Author(s): Dwyer Murphy

General

A sharp and stylish debut in which an unwitting private eye gets caught up in a crime of obsession between a reclusive literary superstar and her bookseller husband, paying homage to the noir genre just as smartly as it reinvents it. Brooklyn, mid-2000s. After leaving behind the comforts of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney attempts to make ends meet by picking up odd jobs from a colourful assortment of clients. When the mysterious Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband, he trusts it will be an easy case. That is until the real Anna Reddick shows up — a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy — and he finds himself out of his depth and drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers and seedy real estate developers. Set against the tail end of the analogue era, An Honest Living is a gripping story of artistic ambition, obsession, and the small crimes we commit against one another every day.'A deliciously smart PI novel set in New York's antiquarian book world that channels Chandler and Chinatown to take us into a recent past that already feels like a bygone era. A brisk, funny, and fabulous debut.' — Adrian McKinty, author of The Island'Murphy’s hard-boiled rendering of the city is nothing short of exquisite… For anyone who wants a portrait of this New York, few recent books have conjured it so vividly.' — New York Times'A smart and stylishly rendered ode to literature lovers everywhere' — Chicago Review of Books 'Must Read Books of July'