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New York City has in recent weeks become the focus of worldwide scrutiny the likes of
which it has not previously experienced. The focus, however, has been the New York City
everyone thinks of when the words "New York City" are seen or heard. Jim
Fusilli, a music critic for The Wall Street Journal, compares the known city with
its rough underside and contrasts these two symbiotic levels of civilization in his first
novel, CLOSING TIME.
Fusilli does this through the eyes of Terry Orr, an author who no longer writes, except
for an occasional missive to his deceased wife Marina. Orr's days and nights are haunted
by his wife and their infant son, both of whom were senselessly murdered by a madman who
seems to have disappeared. Orr's only connection with his past life is his 12-year-old
daughter Bella; although independently wealthy, the trauma done to those in his family who
have gone ahead threatens to engulf him and those left behind. As he attempts to find the
murderer of his wife and infant son and to right wrongs done to other friends, he finds
himself slowly and unwittingly neglecting Bella. Fusilli nicely balances this dichotomy,
and that is a good thing.
Orr becomes involved in two cases that he works simultaneously in CLOSING TIME. The first
involves the murder of a cab driver; Orr happens upon the driver's body and is compelled
to discover who did the deed and why, when the police, overworked and underpaid, are
unable to give the matter priority. The second involves the bombing of an art gallery
owned by a friend of Orr's who is severely injured in the blast. The second mystery is
fairly mundane and almost too easily solved, given the motives of everyone involved. The
first mystery, however...ah, that is the one for which the book was written. Orr's
investigation of the apparently senseless murder takes him to areas of New York that you
won't find listed in The New York Times Guide to New York City --- and it is in
these scenes, where Orr places himself in dangers unknown and deadly, that Fusilli really
shines. One gets the sense that Fusilli spent hours climbing through abandoned buildings
and torn fence wire to get that descriptive sense of place upon which so many novels stand
or fall. Here, CLOSING TIME, and Fusilli, stand tall.
CLOSING TIME leaves plenty of room for character development in future novels involving
Orr, Bella, and the cast of secondary characters introduced therein. While this novel
could have benefited from a bit more development from the get go, the haunting
descriptions of New York City's underbelly make that deficiency a sacrifice worth
experiencing. Orr has descriptive powers to burn; if he combines that talent with more
character development, his next novel will be a classic.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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