Tower of Babel

March 30, 2020
This action-packed series launch from Thriller Award finalist Sears (Black Fridays) introduces Ted Molloy, a down-on-his-heels former lawyer who now works as a foreclosure profiteer seeking “surplus money” in Queens, N.Y. Molloy’s choice to break his first rule of business—taking on a job where the money at stake is large enough to involve underhanded and scheming characters willing to knock off anyone who gets in the way—results in the shooting death of his research partner, Richie Rubiano. Richie’s widow, Cheryl, hair “dyed the color of fresh lemons,” hires Molloy to find Richie’s killer. Molloy’s quest for the culprit leads him to several crooked politicians, a disreputable banker, a nefarious real estate developer, the Russian mafia, a neighborhood activist, and his manipulative ex-father-in-law, who happens to be a retired judge. The whole crew is messed up in conspiracy, fraud, bribery, and murder. Razor-edged prose, sharply defined characters, and a fast-paced plot boost this noir-wrought drama. Fans of Raymond Chandler and classic gangster films will be rewarded. Agent: Judith Weber, Sobol Weber Assoc.

April 15, 2020
Sears introduces a new hero to his world of high-finance thrillers: a soiled, likable Queens ex-lawyer whose highly questionable business practices are radically challenged by the murder of his partner. Ted Molloy wouldn't actually call Richie Rubiano his partner, but now that he can't practice law anymore, his livelihood depends on negotiating bailouts on behalf of the principals whose properties reformed lowlife Little Richie has identified as subject to foreclosure. The latest case Richie's turned up could be worth $1.2 million--enough to scare away Ted, who's consistently gotten burned when he's ventured much over his $50,000 limit, and evidently enough to get Richie shot to death. Ted, true to form, is inclined to walk away, but Richie's feisty widow, city employee Cheryl Rubiano, demands that he deliver the $1.2 million Richie identified and incidentally find his killer. Working with Lester Young McKinley, a beguiling title insurance investigator who steps into Richie's shoes all too easily, Ted soon tracks down Barbara Miller, the 93-year-old owner of several properties coveted by Ronald Reisner, the wealthy developer determined to erect a monster multiuse tower backed by Queens councilman Kevin Pak and opposed by a legions of locals. The most weighty of many complications is that Reisner's attorney and bagman, Jacqueline Clavette, is married to Jill Fitzmaurice, the ex-wife Ted, back on friendly terms with her, would do anything to avoid estranging again. Or almost anything, as the explosive complications that follow make clear. Even if you're not already sold on Queens, Sears makes real estate law as sexy and dangerous as international intrigue.

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January 1, 2020

Edgar-nominated, Shamus Award-winning former Wall Streeter Sears launches a new mystery series starring a disgraced lawyer working as a foreclosure profiteer in his old stomping ground--multiethnic Queens--and here investigating the murder of his slightly shady case sourcer. With PLA and ALA promotion.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2020
The first in a new series by Shamus Award-winner Sears is full of terrific writing and richly developed characters. Ted Malloy is a down-and-out ex-lawyer from Queens who used to be an up-and-comer. He'd be the first to admit he's a bottom-feeder these days, doing investigatory work on grotty cases through a surrogate who still has a law license. When a former con artist who never really left that life behind is murdered, Ted is coerced by the man's rather shady widow into trying to find out who killed him. Was the dead man working a seemingly profitable (but more likely dead-end) case solo? Did it get him killed? Will it get Ted killed? Sears got a late start as a novelist (he was 61 when he published his first novel, Black Fridays, 2012), but his Jason Stafford financial thrillers have made quite an impression with critics and readers, and this new series promises to be just as strong.

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