City Dark

The 1977 New York City blackout sets the stage for this gripping psychological thriller from Canaff (Copperhead Road). When the city loses power the night of July 13, Lois DeSantos leaves her two sons, 10-year-old Joe and 15-year-old Robbie, in a car at a traffic circle just off the West Side Highway, to go for gas. When she fails to return, the boys walk to a restaurant, where they phone their uncle on Staten Island. In their effort to reach their uncle, something terrible happens to Robbie that changes him dramatically and alienates him from Joe. Forty years later, Joe, a somewhat functioning alcoholic assistant attorney general, learns that a recently murdered body found on a Coney Island beach is Lois’s. When a second murder is committed and Joe’s DNA is found at both crime scenes, Joe is arrested. Since Joe blacked out on the night of both murders, he fears he may be responsible. Attorney Aideen Bradigan, a former colleague of Joe’s who believes he’s been set up, attempts to prove his innocence. The tension rises as Aideen’s efforts reveal secrets that are difficult for Joe to accept, but force him to make sense of his life. Canaff keeps the reader guessing to the end about what happened to Robbie on that fateful night. This character-driven family drama satisfies. (Oct.)