ADDITIONAL ATTENDEE

In Harper’s mystery series starter, a Brooklynite investigates the murders of his wife and her suspected lover.

In the summer of 2022, Paul is a 40-something journeyman actor with dwindling prospects. Alina, an aspiring novelist in her 30s, works the front desk of his luxury high-rise in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn. He suspects that his estranged wife, Laura, is having an affair; meanwhile, Alina’s inertia keeps her in a dead-end job, but deep down, she wants to be fired. Paul may have the key to making this firing happen: Specifically, he suggests using Alina’s master key to enter the apartment of Ernest Whitaker, whom he suspects of being his wife’s lover. She eagerly complies, but when they enter the dwelling, they don’t find a couple in flagrante delicto, but rather Ernest’s strangled corpse. Things go from bad to worse when Paul finds his wife in their own apartment, also strangled—and Paul is the prime suspect in both killings. That’s the setup for a wryly told mystery in which tenants hide some down-and-dirty doings. This is well-trod territory, of course, but Paul’s first-person narration adds a metafictional spin that keeps readers on alert, as when he’s just about to find his wife’s body: “Reader, I’m feeling guilty because I should have prepared you better for what’s about to happen.” Readers’ mileage will vary on this narrative device, especially when Paul worries that they may be ahead of him: “Maybe you’ve been shaking your head impatiently as I doddered around, even screaming to your spouse, ‘Jesus, it’s so obvious!’” But Harper does a deft job of producing red herrings that will misdirect even the savviest of armchair sleuths. The conclusion may require some suspension of disbelief, but it intriguingly sets up a sequel.

A diverting whodunit with an unconventional sleuth who tends to go off-script.