Tower of Babel

Shamus Award–winning author Michael Sears brings Queens, New York, to literary life in this crime series debut featuring a somewhat seedy lawyer with a heart of gold (or at least gold plate).

Queens, New York—the most diverse place on earth. Native son Ted Molloy knows these streets like the back of his hand. Ted was once a high-powered Manhattan lawyer, but after a spectacular fall from grace, he has found himself back on his home turf, scraping by as a foreclosure profiteer. It’s a grubby business, but a safe one—until Ted’s case sourcer, a mostly reformed small-time conman named Richie Rubiano, turns up murdered shortly after tipping Ted off to an improbably lucrative lead.

With Richie’s widow on his back and shadows of the past popping up at every turn, Ted realizes he’s gotten himself embroiled in a murder investigation. His quest for the truth will take him all over Queens, plunging him into the machinations of greedy developers, mobsters, enraged activists, old litigator foes and old-school New York City operators.

Michael Sears spent over twenty years on Wall Street, rising to become a managing director for Paine Webber and Jefferies Financial before leaving the business in 2005 to pursue writing full-time. His books, a number of which are national bestsellers, have been nominated for—and received—numerous awards, including the Edgar. An avid sailor, he lives in Sea Cliff, New York, with his wife, poet and artist Barbara Segal, and the cat Penelope.