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Lawrence Block is the author of over 50 novels including 5 series and several standalones, many short stories, 4 books for writers, and editor of 7 short story anthologies. His 14th stand alone novel, SMALL TOWN is his elegy to post 9/11 New York City. Those of us who grew up in New York know that it is really a series of small towns whose people rarely mix. Block takes us into the lives of a few of the residents, whose lives are caused to intersect by a mass murderer, a man whose whole family was destroyed by the cowardly Arab attack on the World Trade Center. The body of Marilyn Fairchild, a real estate saleswoman is found in her Greenwich Village apartment by a gay, recovering alcoholic cleaning man, who had already cleaned 3 bars and a whore house that day. He unwittingly cleaned away all traces of the murderer before discovering the body. John Blair Creighton is arrested for the murder since he was the last one to see her alive. Susan Pomerance owns a gallery specializing in outsider art feels a connection to the murdered woman since they were about the same age and Marilyn had sold Susan her London Towers Co-op. Maury Winters, Susan's attorney is an aging, dying teddy bear of a man. They have lunch at an exclusive French restaurant at the same time as the ex-police commissioner Francis Buckram who is being considered as a possibility for the next mayor, after Bloomberg's term expires. Susan and Fran notice each other but neither does anything about it. Meanwhile, Creighton has been accused of Marilyn's murder, so he calls his lawyer, Maury Winters, to get him out of jail. Maury gets him out on bail by telling the judge that John has a rent-controlled apartment in New York. The judge agrees that no one with a rent-controlled apartment would skip bail, and so sets a reasonable amount. All these people are connected by the demented murderer. Their lives intersect, as do the lives of people in any small town. Some less obviously than others, as in one of the men Susan takes to her bed ending up in bed with the gay cleaning person. (Pomerance sleeps with anything warm on 2 legs) Even though this is a stand alone novel, there are echoes of Scudder, Elaine, and AJ in the characters in SMALL TOWN. Block just seems to get better with each book. Reviewer's note: Lawrence Block writes, in his email newsletter of 19 Jan 2003 One caution regarding SMALL TOWN: A couple of early reviewers have taken pains to mention that, sexually speaking, the book is pretty hot stuff. Some readers, one thoughtful critic points out, may be distressed by the vividness and intensity of some of the sexual episodes. Now I rather doubt that YOU fall into that category, but thought it only fair to pass the word.
Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, January 2003
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