Customer Reviews

The Vaults

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Arthur Puskis has devoted his life to the Vaults, the repository of all the official records of The City at the height of its rough-and-tumble, pre-war days. The orderliness, the routine, the proven veracity of his work provides all his existence requires. Until the day he discovers a file has been duplicated.

Ethan Poole is a tough guy trying to redeem himself after a crooked career in the ring. Now a PI, he blackmails corrupt city leaders and loves a fiery union organizer.

Top newspaper reporter Francis Frings, paramour of nightclub singer extraordinaire Nora Aspen, hears from a top city leader who has had enough and is ready to sing.

This is the setup for Toby Ball's fabulous debut novel. The Vaults traces, in these three narratives, events set in motion by that duplicate file, a blackmail case and a corrupt official's decision to come clean. Combine them with a headstrong, flawed crook of a mayor and his efforts to get a group of Polish businessmen to sign a business contract, and the ensuing crosses, counter crosses, last-minute decisions and long-range plans result in an engrossing story that the original Warner Brothers should have had the chance to film in glorious black and white.

Ball keeps everything rolling in what could have been a tangled mess. Instead, the three storylines sometimes intersect, sometimes complement each other, to propel the action along. There are poignant moments and acts of great heroism, as well as sorrow and regret. To say more about actual plot points would give too much away, and each one is well worth discovering.

But suffice to say that Ball has not only a talented way with plot, but also with characterizations both starring and walk-on. The Vaults is a throwback to a time when snappy dialogue and personal stories combined to tell rich tales of winners and losers. The novel may remind readers at times of Jonathan Lethem and Loren Estleman, especially their Motherless Brooklyn, Chronic City and Gas City.

This is a rich story that has room for orphans, stone-cold killers with Achilles heels, loyal union strikers and unlikely farmers. It has the rich and the poor, the eccentric and salt of the earth. The Vaults also has the ability to turn philosophical and ask questions that go to the very heart of what each of the three protagonists holds most dear.

The only problem with finishing The Vaults is that I wish I hadn't even started it yet, so I could have the pleasure of discovering it all over again. It's that good.

"The Vaults" is a mystery set in the 1930s in an unnamed American city administered with a heavy hand by mayor Red Henry, a former pugilist who secured his political fortunes by using any means necessary to eradicate the violent gang warfare that kept the population living in fear. Arthur Puskis is the hermetic archivist who has kept the city's police files in order in their underground vault for the past 27 years. One day, to his consternation, Puskis discovers two copies of the same file in his archives. It is the file of Reif DeGraffenreid, who committed a gang murder in 1927. The files have the same number and name but different pictures. DeGraffenreid was convicted of murder, but there is no record of his serving a sentence. What can it mean?

Unable to live with inconsistency in his archive, Puskis tries to track the DeGraffenreid case down. Meanwhile, private detective and socialist union organizer Ethan Poole is trying to blackmail one of the city's prominent industrialists into acquiescing to the union's demands, when a bereft woman of no known address hires him to find her missing son. Journalist Frank Frings, a man lacking in neither confidence nor connections, is getting inside information about corruption in the mayor's office from the same industrialist for a story he hopes will bring Red Henry down. These three men -Puskis, Poole, and Frings- are all investigating the same case, a case of murderers who seem to have walked free, murders still taking place, and something the mayor has to hide.

"The Vaults" offers plenty of grit, political corruption, and archetypal characters from the days of the Great Depression, labor-capital warfare, and unstoppable urban political machines. It's a dark fantasy of 1930s America with enough basis in history to suck the reader back into this volatile period. Mysteries don't usually feature three unrelated detectives working at cross-purposes, but this gives us the chance to know three disparate men who have very different stakes in uncovering the truth. "The Vaults" is atmospheric and readable, with a jaunty pace and consistent tone that will appeal to fans of hard-boiled fiction. Toby Ball does not feel the need to make his heroes especially heroic, which I appreciated. This is a strong debut novel and a thoroughly enjoyable noir mystery.

Ball's first novel, set in 1935, grabs the reader with its opening image: the Vaults, a quiet, cavernous dim repository of files. Rows of shelves stretch into the gloom, each holding meticulously organized and cross-referenced files that date back 70 years into the City's criminal past.

All of it presided over by one man, hermet-like, skeletal Arthur Puskis, whose idea of hell is a week off. Which is what he gets when he finds a duplicate file -- a murderer's file with notes in different-colored ink, and a different man's picture in it, and no indication of any prison term -- and brings the file to his chief's attention. The chief assumes it's a simple error and eyes Puskis' agitation with concern, insisting he take a week off.

Naturally Puskis is unable to leave this mystery alone and finds the scary break in his routine leading him in unexpected directions.

Meanwhile, above the musty Vaults, the City teems with crime and corruption, led by the most corrupt administration in its history. Frank Frings, investigative journalist and columnist, is collecting dangerous inside information to try and bring the mayor down. And Ethan Poole, union organizer, socialist and private eye is more than willing to twist arms -- or resort to blackmail -- to get what he wants for the union. But then an odd, sad woman asks him to find her missing boy and Poole takes a turn into a different dark chapter of his City's history.

All three men converge on the ugly truth separately and sometimes at cross-purposes. Ball captures the feel of a dystopian 30s as he follows his flawed and dogged characters through a minefield of dangerous secrets and betrayals.

An outstanding debut.

-- Portsmouth Herald

Reading The Vaults is very much like reading an American version of a classic Dostoevsky novel. The rich cast of characters, driven by differing motivations and circumstances, wind their way towards an explosive finale in which all of their divergent paths intersect. Along the way, the reader is drawn into Ball's beautifully detailed City, which comes alive through his cinematic descriptions and attention to detail. As you read, you can almost smell the smoke billowing from the factories in the Hollows and see the ash as it blankets the streets. Most interesting is the lack of a single protagonist to carry the tale. Instead, Ball treats us to the viewpoints of several unique and three-dimensional personalities who inhabit the City, their every action reverberating and affecting the lives and fortunes of the others. The result is a layered, complex and thoroughly satisfying read. I am already looking forward with great anticipation to Ball's second novel.

I enjoy mysteries but find most current authors tedious and lacking originality. Even Micheal Connelly has lost his edge. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. The characters are interesting. The plot is multifaceted and the author can write. It's worth the read.

I will admit that I have struggled with this review because while I enjoyed The Vaults, it didn't blow me away and I have spent several weeks trying to put my finger on why. To no avail. Toby Ball is a good writer, with a clear voice and a good attention to to detail but something about the book just didn't sit well with me.

Perhaps it was the fact that it felt like many of the characters were a little `greyscale'. They didn't come to life for me in a way that made the book feel more vibrant. In fact, the book as a whole had a `lazy Sunday afternoon' feeling that just didn't sit too well with a mystery, even if it is a dark one. Ball seemed to be aiming for Noir and in many aspects he achieved it perfectly but in others the book sailed passed Noir and carried on going.

Perhaps it's me, though. This is a novel set in a time when things weren't so frantic and people couldn't whip out their iPads or Blackberries and things were done very very differently. Perhaps I'm too much a product of the modern world. That said, I have read and enjoyed many historical novels and, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this one. But it didn't set me alight.

Lest I be unjust in my review I would like to reiterate that this is a good story with some great writing. It's just that it won't be for everyone. If you have more patience than me, it's probably a good start!

This book is a fun read with memorable characters and a good brisk pace. The writing makes the feel of the city tangible. You can imagine in the age before computers and instant information the slow boil of this mystery. I enjoyed this book and will be eagerly awaiting the next one!

By 1935 in the City, archivist Arthur Puskis has worked in the Vaults for thirty plus years. The underground cavernous facility has stored the records of criminals for over seven decades and Parks is the expert at what is inside though he admits he knows a small percentage of the numerous files.

Recently, Arthur has found evidence of the Navaho Project in which two files with the same identifier contain different profiles, but share in common convicted killers never spending time in jail; this shakes his belief system that the Vaults are sacred. At the same time weed addicted investigative reporter Frank Frings and blackmailing private investigator Ethan Poole independently find similar information on the alleged The Navajo Project. Mayor Red Henry and his goons will go any length to keep the findings from going public, but someone is also targeting him and his cohorts with bombing assassinations.

Readers will want to enter Toby Ball's The Vaults as the vivid description of political corruption controlling the City hooks the audience to learn what the Navaho Project is and how far the Mayor and his supporters will go in exchange for graft. The story line is fast-paced with three unlikely heroes risking their lives trying to expose what they have learned. This is a haunting winner.

Harriet Klausner

More people need to read this novel. It's exceptionally well-written, has fascinating characters, and evokes this strange noir world that is at once real and not real. Highly recommended!!!

This book is fast-paced and has a very film noir feel (and it's not hard to imagine this book as a film). Yet it differs from the typical mystery novel in that it's not just one person trying to solve the mystery. It has a lot of twists and turns and the characters are very well-drawn. Creepy, dystopian, and thrilling - a thoroughly enjoyable read!