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It is hard to believe that HARD, HARD CITY is only the fourth of Jim Fusilli's entries in the mystery novel genre. Already well-known for his insightful reviews and essays concerning the music industry for the Wall Street Journal, Fusilli has carved a separate career out of whole cloth and has done it to the extent that it is easy to think of him first as the creator of Terry Orr: writer, erstwhile private investigator, single father of Bella, and widower of the late Marina. This latest novel continues Fusilli's examination of Orr's life, his struggles with and accommodations to post-911 Manhattan.
HARD, HARD CITY finds Orr still reeling from the revelation --- possibly true, possibly not --- that his wife was involved with another man at the time of her death. Orr is not obsessed with, so much as shadowed by, the ghost of Marina and their infant son, David, who also died. There are days, however, when the memories and the uncertainty of what is true or untrue threaten to drown him.
He accordingly welcomes a request from Bella's friend, Daniel Wu, to look for a missing friend. Allie Powell has been missing from school for weeks. He has been staying with John McPorter, a friend of the family, in New York City during the week while attending school and returning home to New Jersey on the weekends. McPorter is an odd but apparently harmless soul who assures Orr that Allie is a good boy; he doesn't connect Allie's disappearance with the simultaneous burglary of a few hundred dollars from his safe. Harlan Powell, Allie's father, is a high-rolling investor who has made a number of enemies in the financial world with his questionable business practices. Powell grudgingly retains Orr to locate his son, an act that suddenly becomes the catalyst for the commencement of a cycle of senseless violence.
Fusilli has become a master at blindsiding his readers. He has few equals in this regard --- Ross Macdonald, possibly one or two others --- and his timing is so subtle, so exquisite, that one is compelled to turn the page while simultaneously being almost afraid to do so. Orr's domestic life balances nicely against the grimness of his cases, and Fusilli is wisely showing no inclination toward keeping Bella in pigtails and anklets forever; instead, he is letting her age in real-time between appearances in the novels.
HARD, HARD CITY is appropriately named, a work that further ensconces Fusilli's name and work onto the short list of the best in the genre. If you haven't read him before, start now while his backlist remains manageable. You'll want to catch up.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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