Love the Stranger by Michael Sears
Michael Sears brings a feeling of intensity and the no-nonsense urgency of a native New Yorker to his gritty crime novels. It’s as if his characters jump off the pages to declaim “I’m working here, get a move on.” They are at home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and equally familiar with the less savory sections of Queens neighborhoods where the bulk of his latest novel takes place. The borough of Queens holds the Guinness Book of World Records for “being the most ethnically diverse urban area” on earth and a linguist’s dream with an astounding estimated 138-160 languages spoken there. LaGuardia Airport, located in the northern part, adds measurably to the cacophony along with the near-constant surface traffic honking like some monstrous mechanical flock of geese.
High Stakes and a High Spike
Love the Stranger is the second book in the Ted Molloy series, which began with the 2022 Nero Award winning Tower of Babel. Remnants of an upmarket wardrobe hint at his former career as a high-flying top Manhattan attorney prior to his Icarus-like fall. Ted’s income is now derived from a foreclosure investment scheme that keeps him in contact with some shady characters barely skirting the law. The borough of Queens is described by the author as “a kaleidoscope of colors, classes and ethnicities. Home to dreamers, strivers, con men and crooks.”
It’s both familiar home and haven for Ted Molloy. His partner, Lester Young McKinley, is a stylish, well-groomed Black man with silvery salt and pepper hair who looks younger than his nearly 70 years. This dapper dresser adds colorful touches to his wardrobe that attracts admiring attention. Lester manages the daily operations of their real estate projects, allowing Ted the time to rebuild his law practice. His current focus and challenging legal case is to assist his activist girlfriend McKenzie (Kenzie) Zielinski and her non-profit organization in halting a massive construction project that, by razing blocks, would displace homes and small businesses owned by an immigrant community striving to become upwardly mobile. “The Spike,” as the massive structure is called by all, is a soul-sucking vacuum that would destroy a widespread neighborhood.
“A Deadly Serious Business”
The “Stop the Spike” campaign has attracted powerful enemies. Developer Ronald Reisner, owner of LBC (La Bella Casa), a corporate real estate empire with vast holdings, has friends in both high and low places and is not above using bullying tactics including disruptions of legitimate meetings and protests, smear campaigns, spying, bugging offices and homes and cyber-attacks to achieve his objectives. The destruction of a viable community is strictly a business venture to this man who man ostensibly lacks a heart. His dirty work is perpetrated by hiring Collins Guards, a clandestine, multinational security firm that frequently employs former military intelligence officers and hired assassins. This is not a chess match played in Washington Square; it is a deadly serious business. Danger abounds and violence is apt to break out as exemplified by a riot deliberately incited during a peaceful speech and demonstration by Kenzie’s grassroots organization.
Ted Molloy gets embroiled in protecting his girlfriend’s reputation when she becomes the victim of a smear campaign that results in volunteers abandoning the cause and fundraisers bereft of donations. Ted and Kenzie had befriended cab driver Mohammed, a Yemeni immigrant with refugee status, whom they have hired to chauffeur Kenzie to her meetings and additionally serve as a layer of protection. She comes to his aid after learning his attorney has been taking his cash payments to make his status permanent but without producing any tangible results. The law firm of Hillyer and Spitzer was the sort that fully earned the appellation of “shysters”. Bruce Hillyer specialized in real estate law and was the lawyer of record for the shady property developer Reisner. Howard Spitzer’s specialty was immigration law but as he bilked his clients while performing little or no work for them, crook or thief probably seems a more accurate description as Kenzie discovered while snooping in their unmanned reception area. He kept detailed records with invoices showing enormous outstanding balances, late fees and interest while concealing the cash payments that had been made.
Unobserved, Kenzie witnessed a young male dash from Spitzer’s office before she entered and discovered his body. NYPD Detectives were quick to hone in on Mohammed’s teenage son Haidir as the primary suspect and attempted to browbeat him into a confession. When that tactic failed, they jailed him without bail, ready to consider this a closed case without any need for further investigation. It’s a job left to Ted, Kenzie and Lester to identify the real killer, clear Kenzie’s reputation and suss out who has infiltrated Ted’s computer system which provided illegal insider information to opposing counsel. This dedicated trio march valiantly into the thick of death-defying situations emerging bruised, battered and, at times, in need of stitches or other medical attention. White collar crimes can indeed erupt into violence.
Skillful Writing From a Multitalented Author
Michael Sears has deftly woven a number of subplots including immigration battles, corrupt politicians and a murder case into his exciting, densely packed Love the Stranger. It’s a winning combination of intelligent writing incorporating action, suspense and humor with complex likable characters and is refreshingly devoid of gratuitous foul language. If you enjoy this suspenseful novel, you might consider reading his first series of four books which were best-selling, award-winning financial crime thrillers featuring a character named Jason Sparrow.
The author himself is as intriguing as any of his fictional characters. He has earned two degrees from Columbia University and made his career first as a professional equity actor followed by twenty years on Wall Street as a managing director for two major bond trading and underwriting firms before turning to full-time writing. Love the Stranger would be an ideal choice for book clubs that include crime thrillers and mysteries. He is in good company with David Baldacci, John Grisham, Peter Lovesey, Stuart Woods, Scott Turow and other outstanding thriller writers who feature lawyers and police detectives as their protagonists.
Michael Sears’ first novel, the best-seller Black Fridays, a thriller with a financial twist, took the Shamus award and was short-listed for the Edgar and three other major awards. Mortal Bonds, the critically-acclaimed second novel in the Jason Stafford series, won the Silver Falchion at Killer Nashville. Continuing the series, Long Way Down, was described as “one of the best thrillers of 2015.”
Until 2005, Mr. Sears was a Managing Director for two different Wall Street firms, where he worked in the bond market for twenty years and, earlier, in foreign exchange and derivatives. Prior to returning to Columbia University for his MBA, he was, for eight years, a professional actor appearing at the Shakespeare Theatre of Washington (Folger Theatre), Playwright’s Theater of Washington, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, The Comedy Stage Co., and, in the course of a single year, every soap opera shot in New York City.
He is married to the artist, Barbara Segal and is the father of two handsome sons. Born in New York City, he lived for more than twenty years on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and still misses it every day.
