LONG ARM OF THE PAST

A corporate sleuth teams up with a gritty ex-cop to probe a colleague’s suspicious death.

The entire executive team is caught off guard when George Olvert, high-powered chairman of a midtown Manhattan consulting firm, abruptly announces his resignation. No one is more surprised than Scott Morgan. When George drops dead a few days later, Scott finds it highly suspicious and reaches out to Delmore Kerbich, now a private investigator after three decades with the NYPD, a period when the two men had several uncomfortable interactions, most notably in Lipschutz’s first mystery. In a nod to readers of that debut, a prologue foreshadows Delmore’s involvement in this case. An initial autopsy that concludes Olvert died of “unknown natural causes” seems superficial and questionable. Olvert’s widow, Evelyn, signs the approval for an exhumation, and a second autopsy reveals that Olvert was poisoned. The discovery of cryptic correspondence from Olvert about the threat of “DRK” fuels further inquiry. The uncomfortable but gradually warming relationship between Scott and Delmore is a major attraction here. Their entertaining rivalry leads to separate investigative paths. Scott subtly probes fellow employees, from brittle, hard-charging Deborah West to pragmatic, ambitious Jim Skyler. Delmore, meanwhile, focuses more on Olvert’s personal life. The pieces of the puzzle come together in short, precisely written chapters. While Lipschutz’s deep knowledge of the New York metropolitan area and Manhattan’s corporate culture give the novel a refreshing authenticity, his lucid writing is sometimes dry; the individuality of the characters doesn’t always emerge from his deliberate prose.

A measured whodunit set in a white-shoe world.