, but his recent book got a decent writeup in "The Economist", in which this earlier novel was praised. Well, it was more of a "potboiler" than I expected, and not the sort of thing I normally read, so difficult to rate. Quite atmospheric with regard to NYC, and has name-dropping/"roman a clef" elements, so fans of New York fiction should like it. I found it exciting, but prone to the predictable devices of the genre. Within recent reading, I strongly prefer John Burdett's "Bangkok" novels, for instance.
—Tom
Harrison's "Nocturne" is a masterful noir, hatched no doubt from a repressed mind of disturbed gruesome and macabre images. The choice of a NYC beat columnist crime reporter as protagonist, is a healthy change of pace from the usual drumbeat of colorful and effervescent squad rooms or private dicks. It's main premise of course is that the character's entry into such dark and dangerous circumstances wasn't predicated on his interfacing with the usually abundant criminal elements of back alley after dark New York, but by a rather innocuous appearance at a high brow get together cocktail party, in recognition of one of the city's power elite. Moral here is that depravity knows no economic or social boundaries.Set against the geographical accuracy of NYC, inclusive of every walk of life from the dregs to the corporate boardroom and private jets, this book catapults the reader into the most disturbed twists and turns, reiterating the Don Henley message...In a New York minute...everything can change!
—columbialion
