Central Park West

Celebrity books are hit and miss. It often seems like they hired a ghost writer, and worse again is when you wonder why they didn’t. But this crime-fiction debut, the first in a series by former FBI Director and October-surprise specialist Comey, is firmly in the hit category. Comey draws on his decades of experience to show the hectic activity behind the big-name trials that appear in New York State Supreme Court, the imposing steps of which we’ve all seen on the news. Two interrelated cases, and two teams of lawyers and investigators, are his focus: the trial for the murder of a former philandering Governor of New York, Tony Burke, and another murder case, one that features possible mafia violence and intimidation. A feeling of danger is introduced by Comey, a long-time mob prosecutor, with the lawyers maintaining a psychological operation as they massage the egos of mafiosi to encourage them to cooperate while keeping them alive. We also get a sense of a clock ticking ever more ominously as a fair outcome in one trial depends on the other one finishing first, with the justice system anything but swift. The layers of New York society are also well displayed here, from the ”fucking rich people” loathed by Burke’s long-suffering Central Park West doorman to striving single-mom Assistant U.S. Attorney Nora Carleton—more of her in the next book, please!–whose Jersey home is far in every way from the Upper West Side. An engrossing look at a longtime prosecutor’s world and its pain and triumphs.