CENTRAL PARK WEST by James Comey

CENTRAL PARK WEST

James Comey

Aries / Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com)

£20.00

Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop

Former New York governor Tony Burke has been murdered in his Central Park West penthouse. All the evidence, including damning videos and the testimony of the building’s doorman, suggests that the culprit is none other than Burke’s most-recent ex-wife, Kyra. But when the defendant in a federal case against a high-powered New York gangster decides to cooperate and provides evidence that Burke’s death was mob-related, prosecutor Nora Carleton and her investigator, Benny Dugan, find themselves digging in to Burke’s background and his links to the infamous Gambino family in a race against time to find the truth before an innocent woman goes to jail.

James Comey hit the headlines back in 2017 when he was fired from his position as Director of the FBI by then-President Donald Trump. Given that history, most of us probably had some idea of what Comey might write about when his debut novel was announced. I, for one, was surprised to find how wrong I was in my assumptions, for while Central Park West does have a small FBI presence, it’s a courtroom drama that boasts an Assistant United States Attorney and an ex-NYPD-Detective-turned-Mafia-investigator at its heart. It’s a solid thriller that takes time out to examine the vagaries and subtleties of the American criminal justice system along the way.

When we first meet Nora Carleton and Benny Dugan, they are in the middle of a high-stakes trial that will see a prominent criminal put away for a long time. They’re aware of the case against Kyra Burke, but only because it is equally as high-profile. It won’t be long before they discover that it’s related to their own investigations, and is about to put even more strain on their already-fraught relationship with the New York District Attorney’s office. Nora is working her dream job, while trying to raise her young daughter with the help of her mother. Benny has seen it all, once the youngest detective in NYPD history, he has dedicated much of his life to investigating and understanding Cosa Nostra. He’s also in the process of repairing relationships with his grown sons and their young families. The theme of family runs like a rich, deep vein through Central Park West, and Comey examines its many permutations (whether family or Family) as the story progresses.

Comey leans heavily on his long career in various areas of law enforcement to educate the reader as he entertains us: the difference between the District Attorney and the United States Attorney; the different courts and procedures that exist for different reasons; where the FBI fit into the bigger picture and how they co-exist with other organisations such as the NYPD and the USA’s office. He keeps our attention throughout, the explanations always relevant to the current action, and never feeling shoe-horned into the story. Central Park West may be James Comey’s fiction debut, but it feels like the work of a well-established and accomplished author. There are times early on where things feel a bit clunky, a bit too reliant on coincidence and the deus ex machina, but he quickly finds his stride and the result is a thoroughly enjoyable courtroom drama/thriller/sometimes-light-hearted buddy cop thing.

If you’re a fan of a good mystery, or of Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn novels, you will definitely want to check out Central Park West. The memorable characters at its heart will make you hope that this is the first book in a series but, regardless of the subject, James Comey is definitely on this reader’s must-read list. Comey injects the personal into his thriller and keeps us coming back for more – as much to follow what his characters are up to as to find the solution to the mystery. Donald Trump didn’t do much for the world, but in firing James Comey, he gave crime fiction an exciting new talent, and one that should be on every crime fiction fan’s radar.