Chicky Diaz is everyone’s favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York’s cultural elite.
Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she’d quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can’t bring herself to leave him. Yet.
Downstairs in 2A, Julian Sonnenberg has just received a devastating phone call. He’s getting the distinct sense that his cosmopolitan career in the art world is hurtling to an end, and he’s just not that useful to anyone anymore.
Meanwhile, down in the building’s bowels, the working-class staff is taking in the news that that a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city.
As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight’s shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he’ll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, before he had any idea what’s about to happen at the Bohemia. Tonight enemies will clash, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be revealed—and lives will be lost.
Praise & Reviews
“Sensationally good, wise, wry and perceptive – this era’s great state-of-the-city novel, up there with the very best of Tom Wolfe and Jay McInerney.”—Lee Child
“Like the New York City subway, Chris Pavone’s novel moves at breakneck speed, twisting and turning, jostling together those who might otherwise live worlds apart—the wealthy trophy wife of a private equity crusher, a broke ex-army doorman, an art dealer on the make—intertwining their secrets, their private heartaches, and their fates as THE DOORMAN hurdles to its shocking conclusion.”—Jenny Jackson
“In this superb novel, Chris Pavone artfully blends the murk and glitter of Manhattan, both rich and poor, into one combustible tale of greed, lust, and crime. An irresistible read that captures, in personal terms, this terribly fraught moment in our nation’s cultural politics.”—Ron Chernow
“Smart, twisty, and sharply written, THE DOORMAN is hard to put down and harder to forget. A delight.”—Karin Slaughter
“Chris Pavone swings big with THE DOORMAN, a wise, expansive and extravagantly readable thriller that keeps us guessing until the last page. A searing and hilarious social satire, Pavone unflinchingly takes on New York in this moment— class, race, social justice—with an eye as wicked as it is compassionate.”—Maria Semple