Blind Man's Alley: A Novel
Justin Peacock
Language: English
Pages: 480
ISBN: 0385531060
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
From the author of the Edgar Award–nominated legal thriller A Cure for Night, an ambitious and compulsively readable novel set in the cutthroat world of New York real estate.
A concrete floor three hundred feet up in the Aurora Tower condo development in SoHo has collapsed, hurling three workers to their deaths. The developer, Roth Properties (owned by the famously abrasive Simon Roth), faces a vast tangle of legal problems, including allegations of mob connections. Roth’s longtime lawyers, the elite midtown law firm of Blake and Wolcott, is assigned the task of cleaning up the mess. Much of the work lands on the plate of smart, cynical, and seasoned associate Duncan Riley; as a result, he falls into the powerful orbit of Leah Roth, the beautiful daughter of Simon Roth and the designated inheritor of his real estate empire.
Meanwhile, Riley pursues a seemingly small pro bono case in which he attempts to forestall the eviction of Rafael Nazario and his grandmother from public housing in the wake of a pot bust. One night Rafael is picked up and charged with the murder of the private security cop who caught him, a murder that took place in another controversial “mixed income” housing development being built by . . . Roth Properties. Duncan Riley is now walking the knife edge of legal ethics and personal morality.
Blind Man’s Alley is a suspenseful and kaleidoscopic journey through a world where the only rule is self- preservation. The New York Times Book Review said of A Cure for Night that “[Peacock] heads toward Scott Turow country . . . he’s got a good chance to make partner.” This taut, topical, and socially alert thriller delivers on that promise.
“But they haven’t driven you off the story.” “I’m supposed to just let them run over me? First with the lawsuit, and then when that didn’t work by breaking into my apartment? It’s bad enough that Roth has managed to bully the paper. But I let him bully me, then I can’t do my job.” Duncan found himself admiring Candace. He’d been skeptical of her at first, but he was increasingly impressed with her determination, especially in light of how she was being harassed. He restrained an impulse to say
estate empire, she would’ve seen right through him. And all that time he’d just been thinking of her as a whore. There’d been signs all along, things she’d forced herself to ignore. But there’d been no ignoring his leaving her with Mattar Al-Falasi, especially since Mattar had been overtly hitting on her from the second they’d met. In fact, he’d been so overt about it that Alena had suspected from early on that it wasn’t about her at all, that it was a power move between the two men. She’d just
estate empire, she would’ve seen right through him. And all that time he’d just been thinking of her as a whore. There’d been signs all along, things she’d forced herself to ignore. But there’d been no ignoring his leaving her with Mattar Al-Falasi, especially since Mattar had been overtly hitting on her from the second they’d met. In fact, he’d been so overt about it that Alena had suspected from early on that it wasn’t about her at all, that it was a power move between the two men. She’d just
meaning of life. “Is somebody asking you to know?” “I understand our focus has been on leveraging a deal, and I understand why, but if he’s actually innocent shouldn’t our focus be on that?” Blake’s annoyance won out. “Jesus, what, you’ve discovered your calling all of a sudden? I let you keep this guy because I could tell you felt sorry for the jam he was in, and I was pretty sure we’d get him a better deal than some public defender. I wasn’t looking for you to go searching for the Holy
am very sorry about your mom,” Max said. “Sylvia was a good woman.” “We don’t need to do a whole thing about that,” Duncan said. “I’m well aware of how long it’s been since you two got along.” “You’re old enough to know it’s not that simple,” his father protested. “We couldn’t make it work for the long haul, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t still care for her a great deal. When you’ve loved someone for years, made a child with them, that never goes away.” “You two always seemed to have done a