“The way to tell I’m sold on a book is that I finish a reading session, put my thumb in the book, and look to see how many pages I have left. Because I want to finish the book but I don’t want it to be over.
New Yorked is a great read. To me, it felt like Rob Hart was answering the question, “What does a hard-boiled detective look like in 2015?” And his answer is a good one, and it’s a complicated one.
It’s a dude who has some substance problems. It’s a guy who has progressive ideas while still maintaining a personal rule about hitting women. It’s a guy who hates the gentrification of New York and has to ask himself how long he’s going to rage against the changing of a city that maybe doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a story where the guy who runs in fist-first to save a damsel in distress finds out that damsels and distress are complicated, even if fists remain uncomplicated and do fairly uniform things when applied to faces.
At work I often get tasked with recommending books to people. And a lot of the people looking for new titles are looking something to scratch a James Patterson or Lee Child itch. I’ve got my people I like to recommend. Greg Rucka. Then maybe a Chelsea Cain. If the person is willing to go a little ways with me, the Darwyn Cooke Parker books. I’ve got a few ideas at the ready, and now I’ve got Rob Hart too.
If you weren’t sold by anything I said, at the very least, as a personal favor, pick up New Yorked and read to the point where the Hipster King shows up. Just great.”