You Belong to Me

April 3, 2017
In his latest New York-centered crime thriller, Harrison (Manhattan Nocturne) spins a tightly wound tale of obsession and betrayal. When middle-aged immigration attorney and New York City map connoisseur Paul Reeves attends an auction with his beautiful neighbor, both are confronted by mysterious figures who will dramatically alter the course of their futures. Losing an auction at the last second to an unknown bidder, Paul becomes fixated on obtaining a rare, highly desired map—regardless of cost or the dubiously moral actions required to complete its acquisition. Meanwhile, small-town-girl-turned-trophy-wife Jennifer Mehraz reignites a passionate romance from her past after a man in military fatigues appears at the auction, risking potentially violent repercussions from her wealthy husband if he discovers her infidelity. An attempted abduction results in two unforeseen deaths, which send carefully crafted plans spiraling out of control. As bodies pile up and Jennifer’s fear for her safety reaches a crescendo, Paul attempts to help his friend while advancing his own interests. The narrative is as impressively constructed as the maps in Paul’s collection: each section laid out in seamless order to allow for a satisfyingly neat conclusion. What the narrative has in plotting it lacks in characterization, often relying on overused noir conventions—particularly with regards to women—which ultimately allows the city itself to emerge as the most memorable character. New York, in its glory and historical complexity, defies any who would attempt to possess it and dwarfs the ambitions of this intricate cast of ruthless characters.

April 1, 2017
Gritty whodunit by thriller-meister Harrison (Risk, 2009, etc.), the bard of Gotham mayhem.Map collectors are mild-mannered nerds, right? Maybe, unless, like the typophiles of William Hallahan's long-out-of-print 1973 mystery, The Ross Forgery, they conceal a rough edge. So it is with Paul Reeves, an immigration attorney--"a mere immigration attorney," one character ruefully thinks, late into the proceedings--who is not in the least bit shy of chucking aside professional ethics to get what he wants. One of the things he wants is a fabulously rare, fabulously expensive, utterly idiosyncratic map of 19th-century Manhattan. How does a mere immigration attorney secure the bread for such a goodie? Well, therein hangs Harrison's tale, which involves an Iranian-American entrepreneur, his trailer-park-come-to-the-big-city wife ("The more beautiful the girls," thinks Reeves, "the more volatile their destinies"), and a strapping soldier who, fatigue-clad, interrupts a well-heeled auction to whisk said young woman away. "I know I seem like some crazy motherfucker cowboy who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground," says the perp to Paul, "but it's a lot more complicated than that, mister." So it is. The kidnapping, its victim not in the least unwilling, sets in motion an elaborate story with many moving parts, some of them involving large piles of money, hit men of a decidedly murderous bent, wealthy expats and players from shadowy sultanates, map thieves, drug dealers and crackheads, and an assortment of other people you probably wouldn't want to know. When the body count starts to rise, it's up to Paul to save his skin while trying to figure out how to grab the object of his dreams, to say nothing of luscious Jennifer Mehraz. Harrison's story moves nimbly across a populous, MacGuffin-strewn landscape, and though it doesn't paint a nice picture of rural America, it doesn't spare the worst of New York, either.For fans of the Larsson/Ludlum flavor of action-packed, cynical thriller, where no good deed goes unpunished.

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April 15, 2017
Paul Reeves, elite immigration attorney and obsessive collector of antique New York City maps, is drawn into a swiftly escalating series of murders when he invites a neighbor, Jennifer Mehraz, to accompany him to the auction of his latest map quarry. To their surprise, Jennifer's first love, Bill, appears at the auction determined to win Jennifer back. It would be a heartwarming love story if Jennifer weren't already married to cunning financial strategist Ahmed Mehraz. As a favor to Jennifer, Paul allows her old flame to stay in his empty childhood home in hopes of keeping the couple's deepening involvement from Ahmed, whom he has never liked. Then Bill is attacked by hit men who don't make it out of the job alive, and Bill and Jennifer become the target of a plot that revives ghosts of Iran's revolution, mobilizes cartel hit men, and jolts Paul from his contented map-hunting routines. Harrison's (Risk, 2009) ostensibly straightforward fable of obsession and manipulation becomes twisted as Paul's plot to hold Ahmed accountable reaps unexpected rewards.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2017

Immigration lawyer Paul Reeves is attending an auction with Jennifer Mehraz, wife of an Iranian financier-lawyer, when she is snatched by a former lover. A rare invaluable map goes missing, too. From Los Angeles Book Prize finalist Harrison.

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