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Michael Cassidy #1
Night Life
Night Life first of a transporting historical crime fiction series from David C. Taylor.
New York City in 1954. The Cold War is heating up. Senator Joe McCarthy is running a witch hunt for Communists in America. The newly formed CIA is fighting a turf battle with the FBI to see who will be the primary US intelligence agency. And the bodies of murdered young men are turning up in the city.
Michael Cassidy has an unusual background for a New York cop. His father, a refugee from Eastern Europe, is a successful Broadway producer. His godfather is Frank Costello, a Mafia boss. Cassidy also has an unusual way of going about the business of being a cop-maybe that's why he threw a fellow officer out a third story window of the Cortland Hotel.
Cassidy is assigned to the case of Alexander Ingram, a Broadway chorus dancer found tortured and dead in his apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Complications grow as other young men are murdered one after the other. And why are the FBI, the CIA, and the Mafia interested in the death of a Broadway gypsy?
Meanwhile, a mysterious, beautiful woman moves into Cassidy's building in Greenwich Village. Is Dylan McCue a lover or an enemy? Cassidy is plagued by nightmares-dreams that sometimes become reality. And he has been dreaming that someone is coming to kill him.
New York City in 1954. The Cold War is heating up. Senator Joe McCarthy is running a witch hunt for Communists in America. The newly formed CIA is fighting a turf battle with the FBI to see who will be the primary US intelligence agency. And the bodies of murdered young men are turning up in the city.
Michael Cassidy has an unusual background for a New York cop. His father, a refugee from Eastern Europe, is a successful Broadway producer. His godfather is Frank Costello, a Mafia boss. Cassidy also has an unusual way of going about the business of being a cop-maybe that's why he threw a fellow officer out a third story window of the Cortland Hotel.
Cassidy is assigned to the case of Alexander Ingram, a Broadway chorus dancer found tortured and dead in his apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Complications grow as other young men are murdered one after the other. And why are the FBI, the CIA, and the Mafia interested in the death of a Broadway gypsy?
Meanwhile, a mysterious, beautiful woman moves into Cassidy's building in Greenwich Village. Is Dylan McCue a lover or an enemy? Cassidy is plagued by nightmares-dreams that sometimes become reality. And he has been dreaming that someone is coming to kill him.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published March 17, 2015
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747 people want to read
About the author
David C. Taylor
4 books37 followersDavid C. Taylor was born in New York City where he was allowed to roam the city as a free-range child. When finally pushed out into adulthood, he moved to Los Angeles and spent twenty two years writing for movies and television. He has written an off-Broadway musical, magazine columns, and short stories. His Michael Cassidy novels are noir mystery/thrillers set in New York City during the 1950's. "Night Life" was a finalist for Best Novel at the 2016 Edgar Awards and won the 2016 Nero Wolfe Award.
"L.A. Burning" is a contemporary story set against the Hollywood film industry.
"L.A. Burning" is a contemporary story set against the Hollywood film industry.
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July 20, 2016
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from Tor/Forge/Macmillan. As you will soon see, this has had no impact on my ability to honestly evaluate the book.
I will try to avoid spoilers below and I’ll skip the plot summary just in case. I did include some quotes, but nothing that would give away any real plot. There’s a perfectly good book description here on Goodreads and I’d hate to ruin the plot twists for anyone who does want to read the book. In my review I’ll focus on what I think the fundamental issues are for this book, related to character development and representation.
The TL;DR version is that I was deeply unimpressed with this book. The writing wasn’t very good and the book is rife with casual racism and sexism (could be excusable given the time period if handled correctly, which this wasn’t). The plot just didn’t really grab me—which was surprising, considering that it was full of corruption, spies, conspiracy, and murder—nor did the characters. The background characters are all pretty one-dimensional and fall under standard archetypes. Michael Cassidy is described as a stereotypical man’s man and hardboiled detective: sharp, smart-mouthed, ladies’ man, and tough, with the terribly predictable flaws of not getting close to anyone and a weakness for beautiful women. The one possibly unusual thing about him is that Cassidy occasionally has visions of the future. Of course, those visions are pointless except to serve as a sort of deus ex machina at the very end of the book when the author wants to find a convenient way to tie up loose ends and get Cassidy out of a scrape.
There are two good things I have to say about the book. The first is that it seems like the author did his research on the time period, which is not at all surprising when I looked up the author and found that he’s known for making documentaries about the political climate of that time. Even so, the book is perhaps too scenery-driven; the plot starts to get lost in the background details in parts of the book. I get the impression that as someone who is used to providing visuals, Taylor really wants to get that part right, without realizing that readers can fill in a lot of those details themselves, especially when the setting is a real place during a real era that happened not too long ago. Second, there are quite a few gay male characters in the book and the representation of their characters is less terrible than Taylor’s representation of women and racial minorities. While that gay identity is stigmatized (which makes sense, given the era), Cassidy seems to view those characters as human and accepts them (even if he is just about the only one who does).
There are a lot of things in this book that could possibly work if Taylor had put just a little more into them. The few black characters could almost avoid tokenism if they’d just gotten a little more time in the story. Instead, the single black detective in Cassidy’s precinct, who is a good detective with a heroic backstory, exists only as a sort of roadblock to Cassidy’s case and is referred to by all as “the Nig”—and yes, that nickname is short for exactly the word you’re thinking of. The female characters could almost break out of cliché and stereotypes with just a few small changes. One, a reporter named Rhonda, even laments her sexist workplace and tells Cassidy, “I want to do real stories, stories that count. I want them to look at me and say she’s a good reporter, not she’s a good reporter for a woman. I want the same thing any man wants. I want to be allowed to do the job I can do.” Cassidy’s response? He glosses over Rhonda’s statement to ask why she was covering a particular story. Taylor had a real opportunity there to make Rhonda a good, thoughtful, interesting character, and he lets it go. The next time the reader encounters Rhonda, she’s literally crying on Cassidy’s shoulder because she can’t find a man and he’s “helplessly” patting her back and staring over her head until she finishes.
There are parts of this book that are almost ok. Taken on their own, they started to give me a lot of hope for the book. However, looking at the book as a whole, faced with all the casually dropped racial slurs, and the fact that all of the women in the book are evaluated on sexual attractiveness and are treated as objects, this book is problematic. Dylan McCue comes across as a manic pixie dream girl at first, then a femme fatale as Cassidy gets to know her better. She’s stunningly beautiful, sexy, quirky, and is exactly what Cassidy (and apparently every other man in the book) wants. Cassidy notes all the time how she turns men’s heads, how they’re all jealous of him when he’s with her, and wonders to himself, “Who was this woman and where had she been all his life?” She is presented as a sex object; it is her one major defining aspect. She’s essentially a Bond girl.
The part that truly horrified me is Cassidy’s memories of being seduced at 16 by a woman twice his age, yet instead of calling it statutory rape, he decides that she gave him a gift in that encounter. The reader is led to believe that because of this encounter, Cassidy matured and became sexually experienced. That is a terrifying conclusion to make because SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS ARE STILL DEVELOPING CHILDREN! I get the vague impression that the readers are supposed to be mentally chuckling and high-fiving Cassidy over this episode, which makes this scene doubly sickening; both for the actual story and the response it seems like it was supposed to elicit. This was entirely unnecessary. And, in case anyone questions whether my response is overblown, here is the passage in question:
“When he was sixteen, he had been taken in hand at one of those parties by the second-lead actress of a drawing room comedy about mistaken identity, a lost will, an adoption that no one knew about. She was in her early thirties and clever enough to allow him to believe that he was the instigator. She reeled him in, pushed him back, reeled him in again, sent him for drinks, laughed at his jokes, stroked him like a cat, and eventually took him back to her apartment on West 74th Street and deftly relieved him of his clothes, his virginity, and many of the misconceptions sixteen-year-old boys have about women, including the one held sacrosanct in locker room bull sessions, that women did not like to do it, unless they were sluts, and that they has to be tricked into bed. For the rest of the night, after that first explosive tumble, she taught him what she liked, that pace and rhythm were more important than speed, and that things could be done with the tongue, fingers, and even toes that he had never imagined. In the morning she had sent him away, and when he asked when he could see her again, she smiled a bit sadly and said she would phone, and never did. He consoled himself with the bitter, cutting things he would say to her when he saw her again, things that would wound her and make her understand how much she had lost, but he never did see her again, and eventually he understood what she had given him.”
Finally, in case anyone doubts the objectification of women in this book, here are some choice quotes (with my mental reaction to each):
“She turned away, and when she crouched by the bookcase, her shirt pulled up from her jeans and he could see smooth skin of her back and the top of the cleft of her butt.” Taylor made a conscious decision to have Cassidy mentally note Dylan’s plumber’s crack!!! When I read this out loud to my husband, he stared at me incredulously for about half a minute. When I mentioned it to several of my friends, they laughed hysterically. It is really hard to take a book seriously with writing like that.
“With most women, ‘no’ is just the beginning of the dance. With Dylan, no means no. Yes means yes. Very unusual woman.” Ew. Rape culture.
“He followed her up the stairs. Bless the man who invented tight blue jeans. Ribera was right, an ass to follow anywhere.” Ew.
“Dylan wore a blue silk shirt and a long steel-gray skirt of some light material that molded to her long legs as she walked, and they turned to watch her as she and Cassidy went into the building.” Taylor has a habit of describing women’s clothing and men’s reactions to it. Ew to all of it.
“You came to Shor’s to drink. A couple of pops on the way home from the office, or after dinner at a restaurant with clients, then on to Toots’s to round out the evening. It was a place for sportswriters and reporters, for Hemingway, Ruark, and other literary boozers, for Yankees and Giants when the teams were playing home games, for fighters from the Garden a few blocks over, for actors and wiseguys, and for businessmen who had surrendered to the nine-to-five but were still trying to hold on to some part of who they had planned to be in their dangerous hours. Women were allowed, but if a man showed up with his wife too many times, the frost was obvious and he had a hard time getting served. Showgirls, models, secretaries got some slack, but it was a man’s world.” Way to glorify some of the sleaziest aspects of male privilege.
In summary, there were few redeeming aspects of this story. In certain isolated spots, the representation of women and racial minorities could almost be ok, but then everything else just kind of ruins it. Everything that might have been fun about the book was just weighed down by all that was awful. Even the twists and turns were fairly predictable and there was too much background noise, making this thriller a lot less thrilling.
I will try to avoid spoilers below and I’ll skip the plot summary just in case. I did include some quotes, but nothing that would give away any real plot. There’s a perfectly good book description here on Goodreads and I’d hate to ruin the plot twists for anyone who does want to read the book. In my review I’ll focus on what I think the fundamental issues are for this book, related to character development and representation.
The TL;DR version is that I was deeply unimpressed with this book. The writing wasn’t very good and the book is rife with casual racism and sexism (could be excusable given the time period if handled correctly, which this wasn’t). The plot just didn’t really grab me—which was surprising, considering that it was full of corruption, spies, conspiracy, and murder—nor did the characters. The background characters are all pretty one-dimensional and fall under standard archetypes. Michael Cassidy is described as a stereotypical man’s man and hardboiled detective: sharp, smart-mouthed, ladies’ man, and tough, with the terribly predictable flaws of not getting close to anyone and a weakness for beautiful women. The one possibly unusual thing about him is that Cassidy occasionally has visions of the future. Of course, those visions are pointless except to serve as a sort of deus ex machina at the very end of the book when the author wants to find a convenient way to tie up loose ends and get Cassidy out of a scrape.
There are two good things I have to say about the book. The first is that it seems like the author did his research on the time period, which is not at all surprising when I looked up the author and found that he’s known for making documentaries about the political climate of that time. Even so, the book is perhaps too scenery-driven; the plot starts to get lost in the background details in parts of the book. I get the impression that as someone who is used to providing visuals, Taylor really wants to get that part right, without realizing that readers can fill in a lot of those details themselves, especially when the setting is a real place during a real era that happened not too long ago. Second, there are quite a few gay male characters in the book and the representation of their characters is less terrible than Taylor’s representation of women and racial minorities. While that gay identity is stigmatized (which makes sense, given the era), Cassidy seems to view those characters as human and accepts them (even if he is just about the only one who does).
There are a lot of things in this book that could possibly work if Taylor had put just a little more into them. The few black characters could almost avoid tokenism if they’d just gotten a little more time in the story. Instead, the single black detective in Cassidy’s precinct, who is a good detective with a heroic backstory, exists only as a sort of roadblock to Cassidy’s case and is referred to by all as “the Nig”—and yes, that nickname is short for exactly the word you’re thinking of. The female characters could almost break out of cliché and stereotypes with just a few small changes. One, a reporter named Rhonda, even laments her sexist workplace and tells Cassidy, “I want to do real stories, stories that count. I want them to look at me and say she’s a good reporter, not she’s a good reporter for a woman. I want the same thing any man wants. I want to be allowed to do the job I can do.” Cassidy’s response? He glosses over Rhonda’s statement to ask why she was covering a particular story. Taylor had a real opportunity there to make Rhonda a good, thoughtful, interesting character, and he lets it go. The next time the reader encounters Rhonda, she’s literally crying on Cassidy’s shoulder because she can’t find a man and he’s “helplessly” patting her back and staring over her head until she finishes.
There are parts of this book that are almost ok. Taken on their own, they started to give me a lot of hope for the book. However, looking at the book as a whole, faced with all the casually dropped racial slurs, and the fact that all of the women in the book are evaluated on sexual attractiveness and are treated as objects, this book is problematic. Dylan McCue comes across as a manic pixie dream girl at first, then a femme fatale as Cassidy gets to know her better. She’s stunningly beautiful, sexy, quirky, and is exactly what Cassidy (and apparently every other man in the book) wants. Cassidy notes all the time how she turns men’s heads, how they’re all jealous of him when he’s with her, and wonders to himself, “Who was this woman and where had she been all his life?” She is presented as a sex object; it is her one major defining aspect. She’s essentially a Bond girl.
The part that truly horrified me is Cassidy’s memories of being seduced at 16 by a woman twice his age, yet instead of calling it statutory rape, he decides that she gave him a gift in that encounter. The reader is led to believe that because of this encounter, Cassidy matured and became sexually experienced. That is a terrifying conclusion to make because SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLDS ARE STILL DEVELOPING CHILDREN! I get the vague impression that the readers are supposed to be mentally chuckling and high-fiving Cassidy over this episode, which makes this scene doubly sickening; both for the actual story and the response it seems like it was supposed to elicit. This was entirely unnecessary. And, in case anyone questions whether my response is overblown, here is the passage in question:
“When he was sixteen, he had been taken in hand at one of those parties by the second-lead actress of a drawing room comedy about mistaken identity, a lost will, an adoption that no one knew about. She was in her early thirties and clever enough to allow him to believe that he was the instigator. She reeled him in, pushed him back, reeled him in again, sent him for drinks, laughed at his jokes, stroked him like a cat, and eventually took him back to her apartment on West 74th Street and deftly relieved him of his clothes, his virginity, and many of the misconceptions sixteen-year-old boys have about women, including the one held sacrosanct in locker room bull sessions, that women did not like to do it, unless they were sluts, and that they has to be tricked into bed. For the rest of the night, after that first explosive tumble, she taught him what she liked, that pace and rhythm were more important than speed, and that things could be done with the tongue, fingers, and even toes that he had never imagined. In the morning she had sent him away, and when he asked when he could see her again, she smiled a bit sadly and said she would phone, and never did. He consoled himself with the bitter, cutting things he would say to her when he saw her again, things that would wound her and make her understand how much she had lost, but he never did see her again, and eventually he understood what she had given him.”
Finally, in case anyone doubts the objectification of women in this book, here are some choice quotes (with my mental reaction to each):
“She turned away, and when she crouched by the bookcase, her shirt pulled up from her jeans and he could see smooth skin of her back and the top of the cleft of her butt.” Taylor made a conscious decision to have Cassidy mentally note Dylan’s plumber’s crack!!! When I read this out loud to my husband, he stared at me incredulously for about half a minute. When I mentioned it to several of my friends, they laughed hysterically. It is really hard to take a book seriously with writing like that.
“With most women, ‘no’ is just the beginning of the dance. With Dylan, no means no. Yes means yes. Very unusual woman.” Ew. Rape culture.
“He followed her up the stairs. Bless the man who invented tight blue jeans. Ribera was right, an ass to follow anywhere.” Ew.
“Dylan wore a blue silk shirt and a long steel-gray skirt of some light material that molded to her long legs as she walked, and they turned to watch her as she and Cassidy went into the building.” Taylor has a habit of describing women’s clothing and men’s reactions to it. Ew to all of it.
“You came to Shor’s to drink. A couple of pops on the way home from the office, or after dinner at a restaurant with clients, then on to Toots’s to round out the evening. It was a place for sportswriters and reporters, for Hemingway, Ruark, and other literary boozers, for Yankees and Giants when the teams were playing home games, for fighters from the Garden a few blocks over, for actors and wiseguys, and for businessmen who had surrendered to the nine-to-five but were still trying to hold on to some part of who they had planned to be in their dangerous hours. Women were allowed, but if a man showed up with his wife too many times, the frost was obvious and he had a hard time getting served. Showgirls, models, secretaries got some slack, but it was a man’s world.” Way to glorify some of the sleaziest aspects of male privilege.
In summary, there were few redeeming aspects of this story. In certain isolated spots, the representation of women and racial minorities could almost be ok, but then everything else just kind of ruins it. Everything that might have been fun about the book was just weighed down by all that was awful. Even the twists and turns were fairly predictable and there was too much background noise, making this thriller a lot less thrilling.
September 21, 2016
I like the ambition here, and I like a good slice of the accomplishment. This is James Ellroy territory: a tough cop, ambiguously moral enough to toss a fellow cop out a window, finds himself caught up in a McCarthy-era plot to blackmail high-level government people with gay sex photos. Things move generally well and the characters have some legitimately interesting motives and dilemmas.
The strongest parts here are its pace (especially early as Taylor gets a lot of balls in the air) and its evocation of its Cold-War world. Taylor seems to know his setting very well. A lesser writer might well show that research off, going into digressions about forgotten details of the period. Taylor goes the Ellroy route, though; if we don’t follow the implications of his scenes, it’s our fault. As a result, there’s no condescension. It’s a solid writer telling a solid story.
And I enjoyed most of the story. Michael Cassidy is tough and clever. Yeah, it gets a little clichéd when he seems to be a step ahead of the FBI, CIA, and Russians all by his lonesome, but he gets nicked up along the way, and he makes enough mistakes not to feel like superman. That’s the nature of genre: a tough guy in this sort of situation is always going to seem a little larger than life.
This falls short of the great bleakness of Ellroy (though just about everything does) when it shows Cassidy conveniently being able to help his father at the same time as he supports American interests and gets to give the metaphorical middle finger to those great villains of 20th Century America: Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover. That is, however tough his early choices are, his eventual ones all line up. All the bad guys are on side of the equation (even if they’re at odds with each other) and all the good guys on the other. There’s a loose end we get tied up in a final, short chapter, but there too he gets to fight different bad guys at the same time as defending his sister.
In general, this is solid noir work, and I’ll be open to more of Taylor’s work down the road. I ding it an additional star for some clumsy narration – scenes unnecessarily from the perspective of one of the CIA thugs – and for an annoying late tick where he withholds information from us. (When he gets “an address” in one chapter, do we really need to wait the two pages to be told, once he’s on the scene, that it’s Hoover’s house? Just tell us up front.)
Still, most of this works pretty well. There are still some gems to mine in a 1950s noir setting, and Taylor digs them up.
The strongest parts here are its pace (especially early as Taylor gets a lot of balls in the air) and its evocation of its Cold-War world. Taylor seems to know his setting very well. A lesser writer might well show that research off, going into digressions about forgotten details of the period. Taylor goes the Ellroy route, though; if we don’t follow the implications of his scenes, it’s our fault. As a result, there’s no condescension. It’s a solid writer telling a solid story.
And I enjoyed most of the story. Michael Cassidy is tough and clever. Yeah, it gets a little clichéd when he seems to be a step ahead of the FBI, CIA, and Russians all by his lonesome, but he gets nicked up along the way, and he makes enough mistakes not to feel like superman. That’s the nature of genre: a tough guy in this sort of situation is always going to seem a little larger than life.
This falls short of the great bleakness of Ellroy (though just about everything does) when it shows Cassidy conveniently being able to help his father at the same time as he supports American interests and gets to give the metaphorical middle finger to those great villains of 20th Century America: Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover. That is, however tough his early choices are, his eventual ones all line up. All the bad guys are on side of the equation (even if they’re at odds with each other) and all the good guys on the other. There’s a loose end we get tied up in a final, short chapter, but there too he gets to fight different bad guys at the same time as defending his sister.
In general, this is solid noir work, and I’ll be open to more of Taylor’s work down the road. I ding it an additional star for some clumsy narration – scenes unnecessarily from the perspective of one of the CIA thugs – and for an annoying late tick where he withholds information from us. (When he gets “an address” in one chapter, do we really need to wait the two pages to be told, once he’s on the scene, that it’s Hoover’s house? Just tell us up front.)
Still, most of this works pretty well. There are still some gems to mine in a 1950s noir setting, and Taylor digs them up.
August 1, 2016
I have a soft spot in my head for Noir, and I read a lot of classic as well neo. But it's hard to find something fresh and innovative. That's what made Taylor's book such a pleasant surprise.
First of all, it's a spinoff sub-genre, more along the lines of retro-noir (is that even a category?) Set in 1950s New York during the heyday of the McCarthy Red Scare, the characters are unusually well developed and the plotting a combination of flashback and present narrative time.
In the beginning, the story establishes what initially seems to be stereotypical characters, including the hard-boiled police detective who's the silent type and subject to the requisite number of poundings, the femme fatale, and a number of standard henchmen and villain types. It's also replete with the jargon of tough talk so typical of noir.
But what makes this novel stand out is the way Taylor weaves story with character along with subtle commentary on the politics of the Cold War. However, what really surprised me is the way the novel doesn't neatly tie up at the end, suggesting rather than insisting on a possible satisfying conclusion that invites the reader to finish what may happen.
This one is a real cut above standard Noir tales, and highly recommended for those who love genre but demand the extra effort by an author to twist the tropes into something fresher than the standard fare.
First of all, it's a spinoff sub-genre, more along the lines of retro-noir (is that even a category?) Set in 1950s New York during the heyday of the McCarthy Red Scare, the characters are unusually well developed and the plotting a combination of flashback and present narrative time.
In the beginning, the story establishes what initially seems to be stereotypical characters, including the hard-boiled police detective who's the silent type and subject to the requisite number of poundings, the femme fatale, and a number of standard henchmen and villain types. It's also replete with the jargon of tough talk so typical of noir.
But what makes this novel stand out is the way Taylor weaves story with character along with subtle commentary on the politics of the Cold War. However, what really surprised me is the way the novel doesn't neatly tie up at the end, suggesting rather than insisting on a possible satisfying conclusion that invites the reader to finish what may happen.
This one is a real cut above standard Noir tales, and highly recommended for those who love genre but demand the extra effort by an author to twist the tropes into something fresher than the standard fare.
July 2, 2025
For me, hard to get into or hold my interest as pace was slow. Multiple characters to keep track of, none of them particularly endearing or likable.
First time reading this author, but unmotivated to try anything again in the near future.
First time reading this author, but unmotivated to try anything again in the near future.
February 15, 2016
If this book were a film I would describe this as Film Noir. Is there such a term as Book Noir? I don’t know, but Noir is the best way for me to describe the feeling of how this book was written. The setting is post World Wars, when the government played on the fear of its citizens going on communist witch hunts. Speakeasy’s were commonplace, and jazz music was popular. The story follows a cop, Michael Cassidy, who is as deeply layered as the city of New York was at that time. An ex-soldier, Cassidy came home from the war restless and found his calling as a cop, instead of following his family into show business. Cassidy’s current case where a man has been tortured to death, takes him on a journey of self discovery, where his personal life becomes the impetus to solving this crime. Clues lead him backstage on Broadway, and directly into the path of one of the governments Communist witch hunters.
David C. Taylor did an amazing job of setting the scene and giving us a backstage look into an era that most of us only know of from the movies. He breaks down the glamour of Broadway, the grittiness of the jazz clubs, and the day to day aspects of the people who live in that time by giving us a flawed protagonist to follow. Michael Cassidy, living in the 1950’s, has the same issues as those of us in the 2000’s. He doesn’t have a lot of respect for authority, has a bad temper, and has a great love for his family, even though they don’t always get along. Taylor also gives us insights into the beginnings of the FBI, it’s relationship, or lack of one with the CIA, and the fallacies of our law enforcement and government at that time.
I read this book and was riveted by the era, taken by the man- Michael Cassidy, and enveloped by the mystery he was unraveling. Pick this book up, you won’t be disappointed!
David C. Taylor did an amazing job of setting the scene and giving us a backstage look into an era that most of us only know of from the movies. He breaks down the glamour of Broadway, the grittiness of the jazz clubs, and the day to day aspects of the people who live in that time by giving us a flawed protagonist to follow. Michael Cassidy, living in the 1950’s, has the same issues as those of us in the 2000’s. He doesn’t have a lot of respect for authority, has a bad temper, and has a great love for his family, even though they don’t always get along. Taylor also gives us insights into the beginnings of the FBI, it’s relationship, or lack of one with the CIA, and the fallacies of our law enforcement and government at that time.
I read this book and was riveted by the era, taken by the man- Michael Cassidy, and enveloped by the mystery he was unraveling. Pick this book up, you won’t be disappointed!
October 12, 2018
None of my GR friends have read this book! You should. It was really good. Well written & gritty. That's what I was looking for, but I wasn't sure until I'd read through some of the community reviews.
The deciding factor was a 1 star review that didn't like the casual racism & sexism. Of course it had both! It accurately described the times. It's a reminder of how bad the good old days of the 1950s really were. All it took was getting on the wrong side of the cops or Commie scare. The authoritarian power of the police, McCarthy, & Hoover was scary, even if you were a straight, white guy. If you weren't then you were really screwed by them & society at large.
The 1 star reviewer was also horrified by Cassidy's brief, fond memory of a one-night stand when he was 16 with a woman twice his age. The reviewer calls it rape. I have similar memories, but it was a weekend & I still remember her fondly. I'm sure most of the ladies I slept with afterward owe her a good deal, too. There's sex ed & educational (enjoyable!) sex. I know that's not a popular point of view today, but I've known a few other guys who had the pleasure & a lot more that wished they had. Must be a guy thing. I recently saw a good-looking teacher got arrested for having sex with one of her students. All the female posts thought it was horrible. About half the male posts said they wished she'd been their teacher. Anyway, it was another realistic point in the book's favor as far as I was concerned.
There were a lot of twists, turns, & corruption at all levels. It did go a bit overboard at times, but that was OK. There's also a bit of a paranormal twist to it. Cassidy has these dreams... It wasn't over done & created an interesting bit of atmosphere that distinctly separates it from the norm.
Well narrated. I'll be interested in reading more.
The deciding factor was a 1 star review that didn't like the casual racism & sexism. Of course it had both! It accurately described the times. It's a reminder of how bad the good old days of the 1950s really were. All it took was getting on the wrong side of the cops or Commie scare. The authoritarian power of the police, McCarthy, & Hoover was scary, even if you were a straight, white guy. If you weren't then you were really screwed by them & society at large.
The 1 star reviewer was also horrified by Cassidy's brief, fond memory of a one-night stand when he was 16 with a woman twice his age. The reviewer calls it rape. I have similar memories, but it was a weekend & I still remember her fondly. I'm sure most of the ladies I slept with afterward owe her a good deal, too. There's sex ed & educational (enjoyable!) sex. I know that's not a popular point of view today, but I've known a few other guys who had the pleasure & a lot more that wished they had. Must be a guy thing. I recently saw a good-looking teacher got arrested for having sex with one of her students. All the female posts thought it was horrible. About half the male posts said they wished she'd been their teacher. Anyway, it was another realistic point in the book's favor as far as I was concerned.
There were a lot of twists, turns, & corruption at all levels. It did go a bit overboard at times, but that was OK. There's also a bit of a paranormal twist to it. Cassidy has these dreams... It wasn't over done & created an interesting bit of atmosphere that distinctly separates it from the norm.
Well narrated. I'll be interested in reading more.
December 10, 2015
Like reading a film noir. This book was complicated with lots of twists. Reading about the McCarthy trials made me realized how American fears unfortunately haven't changed much since that time.
February 11, 2016
Crackling dialogue, fantastic attention to period detail, beautifully written, constructed and with superb pacing. This is a book to read, enjoy, and if you're a writer, to study.
April 3, 2016
Fast paced police thriller that accurately reflects its 1954 time period. Includes crooked cops, the Communist threat, involvement with the McCarthy hearings, sexism, racism, and the grit of the city. The only character that had any dimension was the central protagonist, Michael Cassidy, who came across as out to save the city.
The book read like a television show, no surprise when you read the brief author blurb on the jacket. Some parts of the plot and action were predictable, especially for those of us who grew up on 1950s/'60s cop shows. Some of the dialogue was cliched and characters stereotyped. To enjoy it you have to suspend your modern day social mores. If I have time and am looking for something light to fill my time in lieu of TV I will probably check out the next book in the series.
June 8, 2016
The first Michael Cassidy adventure by David C. Taylor is like a throwback to the thrillers of the 50s and 60s. And that's a good thing. Taylor evokes the New York of the 50s with a clarity that seems like a travelogue. The smoke, the jazz, the rigors of the streets are all brought alive in this crime novel about murder, blackmail, corruption, and dark secrets. Cassidy may seem at first like he stepped out of a Spillane novel, the knight of justice in a police corps of callous indifference, but as we learn more about his odd upbringing, he becomes an involving hero. If you like noir tinged with institutional corruption, Night Life is for you.
April 6, 2015
I really enjoyed this debut mystery taking place in NYC in the 1950s, at the height of the Cold War fever, when everyone was looking at their friends and neighbors as possible Communists. This affects a murder that detective Michael Cassidy is investigating. Definitely dark, but great characters, and I'm looking forward to Mr. Taylor's next book.
June 3, 2018
Night Life is the first book in the Michael Cassidy series set in 1950s New York. Told in a noir-style, the story has two interwoven threads. The first concerns a murder centring on a blackmail case involving photos of a very senior figure that many organisations would like to get their hands on – FBI, CIA, mafia, and communists. The second relates to a McCarthy witch-hunt against Cassidy’s father, a Broadway producer and Russian immigrant with a murky past. Cassidy has to solve the former to resolve the latter, but it’s far from straightforward when there are so many actors wanting to get their hands on the blackmailer’s damaging snaps and he’s finally found and fallen for the woman of his dreams. Taylor does a good job of introducing a new character and fleshing out his personality and backstory while keeping the tale moving along, and making sure a fairly complex plot is clear to follow. There’s a strong sense of place and time, some good contextual historicisation with respect to McCarthy’s investigations and trials, and the characterisation is well done, including the use of some real-life people from the time. The result is an absorbing and entertaining read.
June 1, 2018
I enjoyed listening to this mystery, especially because Keith Szarabajka does a terrific job narrating.
The author does a good job recreating the atmosphere of the early-1950's, with witchhunts for Communists conspiring to bring down the U.S. Although I finished reading this before the results of the 2016 election, this was another period, not unlike the present, in which a politician, with a blemished history of recklessness and incompetence, is suddenly catapulted to prominence on a wave of popular hysteria. Making irresponsible, unsubstantiated claims as chair of House Unamerican Activities Committee, he literally destroyed the lives and livelihoods of many good citizens and, supported by Hoover and the FBI, undermined confidence in government and historical values.
To return to the book itself, the story is a little too predictable, and the behavior of the MC, Detective Michael Cassidy, rather incredible at times. Nevertheless, this debut novel was a quick read (listen) and a strong effort. I look forward to reading the sequel.
The author does a good job recreating the atmosphere of the early-1950's, with witchhunts for Communists conspiring to bring down the U.S. Although I finished reading this before the results of the 2016 election, this was another period, not unlike the present, in which a politician, with a blemished history of recklessness and incompetence, is suddenly catapulted to prominence on a wave of popular hysteria. Making irresponsible, unsubstantiated claims as chair of House Unamerican Activities Committee, he literally destroyed the lives and livelihoods of many good citizens and, supported by Hoover and the FBI, undermined confidence in government and historical values.
To return to the book itself, the story is a little too predictable, and the behavior of the MC, Detective Michael Cassidy, rather incredible at times. Nevertheless, this debut novel was a quick read (listen) and a strong effort. I look forward to reading the sequel.
July 28, 2016
Kind of disappointed with this but just managed to keep me from stopping halfway. The 50's NY setting and it's NYC-based characters really kept me reading this. The problem is the way the story plays out is so obvious. It's supposed to be intriguing and mysterious but if you asked me to come up with 3 ideas about 50's American that would be in a mystery they were all here and used exactly as you'd expect. There's just no surprise to much of this. Another problem was that fighting was used way too often achieve a goal. It's not used in some emotional set-up, where you're cheering him along for doing what you want to do to another character, except once. It was just a bunch of punching and kicking. I did like how he would try to remember where he saw someone or heard a voice before that the reader had as well, I was trying to figure it out along with Cassidy. I'll try the next one just because I saw it was set in Cuba.
September 15, 2016
The first one quarter of this book was an incredible presentation of New York City in the 1950s. I listened to the book in the audible format and the voice and words portrayed the place and time extremely well. It was a delight to listen to for that first portion although it could not keep it up to that high standard.
Overall the book had more than an average number of dead bodies and fisticuffs. Lots of action and bodies on the morgue table. And a whole slew of law enforcement agencies including the NYPD and the FBI and the CIA with a little bit of the KGB.
As seems to be standard in mysteries these days, the good guys are hardly ever totally good. Just about anyone can be a killer. In this case the writer deserves some credit for some pretty good writing.
Overall the book had more than an average number of dead bodies and fisticuffs. Lots of action and bodies on the morgue table. And a whole slew of law enforcement agencies including the NYPD and the FBI and the CIA with a little bit of the KGB.
As seems to be standard in mysteries these days, the good guys are hardly ever totally good. Just about anyone can be a killer. In this case the writer deserves some credit for some pretty good writing.
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August 10, 2016
4 stars
A very enjoyable read featuring the NYPD, the FBI, the CIA, the KGB, the Mafia, J Edgar Hoover AND Clyde Tolson, Joe McCarthy, plus assorted other villains and dodgy characters. Maybe a little too multi-faceted, the book is written in what I agree is an attempted "noir" style that I think succeeds in recreating the genre of the 1950's crime and "reds under the beds" period. However I was bemused by the "dreams that do or do not come true" and I thought they were an unnecessary encumbrance to the multi-plots of the story.
I look forward to Michael Cassidy, book 2.
A very enjoyable read featuring the NYPD, the FBI, the CIA, the KGB, the Mafia, J Edgar Hoover AND Clyde Tolson, Joe McCarthy, plus assorted other villains and dodgy characters. Maybe a little too multi-faceted, the book is written in what I agree is an attempted "noir" style that I think succeeds in recreating the genre of the 1950's crime and "reds under the beds" period. However I was bemused by the "dreams that do or do not come true" and I thought they were an unnecessary encumbrance to the multi-plots of the story.
I look forward to Michael Cassidy, book 2.
February 6, 2017
Twisty, noir set in NYC in the McCarthy Era. Very enjoyable and one where I will definitely read the next in the series. I was debating 4 or 5 stars, and I could have gone either way. STill I do try to reserve 5 stars for books that are almost perfect reads for me. I have a few small quibbles with the length and small plot points in the last 1/4 of the book. But they might not bother you.
November 30, 2015
Audio version
September 9, 2017
A Cold War McCarthyism novel with Detective Michael Cassidy on the trail of four men Alexander Ingram, Victor Amado, Stanley Fisher, and Perry Werth, all who have dual identities. The handsome men have professional occupations by day and by night participate in illicit gay activities. When Alexander is found dead, Cassidy is brought in to determine why Ingram was killed. As Cassidy digs deeper, the other three men are killed one by one.
Art and the Jazz scene swirl around the edges of this story. Cassidy's father, Tom, is a Russian immigrant who owns a theater company in New York. Cassidy's new girlfriend, Dylan McCue, works for a metal sculpturist, Carlos Ribera.
KGB agent Rudi Apfel, whose decoy is to run a photography studio, CIA agents Crofoot and Edmond Fraker, and FBI agents Clyde Tolson and Roy Cohn play a dance of agencies pitted against each other. Everyone is searching for something that Ingram had which could be used as blackmail. Then U.S. General Wilson Caldwell commits suicide. Cassidy finds a coin taped to Ingram's locker, but what could it mean?
A fast paced espionage thriller. Super fun!
Art and the Jazz scene swirl around the edges of this story. Cassidy's father, Tom, is a Russian immigrant who owns a theater company in New York. Cassidy's new girlfriend, Dylan McCue, works for a metal sculpturist, Carlos Ribera.
KGB agent Rudi Apfel, whose decoy is to run a photography studio, CIA agents Crofoot and Edmond Fraker, and FBI agents Clyde Tolson and Roy Cohn play a dance of agencies pitted against each other. Everyone is searching for something that Ingram had which could be used as blackmail. Then U.S. General Wilson Caldwell commits suicide. Cassidy finds a coin taped to Ingram's locker, but what could it mean?
A fast paced espionage thriller. Super fun!
October 10, 2017
Michael Cassidy is one of the good guys. An NYPD homicide detective, the son of a Russian immigrant, Cassidy believes in justice and the American dream as much as he dislikes those who abuse their power. There are a lot of those these days. This book takes you back to the McCarthy era and the time of J. Edgar Hoover's notorious files. Back to the days when everyone expected the cops to be almost as dirty as those they arrested. Good Times.
First book in a series. Michael Cassidy is a man out of time, which makes him easy to like. The plot never lags and you're done before you know it. Didn't know this was a series when I picked it up. Glad it is.
First book in a series. Michael Cassidy is a man out of time, which makes him easy to like. The plot never lags and you're done before you know it. Didn't know this was a series when I picked it up. Glad it is.
August 29, 2017
Taylor brings us a fascinating character, in his Michael Cassidy. A NYPD detective in the early 1950s. Brought into the torture and possible homicide of a Broadway dancer Cassidy soon finds himself mixed up in a wider conspiracy involving the FBI, the CIA and possibly Russian spies.
Taylor mixes his fictional detective with actual historical persons, including J. Edgar Hoover, mobster Frank Costello and Senator Joe McCarthy. Taylor also captures the spirit of New York in that era, from the dirty brownstones to the lights of Broadway.
Taylor mixes his fictional detective with actual historical persons, including J. Edgar Hoover, mobster Frank Costello and Senator Joe McCarthy. Taylor also captures the spirit of New York in that era, from the dirty brownstones to the lights of Broadway.
July 5, 2017
Gritty NYC police drama. Kind of standard issue but the references to late 1950s NYC and narration of this audio book makes this a book worth listening to. Our cop, Cassidy, is standard issue rough guy with issues. Investigating a murder gets him into something much larger. Good twisting plot. Enough there to justify more. One or two loose ends are not tied up. And one adventure is a bit over the top. NYC police crime lovers, this book is for you.
September 27, 2018
Maybe 3 stars is a bit harsh, but goodreads 2 star is its ok. Call it 2.5 stars. This is a book written recently, but made to feel old. A true crime Noir set in New York. I did battle at first, the story a tad slow, and it got better as it went on. I listened to this book, and am glad I did. The New York accent and talk of the time helped build the scene. Will I read any more Micheal Cassidy stories? Hmm, never say no, but not in a hurry
June 10, 2019
—Night Life—
Well-written novel with enough twists. Orbital anti-(heroine), Dylan, is a long-stemmed looker. Readership of spy or, filth procedural might like. i imagine, Dylan, mightn't've looked like so.
Well-written novel with enough twists. Orbital anti-(heroine), Dylan, is a long-stemmed looker. Readership of spy or, filth procedural might like. i imagine, Dylan, mightn't've looked like so.
July 1, 2019
A well paced crime drama with a superb setting of 1950s New York in the midst of the Red Scare and Cold War. Detective Cassidy is an interesting character with enough issues to make the outcome of nearly any conversation he has entertaining. The ending was a over the top but did not make the fatal mistake of tying everying up too tidy. If you like noir detective stories, this is noir lite and perfect for a summer weekend read.
October 7, 2024
Past comes alive
The 1950s comes alive in believable scenes filled with the sound of jazz in the background. I read these out of order, though each of the Cassidy trilogy novels can stand alone. If you’re not old enough to remember, then step back with this first one as an introduction. The scents, sights and sounds are spot on, while the story will keep you up until you reach the exciting end.
The 1950s comes alive in believable scenes filled with the sound of jazz in the background. I read these out of order, though each of the Cassidy trilogy novels can stand alone. If you’re not old enough to remember, then step back with this first one as an introduction. The scents, sights and sounds are spot on, while the story will keep you up until you reach the exciting end.
October 23, 2016
A strong classic detective noir in line of the novels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, set in New York City during the McCarthy communist investigations. Good story and characters. David C. Taylor has succeeded very well with this first book in the Michael Cassidy series.
November 16, 2018
A super easy read but so good! I loved the characters! I loved the plot even though I would not have selected this book just from reading the description for fear it was hokey. It's a try-it-you'll-like-it book
June 8, 2020
Like reading a black and white movie about cops, murder, communists and the FBI from the 50's. Solidly enjoyable to get lost in but nothing that will stick with me or push me to read book two and three in the series.
May 1, 2023
This book started very slow, I almost gave up on it. After a very slow start the story steadily improved and the final chapters were very good.
I doubt that I will follow Michael Cassidy simply because I don't want to suffer until I get to the good part of the story.
I doubt that I will follow Michael Cassidy simply because I don't want to suffer until I get to the good part of the story.
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