The Doorman

LoveReading Says

Heart-poundingly suspenseful, and perfectly-plotted to interweave layers of unexpected twists, Chris Pavone’s The Doorman is that rare kind of page-turning thriller that cuts to the core of contemporary society to create a novel that’s both addictive and provocative. 

Dissecting the intersection between NYC’s super-rich and the people paid to serve them — caretakers, chauffeurs, escorts, and the eponymous doorman at the heart of this novel — it’s a whip-smart story of privilege, prejudice, racism, sex, secrets, desire, greed (and murder) centred on one of New York’s most prestigious and priciest addresses. Namely, the Bohemia, a super-fancy building that houses an assortment of multi-millionaires and billionaires whose lives become intertwined with debt-ridden Chicky, the doorman who witnesses everyone’s comings and goings with tight lips and a polite smile on his face.

Against a backdrop of flaring tensions and protests that rise as a result of yet another Black man being shot by a cop, tensions are also simmering in the Bohemia, not least in the case of billionaire Whit, whose questionable dealings in business and sex are about to come to a head as his wife Emily tries to keep the peace (and her family together), while also harbouring her own secrets, and desires for a different life. 

The characterisation is top-notch — while most of the cast members are pretty unlikeable (though you’ll most likely root for Chicky the whole way through), there’s plenty of meat on their bones and they feel 100% authentic through a story that reveals that while “Life can look like a series of foregone conclusions… you are who are, until you’re not”.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About The Doorman

A pulse-pounding novel of class, privilege, sex, and murder, from the New York Times bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon and The Expats.Chicky Diaz is everyone's favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York's cultural elite.Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she'd quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can't bring herself to leave him. Yet.And downstairs in 2a, Julian Sonnenberg-who has carved himself a successful niche in the art world, and led a good half-century of a full and satisfying, cosmopolitan life-has just received a devastating phone call that does nothing at all to alleviate his sense that, probably for better and worse, he has aged out and he's just not that useful to anyone any more.Meanwhile, gathered in the Bohemia's bowels, the building's almost entirely Black and Hispanic, working-class staff is taking in the news that that just a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city.As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight's shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he'll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, but before he knew of the pandemonium taking over the city. Chicky knows that there's more going on in his patch of sidewalk in front of the Bohemia than anyone's aware of. Tonight in the city, enemies will clash, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be revealed-and lives will be lost.

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