Hard Hard City [Hardcover]

Jim Fusilli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2004

When a troubled, talented teenager goes missing, private investigator Terry Orr's search uncovers a hornet's nest of family secrets.

In just three short years, Jim Fusilli has garnered the kind of praise for which writers wait their entire careers: "Superior . . . This courageous and original writer works against the grain of expectations, looking to make our experience not easy but illuminative and true," proclaimed The Boston Globe. Publishers Weekly writes, "Fusilli's sense of place is stunning: a tangible, poetically evoked Manhattan infuses this complex, haunting story."

In the latest installment of Jim Fusilli's critically acclaimed series, enigmatic hero and occasional private eye Terry Orr has been asked by his precocious daughter, Bella, and her friend Daniel Wu to search for a gifted student who has suddenly disappeared. Terry quickly discovers that documents and cash have been stolen from the home of an elderly family friend with whom the boy had been staying. When Terry travels to the adolescent's New Jersey hometown, he meets with unexpected violence. And when he returns to the city, the trail leads to murder, as his own life hangs in the balance.

But Terry can't say no to this case; something about the damaged boy reminds him of his own difficult youth, as well as his constantly challenging relationship with daughter, Bella, who has begun to push her desperate father away.

Filled with brilliantly drawn characters and imbued with Fusilli's vivid evocation of New York, Hard, Hard City is a revelation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Fusilli's fourth entry in this complex, character-driven crime series, Terry Orr, single parent and occasional private detective, is more analytical and less self-absorbed than he was in 2003's Tribeca Blues. Daniel Wu, the appealing friend of Orr's precocious teenage daughter, Bella, asks him to find the missing Allie Powell, a student at Manhattan's Fashion Institute of Technology. Orr, guilty about the lack of time spent with Bella and still haunted by the deaths four years earlier of his wife and son, agrees to look for Allie. What initially appears to be a simple search for a wayward teenager evolves into a byzantine trail of theft, violence, murder, blackmail and politics. Fusilli's themes echo those of his mentors, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald and Robert B. Parker: wealth engenders dishonesty and corruption and, as with the latter two, neglected children. It's not hard to identify the culprits here, though their motives are only slowly revealed. Fusilli is a serious novelist who excels in creating a noirish view of Manhattan and strong characters whose relationships continue to evolve with each book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

The multi-talented Fusilli, a music critic for The Wall Street Journal and NPR, is just as gifted at creating his own work as he is at dissecting that of others. With Hard, Hard City, Fusilli brings back Terry Orr, last seen in 2003’s Tribeca Blues. Critics praise the nuance with which Fusilli imbues Orr—the character is layered like a human being, not a pulpy gumshoe—and the accuracy with which he captures New York City’s dark underbelly. A few blanch at the plot’s twists and turns, however, believing they skid into B-movie territory. Overall, most strongly recommend Fusilli’s novel to both mystery fans and those who usually eschew the genre. As The Washington Post notes, "If you have fallen into the habit of reading the same favorites over and over—Grisham, Grafton, Sandford, whatever—branch out a bit. Live dangerously!"

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; First Edition edition (September 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399152172
• ISBN-13: 978-0399152177
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Fusilli is an American writer. He serves as the rock and pop music critic of The Wall Street Journal and is the author of six novels. A native of Hoboken, NJ, he lives in New York City.

Fusilli's debut novel, the mystery "Closing Time," is the last work of fiction set in New York City published prior to the 9/11 attacks. The following year, Fusilli's mystery "A Well-Known Secret" addressed the impact of 9/11 on the residents of New York City. Two novels for adults followed: "Tribeca Blues" and "Hard, Hard City," which Mystery Ink magazine named its 2004 Novel of the Year.

In 2005, Fusilli wrote "Pet Sounds," his tribute to Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys' classic album. Described as "an experiment in music journalism," the book combines the rhythm and emotional weight of his fiction with the often-unorthodox observations of his music criticism for the Journal, for whom he has written since 1983.

Fusilli served as the editor of, and contributed chapters to, the award-winning serial thrillers "The Chopin Manuscript" and "The Copper Bracelet." His novel for young adults "Marley Z and the Bloodstained Violin" was published in 2008.

Fusilli has written and published many short stories; in several, he developed Narrows Gate as the setting, depicting the city in different eras. "Chellini's Solution," which appeared in the 2007 edition of the Best American Mystery Stories, features Narrows Gate in the years following World War II. "Digby, Attorney at Law" portrays the fictional city in the early 1960s. "Digby" was nominated for the Edgar and Macavity awards in 2010.

Fusilli is married to the former Diane Holuk, a senior public relations executive. They have a daughter, Cara, a graduate of the New School.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard Hard City by Jim Fusilli, September 14, 2010

By 

D. Rowland (a Cool Dry Place) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hard Hard City (Paperback)

Manhattan Private Eye Terry Orr is still dealing with the death of his wife and son, who have been gone for three years. He has a bright twelve-year-old daughter named Bella who he should be spending more time with and he feels guilty about not doing so. He's got a new relationship going with attorney Julie Giada and he has a problem with commitment, and he has his work. He is a complex man.

One day his daughter's friend, a boy named Daniel Wu asks Terry to investigate the disappearance of Allie Powell, another teen. Terry agrees and before long he's run off the road, shot and and beaten to pulp. This, of course, does not deter him, on the contrary, he works even harder and, of course again, more violence ensues as he digs up some dirty secrets that have sent the boy into hiding. Secrets that could get both him and the boy killed.

Mr. Fusilli has written, in my opinion, a tension filled, character driven book that is a worthy addition to his series. I don't see how anyone who reads mysteries or thrillers could possibly not love this book. I know I did. It's dark, it's got suspense, it's awfully darn good.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Orr's world continues in "Hard, Hard City", August 26, 2005

By 

Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hard Hard City (Hardcover)

Terry Orr tries to live in the present but the past is never more than a seconds thought away. Not that he doesn't have plenty of reason to live in the here and now thanks to his young teenage daughter, Gabriella whom he calls lovingly Bella, her friends, and other things of interest. But, he still feels the loss of his wife Marina and their young son and while he mourns their loss he also never will really know what his wife Marina truly felt and thought.

He used to write and hasn't in a very long time. He used to work as a detective until after his last case when Bella hid his private investigator license in an attempt to protect him from himself. It has been over a month and he really hasn't done much of anything. That is until a friend of hers, Daniel, asks Terry Orr for his help.

Daniel, describing a situation of a friend of a friend deal asks his help in locating a young student by the name of Allie Powell. Allie took classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City and hasn't been seen in days. His powerful parents don't seen to know or even care where he is. The Uncle who lives up on the Upper East Side wasn't much help either to Daniel's friend when she went looking for him. Daniel doesn't like the situation at all and thinks it needs to be made clear to the family of the missing student that Allie has friends.

Orr agrees to talk to the Uncle and things quickly get out of hand. Accosted and roughed up repeatedly, Orr works a case that quite clearly no one in the boy's family want him involved with. Beyond the rather strange Uncle and his issues, the parents have an agenda of their own and the welfare of their son seems to be a minor secondary concern. They share their lack of concern over the boy's safety with another group who is looking for him for unknown reasons and don't seem to care who gets hurt in the process. Through it all Orr tries to deal with a current mystery as well as the pain and unresolved questions of his own past.

This fourth novel of the series is a well written and features an interesting multi facetted main character as well as a slew of interesting secondary characters. Relationships matter deeply in the work as does the past. The result is a highly engaging read that could be read as a stand-alone but would definitely be better enjoyed if read in the sequence of the series. The pace of the tale is slow, broken by violent sequences of action at times, and at other times, by digressions regarding past events and motivations. As the story moves forward the real world falls away and the reader becomes enmeshed into this enjoyable and highly entertaining novel.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2005
(real name--way past 13)

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cold, Cold City, November 6, 2004

By 

Nora of the North "Nora" (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Hard City (Hardcover)

I would suggest to anyone reading this particular novel to put on an extra sweater because every page makes your blood a little thinner. Both the city and Terry Orr, run from numbingly cold to red hot. Orr has this one little problem, he only relates to women that can't warm up to him. Those he loves eternally, while those who dare to say that they love him he runs for cover. Usually to thugs who enjoy knocking his block off. Could that be his way of connecting? Why? Of course it's his cold, heartless mother who never tells him what he has done wrong. Maybe its the chunky he stole from the candy store. In this installment, Terry revisits his past because of a half baked assignment from his daughter's young, charmingly warm and wonderful friend. Not her boyfriend, what father could truly love his daughter's boyfriend. Anyway this little excursion leads him back in his imagination to his morose, blue collar childhood, peopled with ineffectual fathers, weird uncles and the evil, crazy mother. Probably the true villian of this little rag to riches saga. He actually travels towards Springsteen country to hook up with the villian who is also from a dismal Jersey town, but who turns to the dark side, makes good and seeks status in all the wrong places. Not like Orr who struggles to overcome his working class roots but retain his soul.
Get off it Orr, tell us about what really is ticking you off so you can get this series in gear. If you haven't already, Mr. Fusilli, read Khaled Hosseini's Kite Runner, a great book about childhood, fathers and sons and absent mothers. This narrator pieces together his past in a way that reverberates through the reader. Break your no reading rule.