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Manhattan Nocturne
Now a major motion picture, Manhattan Night , starring Adrien Brody, Campbell Scott, Yvonne Strahovski, and Linda Lavin
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her husband, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Manhattan Nocturne is a brilliantly drawn tableau of the gritty, gaudy city, and a thrilling literary noir.
Porter Wren is a Manhattan tabloid writer with an appetite for scandal. On the beat he sells murder, tragedy, and anything that passes for the truth. At home, he is a dedicated husband and father. But when a seductive stranger asks him to dig into the unsolved murder of her husband, he is drawn into a very nasty case of sexual obsession and blackmail--one that threatens his job, his marriage, and his life.
Manhattan Nocturne is a brilliantly drawn tableau of the gritty, gaudy city, and a thrilling literary noir.
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 1996
50 people are currently reading
572 people want to read
About the author
Colin Harrison
63 books140 followersColin Harrison is a crime novelist. He is a vice president and senior editor at Scribner.
He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, the writer Kathryn Harrison, and their three children (Sarah, Walker and Julia).
He attended: Haverford College, BA 1982; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. MFA 1986
His short nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Salon, Worth, and other various publications.
He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, the writer Kathryn Harrison, and their three children (Sarah, Walker and Julia).
He attended: Haverford College, BA 1982; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. MFA 1986
His short nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Salon, Worth, and other various publications.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
November 10, 2023
Here are 10 reasons to put Colin Harrison’s literary thriller on your reading list:
1. The Voice – A cross between Dashiell Hammett hardboiled and Upton Sinclair social commentary. Mr. Harrison has the literary virtuosity to pull it off. You’d have to go a long way to find a writer with a greater command of language. Here’s a quick sample from the first-person narrator and main character, newspaper reporter Porter Wren: “When the column was done my thoughts returned to the previous afternoon, and I suppose that if my marital guilt were a cave, then I meant now to feel along the dark, damp walls for the sharp places and for the size of the cavity I had opened within myself.”
2. The City – As in Manhattan; all the fast-paced action takes place in the Big Apple – it’s as if the streets, subways and all those multistory buildings inject the characters with super-charged vim.
3. The Beautiful Babe – Porter Wren first encounters her at a publishing party. “Her face was no less beautiful as it approached, but I could see a certain determination in her features. Dark brows, blonde hair lifted off her neck. The rope of pearls. Her breasts moved heavily against the silky materials of her gown, which, I now saw, was not white but, more alluringly, the color of the flesh of a peach.” Meet Caroline Crowley, a femme fatale if there ever was one.
4. The Artist – Filmmaker Simon Crowley, Caroline’s dead husband who died a tragic death but left tons of video footage, including a number of very hot clips people in high places would love to get their hands on. In a series of Carolyn’s flashbacks along with Wren’s commentary on Simon appearing in his own videos, we are given a riveting picture of the filmmaker’s character.
5. The Tycoon – Owner of a series of multinational publishing and media companies, a big, fat Australian by the name of Hobbs who visits NYC to establish his presence and oversee the deals. At one point in the story Hobbs anticipates a deal-making phone-call from Rupert Murdoch. Surely it is more than coincidence the tycoon shares his name with 17th century English philosopher Thomas Hobbs, author of his famous book, ‘The Leviathan’, wherein he wrote how, prior to political community, the natural state of man is nasty, brutish and short. Ironically, as Porter Wren narrates, modern urban life can still be, if not so short, than quite nasty and brutish.
6. The Cop – Hal Fitzgerald is a hard-talking, high-level NYC policeman who deals with Porter Wren and stands for truth and justice, particularly when it comes to a police officer killed in the line of duty. Video footage Wren comes across is high-stakes; even Mayor Giuliani makes a cameo appearance in the novel.
7. The Family – Porter Wren lives in NYC with his brilliant surgeon wife and their young children, all of whom play an important role as the story unfolds and winds around Manhattan’s sharp corners.
8. The Mood – As in nocturne; a pensive, dreamy mood pervades the novel, especially Porter Wren’s nighttime relationship with Caroline Crowley.
9. The Pleasure – This novel is a page-turner. Once you get several pages in you’ll want to keep reading and reading. If you like your literary fiction with a bite, you’ve found your book of the month.
10. The Movie – A novel screaming to be made into a movie - set up the projector and use your own mind and imagination as the screen.
September 7, 2007
MANHATTAN NOCTURNE – NR
Colin Harrison
NYC tabloid columnist, Porter Wren attends a party and is sought out by beautiful Caroline Crowley, widow of film director Simon Crowley, because she has "a little problem." After phoning his wife and lying about why he'll be home late, Porter finds himself in Caroline's Fifth Avenue apartment and drawn ever deeper into the life of a dangerous woman and the dark heart of the city.
***I must admit being bored by this book. The writing was good but seemed very deliberate and rather overblown, irritating with name dropping, unnecessarily heavy on sex scenes, and an incredibly weak ending. I found myself nearly quitting several times thinking of all the other really good books waiting on my shelves. Instead it was one I could have not started and not missed.
Colin Harrison
NYC tabloid columnist, Porter Wren attends a party and is sought out by beautiful Caroline Crowley, widow of film director Simon Crowley, because she has "a little problem." After phoning his wife and lying about why he'll be home late, Porter finds himself in Caroline's Fifth Avenue apartment and drawn ever deeper into the life of a dangerous woman and the dark heart of the city.
***I must admit being bored by this book. The writing was good but seemed very deliberate and rather overblown, irritating with name dropping, unnecessarily heavy on sex scenes, and an incredibly weak ending. I found myself nearly quitting several times thinking of all the other really good books waiting on my shelves. Instead it was one I could have not started and not missed.
September 27, 2023
[7/10]
"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
The quote is from a 1948 film noir set in New York city. I don’t really remember all the plot details, but I do remember the way the city is made an integral part of the story.
Colin Harrison’s 1996 novel sent me right back to those classic scenes filmed on location in New York. Harrison has managed here to both pay tribute to the original noir ethos and to bring his own story into the modern age.
The voice-over commentary from the main character, a sleazy journalist turned private investigator, helped me get into the right mood for this twisted tale of corruption, power games, sexual exploitation, betrayals and dark secrets that poison the lives of the innocent.
[as an unexpected bonus for the 2023 reader, over the proceedings hangs the threat of Rudy Giuliani from the time he was the most feared attorney in the city, before becoming the sorry clown he is today]
In the words of that old drunk reporter I once knew, it’s all one story
This is a statement from Porter Wren, investigative reporter and popular columnist at one of the city’s tabloids, the one that reminded me of ‘The Naked City’. Porter, a farmer boy from Midwest, has become a cynic after witnessing the worse humanity has to offer in nightly crime reports where he mines the data for one more sob story, for one more special angle to turn into something his readership can feel good or angry about.
Porter Wren is on the beat every day, feeling dirty and cheap, selling his empathy in order to put food on the table for his wife and kids. His column is celebrated from the highest to the lowest nooks in town, yet he feels dirty, a sellout. He is also threatened by the new journalism at the dawn of the internet era.
They expect a commodity of cheap ink and cheap sensation, and they get it.
I actually finished the story a couple of months ago, and I struggle a little to remember all the details of the intricate plot, but most of my notes are about these sort of remarks from Porter Wren. For me, pulp fiction succeeds or not on the strength of the voice who takes us down the mean streets and less on the actual plot. Colin Harrison is a new author for me, but I liked what he did here, using stock characters and situations, yet managing the atmosphere and the genre conventions like a pro.
How could I believe that what I did had any importance? No one really learned anything, no one was wiser, no one was saved. Do newspapers even matter anymore?
... we live in a time in which all horror has been commodified into entertainment.
>>><<<>>><<<
I got another crazy story for you, pal. See if you believe this one.
The actual story here? Porter Wren is seduced at a publisher’s party by a femme fatale, a beautiful widow who wants him to investigate the murder of her husband, a very promising independent movie director, who probably stepped on the wrong toes with his penchant for provocative interviews and for filming with a hidden camera. Hundreds of his private tapes are stored in bank vault, and one of them has led to murder. It’s the one that is missing, of course.
“Just remember that Simon was very, very unhappy all his life and that he was always searching for something, for true life, he wanted to capture truth.”
The investigation leads Porter to construction sites, to retirement homes, to investment banks, to artists studios, to adultery and even to blackmail from his boss, the press magnate, who is himself threatened by one of those secret video tapes.
Porter Wren must find the tapes and the blackmailer before his own sins catch up with him and destroy his family.
This is why people exchange stories. They want to be known. The story is a kind of currency. If you give one, you usually get one back.
The ace in the hole for our investigative journalist and amateur gumshoe is his talent for making people tell their stories, his empathy and his long years of experience dealing with the underworld.
I might have some questions about plot holes and some poorly argued decisions that seem taken more for plot convenience than for credibility: an important piece of evidence is not duplicated and/or put in a safe location, a key witness is not contacted until the case is practically solved, etc.
Yet the mood was set right, missing only the cool jazz soundtrack to put me right in the middle of the action [like that old black & white TV series Johnny Staccato]. The word ‘nocturne’ in the title is well chosen, and my final two quotes are both related to the night life of the Big Apple:
“What’s going on?” I said.
“Burning building in Harlem, one alarm, lady says her grilled-cheese sandwich caught on fire.” His voice was flat. “Man left a snake on a bus outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Cop shot in the leg in the Bronx. Several Nubians arrested on suspicion of being suspicious. Let’s see – two guys from New Jersey jumped two guys in the Village, called them fags, the gay guys beat the shit out of them. Also, we got a girl in a nursing home who has been in a coma for twenty years who is pregnant.”
... no wonder Porter Wren turned into a cynic.
In the streets at night, everything kept hidden comes forth, everyone is subject to the rules of chance, everyone is potentially both murderer and victim, everyone is afraid, just as anyone who sets his or her mind to it can inspire fear in others. At night, everyone is naked. [from Luc Sante - Low Life, quoted by Harrison in the afterword]
... and with this we come right back were we started, with the naked city!
I hope I have piqued your interest for both the classic movie and for this modern noir novel.
"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
The quote is from a 1948 film noir set in New York city. I don’t really remember all the plot details, but I do remember the way the city is made an integral part of the story.
Colin Harrison’s 1996 novel sent me right back to those classic scenes filmed on location in New York. Harrison has managed here to both pay tribute to the original noir ethos and to bring his own story into the modern age.
The voice-over commentary from the main character, a sleazy journalist turned private investigator, helped me get into the right mood for this twisted tale of corruption, power games, sexual exploitation, betrayals and dark secrets that poison the lives of the innocent.
[as an unexpected bonus for the 2023 reader, over the proceedings hangs the threat of Rudy Giuliani from the time he was the most feared attorney in the city, before becoming the sorry clown he is today]
In the words of that old drunk reporter I once knew, it’s all one story
This is a statement from Porter Wren, investigative reporter and popular columnist at one of the city’s tabloids, the one that reminded me of ‘The Naked City’. Porter, a farmer boy from Midwest, has become a cynic after witnessing the worse humanity has to offer in nightly crime reports where he mines the data for one more sob story, for one more special angle to turn into something his readership can feel good or angry about.
Porter Wren is on the beat every day, feeling dirty and cheap, selling his empathy in order to put food on the table for his wife and kids. His column is celebrated from the highest to the lowest nooks in town, yet he feels dirty, a sellout. He is also threatened by the new journalism at the dawn of the internet era.
They expect a commodity of cheap ink and cheap sensation, and they get it.
I actually finished the story a couple of months ago, and I struggle a little to remember all the details of the intricate plot, but most of my notes are about these sort of remarks from Porter Wren. For me, pulp fiction succeeds or not on the strength of the voice who takes us down the mean streets and less on the actual plot. Colin Harrison is a new author for me, but I liked what he did here, using stock characters and situations, yet managing the atmosphere and the genre conventions like a pro.
How could I believe that what I did had any importance? No one really learned anything, no one was wiser, no one was saved. Do newspapers even matter anymore?
... we live in a time in which all horror has been commodified into entertainment.
>>><<<>>><<<
I got another crazy story for you, pal. See if you believe this one.
The actual story here? Porter Wren is seduced at a publisher’s party by a femme fatale, a beautiful widow who wants him to investigate the murder of her husband, a very promising independent movie director, who probably stepped on the wrong toes with his penchant for provocative interviews and for filming with a hidden camera. Hundreds of his private tapes are stored in bank vault, and one of them has led to murder. It’s the one that is missing, of course.
“Just remember that Simon was very, very unhappy all his life and that he was always searching for something, for true life, he wanted to capture truth.”
The investigation leads Porter to construction sites, to retirement homes, to investment banks, to artists studios, to adultery and even to blackmail from his boss, the press magnate, who is himself threatened by one of those secret video tapes.
Porter Wren must find the tapes and the blackmailer before his own sins catch up with him and destroy his family.
This is why people exchange stories. They want to be known. The story is a kind of currency. If you give one, you usually get one back.
The ace in the hole for our investigative journalist and amateur gumshoe is his talent for making people tell their stories, his empathy and his long years of experience dealing with the underworld.
I might have some questions about plot holes and some poorly argued decisions that seem taken more for plot convenience than for credibility: an important piece of evidence is not duplicated and/or put in a safe location, a key witness is not contacted until the case is practically solved, etc.
Yet the mood was set right, missing only the cool jazz soundtrack to put me right in the middle of the action [like that old black & white TV series Johnny Staccato]. The word ‘nocturne’ in the title is well chosen, and my final two quotes are both related to the night life of the Big Apple:
“What’s going on?” I said.
“Burning building in Harlem, one alarm, lady says her grilled-cheese sandwich caught on fire.” His voice was flat. “Man left a snake on a bus outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Cop shot in the leg in the Bronx. Several Nubians arrested on suspicion of being suspicious. Let’s see – two guys from New Jersey jumped two guys in the Village, called them fags, the gay guys beat the shit out of them. Also, we got a girl in a nursing home who has been in a coma for twenty years who is pregnant.”
... no wonder Porter Wren turned into a cynic.
In the streets at night, everything kept hidden comes forth, everyone is subject to the rules of chance, everyone is potentially both murderer and victim, everyone is afraid, just as anyone who sets his or her mind to it can inspire fear in others. At night, everyone is naked. [from Luc Sante - Low Life, quoted by Harrison in the afterword]
... and with this we come right back were we started, with the naked city!
I hope I have piqued your interest for both the classic movie and for this modern noir novel.
April 15, 2012
I can't say I was much surprised when I read the author bio on the inside back cover of "Manhattan Nocturne" and learned that Colin Harrison is (or was) an editor at Harper's Magazine. That would explain the novel's artificial air of arty-fartiness and the cover blurbs from Thom Jones and David Foster Wallace (not exactly household names in the world of crime fiction). Noir is a subgenre born of desperation, despair and starvation. "Nocturne" feels more like slumming yuppie scum: "I have stood in any number of foreboding places, including a piss-scented holding cell in Rikers Island and a pauper's grave in Potter's Field, but never had I ascended, underground, to such a dwelling." Whoa, careful there, Chauncey, you wouldn't wanna be late for teatime with Muffy. The pretense at depth continues through explicit sex scenes so ludicrous they make Penthouse Forum read like Dostoevsky: "I think that when we have sex, those corpses are always projected there on the walls of the imagination, dropping limply and heartbreakingly into the mass grave of time. Yes, I am sure of this." Harrison writes a competent -- if insufferably bloated and flabby -- thriller, but it's an annoyingly fake novel, an ersatz view of mean streets from the perspective of a penthouse cocktail party. Everyone hates a tourist. A poseur is worse.
January 18, 2014
I actually really liked Harrison's writing style...hm...what else can I say that was positive about this book? Not much. The plot just wasn't there for me, and I know you weren't supposed to necessarily "like" the protagonist, but I still would have liked to not be completely appalled by him. It wasn't even the cheating thing (well, it wasn't entirely the cheating thing). It had a lot to do with how he went about his day to day life as well.
I was hoping for some redeeming quality in this man's thought process, but the most I could come up with was the fact that he never blamed his wife for the affair. The whole him explaining the difference between sex with his wife and sex with his mistress *rolls eyes* whatever.
You might be asking right about now, if I didn't just hate him because of him cheating, why do I keep going on about it? Well, the answer to that it because; SO MUCH OF THE BOOK IS ABOUT THE AFFAIR!! It was hard to remember the fact that you're supposed to be trying to figure out what happened to his mistress' husband. So two stars, and that's being generous, considering how ridiculous the premise of this book is.
I was hoping for some redeeming quality in this man's thought process, but the most I could come up with was the fact that he never blamed his wife for the affair. The whole him explaining the difference between sex with his wife and sex with his mistress *rolls eyes* whatever.
You might be asking right about now, if I didn't just hate him because of him cheating, why do I keep going on about it? Well, the answer to that it because; SO MUCH OF THE BOOK IS ABOUT THE AFFAIR!! It was hard to remember the fact that you're supposed to be trying to figure out what happened to his mistress' husband. So two stars, and that's being generous, considering how ridiculous the premise of this book is.
July 3, 2016
I am not going to finish this book. The writing is heavy-handed and the plot is not very believable or compelling so far, and it's all very male. I've enjoyed other books by Colin Harrison but this one is not for me.
February 1, 2014
Great modern NYC noir. Harrison probably wrote one of my all time favorites, The Havana Room. This is cut from the same cloth; not quite as great but I still dug it.
October 8, 2018
I did it! I read a crime novel!
March 29, 2010
Porter Wren, a tabloid columnist, goes to a party to collect information for a column and is approached by Caroline Crowley, a striking woman in a peach colored dress. She invites him to her apartment where she shows him confidential police reports related to the death of her husband, Simon Crowley, whose body was discovered in a building being demolished. No one can figure out how the body got there as it was sealed off before and after demolition began. Crowley was a brilliant movie director who would often just disappear at night to videotape. One night he never returned and now Caroline, who had been married to him for only a year, ostensibly wants Porter to look into the matter. Videotapes become both the problem and the solution as Porter tries to unentangle himself from intertwining puzzles.
She seduces him - probably the wrong word, since his desire for her cancels whatever reservations and fear of possible repercussions he might have. "My encounter with her had in no way diminished my love for my wife and children -- no that is plain enough; the mystery is that my love for them did not preclude the possibility that I might love Caroline Crowley, too, in that sudden, sickening, unstable way that one craves and should rightly fear."
I was struck by the number of reviewers on Amazon who gave this book one star. The common antipathy seemed to be an overabundance of sex. I went to check when the first "sex" scene was and it wasn't until a third of the way into the book. And sex is more than relevant to the characters. There is one set piece in particular that struck me. Wren in lying in bed with Caroline and she wants to discuss the difference in sex between her and his wife. There follows a fascinating discussion. And it relates to death, of all things. With Caroline, he "is not responsible for our future. I am not beholden to you or you to me. It's all here now. It's new snow on the windowsill. Very lovely now, then gone." If you don't like sex, I recommend The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I mean, really.
I have read only one other book by Harrison, Risk: A Novel, but it had a similar theme, the ordinary guy, just trying to get through life, who becomes enmeshed in something big and seemingly beyond his control. The ordinary guy proves to be resourceful in defense of his mundaneness. If you are looking for the superman hero who takes on the bad guys with guns blazing, leaping over several parked cars, while fleeing hoards of menacing apparitions, you probably won't like this book. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a well-crafted suspenseful novel, I would recommend either Manhattan Nocturne or Risk.
She seduces him - probably the wrong word, since his desire for her cancels whatever reservations and fear of possible repercussions he might have. "My encounter with her had in no way diminished my love for my wife and children -- no that is plain enough; the mystery is that my love for them did not preclude the possibility that I might love Caroline Crowley, too, in that sudden, sickening, unstable way that one craves and should rightly fear."
I was struck by the number of reviewers on Amazon who gave this book one star. The common antipathy seemed to be an overabundance of sex. I went to check when the first "sex" scene was and it wasn't until a third of the way into the book. And sex is more than relevant to the characters. There is one set piece in particular that struck me. Wren in lying in bed with Caroline and she wants to discuss the difference in sex between her and his wife. There follows a fascinating discussion. And it relates to death, of all things. With Caroline, he "is not responsible for our future. I am not beholden to you or you to me. It's all here now. It's new snow on the windowsill. Very lovely now, then gone." If you don't like sex, I recommend The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I mean, really.
I have read only one other book by Harrison, Risk: A Novel, but it had a similar theme, the ordinary guy, just trying to get through life, who becomes enmeshed in something big and seemingly beyond his control. The ordinary guy proves to be resourceful in defense of his mundaneness. If you are looking for the superman hero who takes on the bad guys with guns blazing, leaping over several parked cars, while fleeing hoards of menacing apparitions, you probably won't like this book. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a well-crafted suspenseful novel, I would recommend either Manhattan Nocturne or Risk.
June 12, 2011
I think Harrison is a terrific writer. Suspensful, but looks deep into his characters. In this novel, a newspaper columnist is seduced by a sex widow to investigate the death of her husband, a famous film director. In digging into his private film library, the columnist finds critical evidence and the owner of the newspaper seeks yet another film, which has private revelations. Gritty.
July 18, 2008
"Gripping" scarcely begins to describe it. This was my first book by this author and I fell headlong into it. The cast of characters was complete and perfect. What's a thriller/mystery without a good twist? This one's got at least two.
April 25, 2008
This book is a great little mystery. A bit late 90s noir, it hooked me from the first page. A fun read-- nothing earth shattering, but it'll keep you guessing!
May 11, 2017
"May 11, 2017 –
80.0%
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "1:41:22"
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "1:29:55"
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "A Bitch Law
...
Give all pressure
...
SHARE IT..."
May 11, 2017 –
50.0% "1:02:00"
May 11, 2017 –
27.0% "Why you just don't say
"Do you hate me?"
...
Ask that... it's damn good question
...
Off, I am just messing with u and all people..."
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Oh... Yeah break a LEG!"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Isn't it the story supposed to go... like
...
You don't know what's next
...
THey too... and.... vice versa and twice gersa!?"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "But still... why you ask questions in which you know already answer?
...
Dear, Colin Harrison?"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Yeah he is fucked up... but isn't it going the same and for you... dear character
Porter Wren"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "It was like she was waiting him to knock on the door and she to open the door and the discussion to start playing... throw a jack... buy a pack... make a glock!????!?!?!?!??!?!"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "Life Starts and ends with the main character
...
48:36"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "Biatch on PURPOSE!"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "29:22
...
Come on... come on tell me that she isn't flirting with him?
...
She fucking did it..
...
She made it because on purpose..."
May 11, 2017 –
15.0% "Wow... wow...
...
Real life... that's a drop....
...
That's a Deeper Level Drop..."
May 11, 2017 – Started Reading"
...
The movie is amazing and I really enjoy it... watching it... but still there are some glitches and errors and stuff which should be fixed in such novel like this. But Colin Harrison, did not dissapointed me like some of my favourite authors did... he gave everything which he knew... in action.
...
But still Fifty shades of grey can be detected here.... :D!
80.0%
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "1:41:22"
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "1:29:55"
May 11, 2017 –
60.0% "A Bitch Law
...
Give all pressure
...
SHARE IT..."
May 11, 2017 –
50.0% "1:02:00"
May 11, 2017 –
27.0% "Why you just don't say
"Do you hate me?"
...
Ask that... it's damn good question
...
Off, I am just messing with u and all people..."
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Oh... Yeah break a LEG!"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Isn't it the story supposed to go... like
...
You don't know what's next
...
THey too... and.... vice versa and twice gersa!?"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "But still... why you ask questions in which you know already answer?
...
Dear, Colin Harrison?"
May 11, 2017 –
26.0% "Yeah he is fucked up... but isn't it going the same and for you... dear character
Porter Wren"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "It was like she was waiting him to knock on the door and she to open the door and the discussion to start playing... throw a jack... buy a pack... make a glock!????!?!?!?!??!?!"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "Life Starts and ends with the main character
...
48:36"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "Biatch on PURPOSE!"
May 11, 2017 –
25.0% "29:22
...
Come on... come on tell me that she isn't flirting with him?
...
She fucking did it..
...
She made it because on purpose..."
May 11, 2017 –
15.0% "Wow... wow...
...
Real life... that's a drop....
...
That's a Deeper Level Drop..."
May 11, 2017 – Started Reading"
...
The movie is amazing and I really enjoy it... watching it... but still there are some glitches and errors and stuff which should be fixed in such novel like this. But Colin Harrison, did not dissapointed me like some of my favourite authors did... he gave everything which he knew... in action.
...
But still Fifty shades of grey can be detected here.... :D!
January 31, 2012
Harrison's "Nocturne" is a masterful noir, hatched no doubt from a repressed mind of disturbed gruesome and macabre images. The choice of a NYC beat columnist crime reporter as protagonist, is a healthy change of pace from the usual drumbeat of colorful and effervescent squad rooms or private dicks. It's main premise of course is that the character's entry into such dark and dangerous circumstances wasn't predicated on his interfacing with the usually abundant criminal elements of back alley after dark New York, but by a rather innocuous appearance at a high brow get together cocktail party, in recognition of one of the city's power elite. Moral here is that depravity knows no economic or social boundaries.
Set against the geographical accuracy of NYC, inclusive of every walk of life from the dregs to the corporate boardroom and private jets, this book catapults the reader into the most disturbed twists and turns, reiterating the Don Henley message...In a New York minute...everything can change!
Set against the geographical accuracy of NYC, inclusive of every walk of life from the dregs to the corporate boardroom and private jets, this book catapults the reader into the most disturbed twists and turns, reiterating the Don Henley message...In a New York minute...everything can change!
February 16, 2011
Complicated, exceptionally well-written mystery starring an investigative journalist / columnist, his wife and family and nanny; a beautiful woman; an obese billionaire; an ugly enfant terrible, and dead, filmmaker. There's just a teeny bit of soul missing in the writing and/or the characters. But, well worth the ride.
August 11, 2012
Possibly the best noir thriller I've ever read. It has everything you could want: atmosphere of a city, a man obsessed by a mysterious woman, unpredictable twists, keen observation and empathetic characters.
January 27, 2019
Read in anticipation of a trip to New York, and Harrison's writing of the city, the streets and sounds rang true. Was discomfited by the protag who is led by his d***. I don't mind broken heroes but this hero was just tawdry so the outcome was predictable and the story not very interesting.
May 19, 2011
I liked this a lot - well plotted, interesting characters...flawed but not seriously enough to be totally unsympathetic, well written. Overall, a very good read.
October 1, 2011
An interesting story and well written, but a lot of words.
August 28, 2016
Wonderful!Thank you for the recommendation Andrez.
May 2, 2021
Excellent read enjoyed the characters a newspaper reporter Porter and Caroline a beautiful woman that Porter meets at a party. The story involves Caroline's dead husband a film maker whose body is found in a building about to be demolished. I was trapped in the story and didn't want it to end.
hope to read more from Colin Harrison
hope to read more from Colin Harrison
April 18, 2021
Ugh! 😩 I did not enjoy this book and yet, I finished it. I hate that. I hate spending time on a book that is not an enjoyable read and I hate that I have the inability to close the book and never return. Colin Harrison’s writing is exhausting. He can’t simply describe a moment. He has to take a moment that involves the storyline and spend 2 1/2 pages taking the reader down another path to explain something that has ZERO to do with the story. For example: the character in the story is getting threatened at one point and Colin Harrison describes to the reader about how the character understands threats due to his high school days on the football team. Again, no bearing on the story. I found myself skimming paragraphs that were mudane and boring, wasting time in the storytelling. Like the part of sitting to listen to searching for buried treasure...UGH! Nothing to do with the story, which in its own right is really dumb. I’m glad this book was not purchased by me but left behind at some travel location I stayed. I will do the same, leave it behind somewhere but sad that I spent time on it. I did give the book 2 stars because Colin managed to create a character that I loathed, so that is talent.
July 28, 2023
I love just about everything Colin Harrison has ever written - in this case, a highbrow noir thriller that involves a femme fatale and takes place in NYC, like many of his books. Brilliant. Just wonderful fun. In recent years, Mr. Harrison seems to have stopped publishing, which is unfortunate.
July 29, 2019
In the Acknowledgements section at the end of MANHATTAN NOCTURNE, I half expected to see references to the movies BASIC INSTINCT (1992) and CHINATOWN (1974). This is not to suggest that anything in the book’s storyline was appropriated. It is only noting that a convoluted plot twisting upon itself and the femme fatale in a noir setting could easily have been inspired by those shows.
The title, MANHATTAN NOCTURNE, is quite appropriate as so much of the action takes place at night, and even the daylight moments have a darkness to them. The narration by the central character, Porter Wren, would have felt right at home in a classic detective novel from the 1920’s or 1930’s (although Wren’s observations are more graphic). In a way, it is almost an internal monologue about the events that influence the people we become from much more innocent beginnings.
From what I’ve described so far, this should have been a novel that I loved. It did have some issues that dampened my enthusiasm:
* The writing style featured many huge paragraphs (sometimes spanning an entire page or more) that made it physically difficult to read. Many times, I would “over-scan” what I was reading and had to go back to find my “place” to continue. Every time this occurred, it pulled me right out of the story to concentrate on the physical matter of, “Where was I?” Frankly, it reached a point that when I flipped a page and found an upcoming two pages of solid blocks, I inwardly groaned;
* About 30% of the way into the book, there is a revelation by the man I referred to as “the Sydney Greenstreet character” that takes the story off into a different direction. I like twists in plotting, yet I didn’t believe the motivation for the severe reaction at all. As this determines a great deal of where this novel is headed, that cooled my enthusiasm;
* Porter Wren is a widely read columnist. So, the Reader is introduced to many different personal stories from a large variety of characters throughout the book. “Discovering a person’s story” is a main theme ... and a good one. I also liked that, at their heart, even disparate stories can have a common aspect that binds them together. My problem was that unless they came from a major character, they interrupted the narrative flow.
MANHATTAN NOCTURNE has a lot to recommend it. I do wish that the character of Caroline Crowley didn’t so strongly remind me of Catherine Tramell from BASIC INSTINCT, that I’d made a stronger connection with the MacGuffin that drove much of the story, and that it had been physically easier for me to read.
The title, MANHATTAN NOCTURNE, is quite appropriate as so much of the action takes place at night, and even the daylight moments have a darkness to them. The narration by the central character, Porter Wren, would have felt right at home in a classic detective novel from the 1920’s or 1930’s (although Wren’s observations are more graphic). In a way, it is almost an internal monologue about the events that influence the people we become from much more innocent beginnings.
From what I’ve described so far, this should have been a novel that I loved. It did have some issues that dampened my enthusiasm:
* The writing style featured many huge paragraphs (sometimes spanning an entire page or more) that made it physically difficult to read. Many times, I would “over-scan” what I was reading and had to go back to find my “place” to continue. Every time this occurred, it pulled me right out of the story to concentrate on the physical matter of, “Where was I?” Frankly, it reached a point that when I flipped a page and found an upcoming two pages of solid blocks, I inwardly groaned;
* About 30% of the way into the book, there is a revelation by the man I referred to as “the Sydney Greenstreet character” that takes the story off into a different direction. I like twists in plotting, yet I didn’t believe the motivation for the severe reaction at all. As this determines a great deal of where this novel is headed, that cooled my enthusiasm;
* Porter Wren is a widely read columnist. So, the Reader is introduced to many different personal stories from a large variety of characters throughout the book. “Discovering a person’s story” is a main theme ... and a good one. I also liked that, at their heart, even disparate stories can have a common aspect that binds them together. My problem was that unless they came from a major character, they interrupted the narrative flow.
MANHATTAN NOCTURNE has a lot to recommend it. I do wish that the character of Caroline Crowley didn’t so strongly remind me of Catherine Tramell from BASIC INSTINCT, that I’d made a stronger connection with the MacGuffin that drove much of the story, and that it had been physically easier for me to read.
December 22, 2023
This book is so bloody boring I can't even believe it. One. Why do all of the characters sound the same besides Caroline, whose voice sounds a bit more unique than others? (She doesn't say that much and lacks much of a personality anyway. She just seems to be a cum guzzling scumbag gold digger at best).
Nearly all the characters begin their sentences with and have in their sentences the words, "Well" and "You see" and "perhaps" and "you know." Unnecessarily wordy novel with overused terms. Using extra words that really don't belong there makes me anxious. It is also disappointing everytime you meet new characters and they happen to talk exactly like the other fifteen characters already introduced. They all talk like people from old corny movies from the 1950's. It'd be okay if one person talked like that but when all of your dialogue sounds the same then you don't know how to create characters, plain and simple. Seems like the author has OCD and has to keep using certain words over and over again in character dialogue to sate his anxiety but it triggers mine. Like well. I actually should have counted how many times the word "well" is used by a character before their sentence. they're all boring and lack personality, especially the main character, the most interesting thing about him being his scumbag affair unfortunately. Unfortunately because it reads as so unlikable and loathsome and these seem to be Caroline's and Porter's only character traits. Am I supposed to still be on board with the plank of wood who meets the other plank of wood's spouse (they both do) and who then continue to sleep with each other? Even after his baby son was shot and taken to California he's going to keep cheating on his son's mother and his wife and not divorce her and we're supposed to be rooting for these two? I'm confused yet amused at the author's inability to tell a captivating story and create likable three dimensional characters.
They also all seem doubtful of themselves. "I guess," "I think." I don't know why anyone would read this book with that issue alone then claim it's good writing. It's almost like they've never read a good book in their lives. Here I am giving actual examples of crud writing instead of having my poncey media friends write fake reviews for me. He shows off his vernacular almost randomly as if he thinks that'll make the book good. It seems like he's trying to make up for the fact that he really can't stir up much emotion within you as you're reading it besides frustration and anger.
Stilted awkward dialogue and strange responses to things said. Lackluster responses from characters whenever a seemingly big event occurs so you're left not really caring about whatever's happening, even though you're pressing on to see if anything changes and gets better. It never does. Even Porter suddenly acting like a made man in the mafia and attacking a richer man than him with a wire and not facing any consequences reads as super unrealistic to me. He lacks character and I was just not caring about this attack cause it seemed so fake. Then he meets him in a restaurant of Hobb's choice after the attack. I thought he was supposed to be a street smart common sense journalist whose seen and heard it all. How could he not possibly realize that letting Hobbs choose their meeting place could mean his death? It's such a stupid book but truly does read as arty farty and someone already explained why. I guess those types truly can't write. Too focused on their purple prose and seem to lack feeling/soul/realism. It's like he's never heard people talk before and his only true contact with humanity was through watching old 1950's and 40's flicks where the men hitch their trousers all the way up to their chests and say, "Say, the sky is rather blue outside today, Charles. Perhaps I'll take a walk with my mistress down memory lane, flibbertygibbet." So lame. Definitely nothing to get excited about. Best part was when Caroline revealed why she's such a scumbag. Super traumatic childhood, watches dad shoot her promised birthday horse in the head. I felt something there. It was actually sad and it lent credence and background to her character's lack of morals. But that was about it.
Nearly all the characters begin their sentences with and have in their sentences the words, "Well" and "You see" and "perhaps" and "you know." Unnecessarily wordy novel with overused terms. Using extra words that really don't belong there makes me anxious. It is also disappointing everytime you meet new characters and they happen to talk exactly like the other fifteen characters already introduced. They all talk like people from old corny movies from the 1950's. It'd be okay if one person talked like that but when all of your dialogue sounds the same then you don't know how to create characters, plain and simple. Seems like the author has OCD and has to keep using certain words over and over again in character dialogue to sate his anxiety but it triggers mine. Like well. I actually should have counted how many times the word "well" is used by a character before their sentence. they're all boring and lack personality, especially the main character, the most interesting thing about him being his scumbag affair unfortunately. Unfortunately because it reads as so unlikable and loathsome and these seem to be Caroline's and Porter's only character traits. Am I supposed to still be on board with the plank of wood who meets the other plank of wood's spouse (they both do) and who then continue to sleep with each other? Even after his baby son was shot and taken to California he's going to keep cheating on his son's mother and his wife and not divorce her and we're supposed to be rooting for these two? I'm confused yet amused at the author's inability to tell a captivating story and create likable three dimensional characters.
They also all seem doubtful of themselves. "I guess," "I think." I don't know why anyone would read this book with that issue alone then claim it's good writing. It's almost like they've never read a good book in their lives. Here I am giving actual examples of crud writing instead of having my poncey media friends write fake reviews for me. He shows off his vernacular almost randomly as if he thinks that'll make the book good. It seems like he's trying to make up for the fact that he really can't stir up much emotion within you as you're reading it besides frustration and anger.
Stilted awkward dialogue and strange responses to things said. Lackluster responses from characters whenever a seemingly big event occurs so you're left not really caring about whatever's happening, even though you're pressing on to see if anything changes and gets better. It never does. Even Porter suddenly acting like a made man in the mafia and attacking a richer man than him with a wire and not facing any consequences reads as super unrealistic to me. He lacks character and I was just not caring about this attack cause it seemed so fake. Then he meets him in a restaurant of Hobb's choice after the attack. I thought he was supposed to be a street smart common sense journalist whose seen and heard it all. How could he not possibly realize that letting Hobbs choose their meeting place could mean his death? It's such a stupid book but truly does read as arty farty and someone already explained why. I guess those types truly can't write. Too focused on their purple prose and seem to lack feeling/soul/realism. It's like he's never heard people talk before and his only true contact with humanity was through watching old 1950's and 40's flicks where the men hitch their trousers all the way up to their chests and say, "Say, the sky is rather blue outside today, Charles. Perhaps I'll take a walk with my mistress down memory lane, flibbertygibbet." So lame. Definitely nothing to get excited about. Best part was when Caroline revealed why she's such a scumbag. Super traumatic childhood, watches dad shoot her promised birthday horse in the head. I felt something there. It was actually sad and it lent credence and background to her character's lack of morals. But that was about it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2020
Colin Harrison is a writer I’ve been meaning to try for awhile. I started The Havana Room and was enjoying it but stopped for reasons I can’t remember and never came back to it. When I saw this at a book store, I decided to gobble it up since I love New York crime stories.
Depending on your threshold for such stories, you may find a lot to love about this one. This is a genre that hits my sweet spot as a reader so I loved the portrayal of 90s New York, the sights, the sounds, the changes and considering what’s changed 25 years later. Harrison does a great job evoking that era. I get the sense that he’s trying to ape Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities spiritually, if not stylistically. He does a great job.
For the first 2/3rds of this book, I thought it might make my “best of” list. But it hit a rocky patch and in doing so, made me lose patience with its eccentricities. This is a thriller in the barest sense of the word. There are thrills as it reaches its conclusion, but Harrison really just wants to do a character study of this era under the drag of a crime novel. There’s a tabloid journalist, an ingenue on the cusp of aging out, a Ruper Murdoch-esque medial mogul, a Scorsese-esque movie director whose death provides the catalyst for the plot. In the cracks of the story are the various blue collar types that make the city run.
Harrison doesn’t have much interest in plot, he just winds the characters up and let’s them do their thing. And that’s fine…but it also makes the book needlessly long. Characters go on rants that can last up to three pages, and this is a small-print large copy. It wore me out and by the end, which I found to be weak, I just wanted it to be done.
Everything around the book made me enjoy it but overall, there’s not a ton there. I’d recommend it if you have a similar yen for New York crime stories. For all its faults, it made me want to read more of Harrison’s work.
Depending on your threshold for such stories, you may find a lot to love about this one. This is a genre that hits my sweet spot as a reader so I loved the portrayal of 90s New York, the sights, the sounds, the changes and considering what’s changed 25 years later. Harrison does a great job evoking that era. I get the sense that he’s trying to ape Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities spiritually, if not stylistically. He does a great job.
For the first 2/3rds of this book, I thought it might make my “best of” list. But it hit a rocky patch and in doing so, made me lose patience with its eccentricities. This is a thriller in the barest sense of the word. There are thrills as it reaches its conclusion, but Harrison really just wants to do a character study of this era under the drag of a crime novel. There’s a tabloid journalist, an ingenue on the cusp of aging out, a Ruper Murdoch-esque medial mogul, a Scorsese-esque movie director whose death provides the catalyst for the plot. In the cracks of the story are the various blue collar types that make the city run.
Harrison doesn’t have much interest in plot, he just winds the characters up and let’s them do their thing. And that’s fine…but it also makes the book needlessly long. Characters go on rants that can last up to three pages, and this is a small-print large copy. It wore me out and by the end, which I found to be weak, I just wanted it to be done.
Everything around the book made me enjoy it but overall, there’s not a ton there. I’d recommend it if you have a similar yen for New York crime stories. For all its faults, it made me want to read more of Harrison’s work.
June 24, 2017
"Manhattan Night" by Colin Harrison is for mature adults. The narrative is driven by remarkable characters. A detective mystery outside the usual formulas, it's meant for those who have mature emotions and ethical sensibilities.
___The author sets the table with his astute insights for the upper-middle class of NYC:
___"American urban civilization was in fact merely another form of nature itself: amoral, unpredictable, buzzing, florid, frenzied, terrifying. A place where men die the same useless deaths as did the tortoises and finches noted by Charles Darwin."
___Porter Wren is the main character, a popular columnist for a daily tabloid, who specializes in bizarre stories of human hardship. His job may appear flakey and opportunistic, but Wren is aware of his shortcomings. He has a devoted wife, a medical professional, a much-in-demand hand surgeon.
___Early in the narrative, Wren meets a young, attractive widow whose husband died under mysterious circumstance at a demolition site. For the rest of the novel, he tries to solve the cause of the husband's strange death. The investigation becomes further complicated since Wren is having an extramarital affair with the widow.
___WARNING for the prudish. There are explicit sex scenes which are raw and somewhat shocking, although I don't believe they are pornographic in any sense.
___I recommend this book. It's intense and intriguing, a realistic slice of the "APPLE"
___The author sets the table with his astute insights for the upper-middle class of NYC:
___"American urban civilization was in fact merely another form of nature itself: amoral, unpredictable, buzzing, florid, frenzied, terrifying. A place where men die the same useless deaths as did the tortoises and finches noted by Charles Darwin."
___Porter Wren is the main character, a popular columnist for a daily tabloid, who specializes in bizarre stories of human hardship. His job may appear flakey and opportunistic, but Wren is aware of his shortcomings. He has a devoted wife, a medical professional, a much-in-demand hand surgeon.
___Early in the narrative, Wren meets a young, attractive widow whose husband died under mysterious circumstance at a demolition site. For the rest of the novel, he tries to solve the cause of the husband's strange death. The investigation becomes further complicated since Wren is having an extramarital affair with the widow.
___WARNING for the prudish. There are explicit sex scenes which are raw and somewhat shocking, although I don't believe they are pornographic in any sense.
___I recommend this book. It's intense and intriguing, a realistic slice of the "APPLE"
April 14, 2022
I've read several of this author's novels, now this one. The keynote is always that he writes like a guy getting paid by the number of words, or pages. There isn't one thing that occurs in his protagonists' minds, or one incident, or one observation about NYC that doesn't become inflated to huge, or many paragraphs. There's also the constant tone of his character being a "hard" or "tough" guy despite apologetic denials. How did this author ever function as an "editor"? - it's beyond me. It's very "faux" macho stuff, with all sorts of intellectualized trivia thrown in.
But then, what am I going to read during these times? St. Augustine? Joyce? Oates?
You may want to wash your hands and gargle mouthwash after you finish any Harrison's books.
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
But then, what am I going to read during these times? St. Augustine? Joyce? Oates?
You may want to wash your hands and gargle mouthwash after you finish any Harrison's books.
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
September 16, 2021
I had this paperback sitting on my shelf for a few years and I finally pulled it down for a read. I'm glad I did, I'm a sucker for a reporter caught up in dangerous situations and acts selfishly. If you want to compare it to movies, it's a bit of 8mm crossed with Basic Instinct. This book delivered on a lot of the dark, seedy, noir aspects I was looking for but it also delivered some good philosophic reasoning and a few other surprises I didn't expect. Sometimes the author/narrator gets carried away with long paragraphs filled with details that don't add much to the story but overall the ride was more thrilling than I expected.
August 7, 2020
This was the first of Harrison's novels that I read when it was first published back in 1996 after picking it up in paperback at a USA airport (can't remember which one!). I was mesmerised from page one, the writing being several notches up from the crime/thriller novels I was reading at the time. I've devoured everything he's published since.
Re-visiting it now (not sure how I resisted for so long), I couldn't remember exactly what happened in the story and I have to admit that it didn't seem quite as dazzling as when I read it first time round. This could be down to a number of factors, including my own broadening horizons, the 90's seeming like something from a movie and somehow not realistic (I like realistic!), or just the fact that I find myself constantly questioning actions or motives of characters these days, as opposed to back then, when I think I was more inclined to be content with just being absorbed in a story.
It's still a damn fine read, and the one thing that did amaze me after re-visiting the novel was the amount of stories Harrison packs in to the book. There's hundreds of them appearing at any moment and weaving their way into the main narrative as we follow the (often questionable) actions of the main character Porter Wren.
And what a character he is. In fact, the cast of main characters is a rich one and something that Harrison is a master at creating.
It's not his best novel, but I suspect if I re-read them all again (which I plan to do over the forthcoming months), it would be in the top 3, and if you're a thriller/crime fan then I'd recommend you add this to your reading list.
Re-visiting it now (not sure how I resisted for so long), I couldn't remember exactly what happened in the story and I have to admit that it didn't seem quite as dazzling as when I read it first time round. This could be down to a number of factors, including my own broadening horizons, the 90's seeming like something from a movie and somehow not realistic (I like realistic!), or just the fact that I find myself constantly questioning actions or motives of characters these days, as opposed to back then, when I think I was more inclined to be content with just being absorbed in a story.
It's still a damn fine read, and the one thing that did amaze me after re-visiting the novel was the amount of stories Harrison packs in to the book. There's hundreds of them appearing at any moment and weaving their way into the main narrative as we follow the (often questionable) actions of the main character Porter Wren.
And what a character he is. In fact, the cast of main characters is a rich one and something that Harrison is a master at creating.
It's not his best novel, but I suspect if I re-read them all again (which I plan to do over the forthcoming months), it would be in the top 3, and if you're a thriller/crime fan then I'd recommend you add this to your reading list.
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