Night Watch

Set in New York City in 1956, Taylor’s gripping third thriller featuring Det. Michael Cassidy of the NYPD (after 2016’s Night Work) opens with a cold-blooded murder. Late one night, a homeless person follows a married couple, Karl and Magda Brandt, into Central Park. After a heated confrontation, Magda coolly sticks a hat pin into the back of the man’s neck and watches him die before she and Karl walk away. At first, the authorities shrug off the death as a possible heart attack. When a chemist throws himself out his hotel room window, his death is pegged as a suicide. As Cassidy looks deeper into the two cases, however, he begins to see a disturbing connection. The relationship between the Brandts and their victim gradually emerges as Cassidy and his reporter friend, Rhonda Raskin, pursue a story at great personal risk that turns out to have its roots in the Cold War. Taylor does a fine job of summoning up a bygone New York with all its fascinating cultural and political shadings. [em]Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore and Company. (May) [/em]