‘The Doorman’ by Chris Pavone

Published by Head of Zeus,
22 May 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-80328736-2 (HB)

It’s night-time in New York City where, earlier in the day, a black man was shot and killed by an officer from the New York Police Department.  The man’s violent death has prompted a demonstration which is still in progress.  People throughout the city are jumpy and community tensions exacerbated. 

Away from the disquiet, Chicky Diaz patrols his patch in front of an apartment block aptly entitled the Bohemia.  The ex-military man has worked as a doorman here for over twenty-eight years and, whilst he’s aware of the city’s unrest, tonight he is considering his own difficulties as he looks across at the streetlamps in front of Central Park West.  Similarly, those who live in the Bohemia are preoccupied with their personal and professional situations with little thought of the violence escalating across town.  Neither the doorman nor those who live in the imposing building expect what is about to unfold. 

The Bohemia is a terrific setting for the novel; the grand old building has been refurbished to provide luxurious homes for its wealthy occupants.  The building epitomizes the juxtaposition of poverty and wealth in the famous and infuses the text with a sense of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ class distinctions and divisions.  The Bohemia defines those who live and work there, in many ways it becomes a character in its own right as it witnesses the comings and goings of those who pass through its entrance. 

Indeed, the novel is driven by its eclectic mix of characters.  Chicky has fallen on hard times, he’s in debt, facing eviction, and, despite his best efforts, must rub shoulders with villains.  Like countless of his fellow New Yorkers who are working hard to get by, Chicky is frequently underestimated and undervalued by those oozing wealth and privilege.  The notable exception to this kind of snobbery is found in Emily Longworth from Apartment I IC-D.  Emily values the doorman’s reliability and friendly, reassuring manner.  She was a struggling artist with money worries of her own before she married Whit.  As the story begins, however, she is processing her recent realization that her husband is a criminal; amongst other shady deals he makes billions of dollars selling military equipment to bad people.  Whit treats women and anyone he considers weak with disdain, misuses his physical and monetary power and is thoroughly unlikable.  How will Emily deal with this and what effect will it have on the lifestyle she has enjoyed and shared with her two children?  

The Doorman highlights the social, economic and political uncertainties of what we have come to describe as western democracies.  The book looks at types of people who live within such democracies, but who have very different life experiences.  Whilst the themes through which the reader views these preoccupations are thought-provoking and compelling, they do not detract from the thriller at the heart of the novel.  Violent death threatens from the outset, the question is who will fall victim to it?  Against a background of beautifully crafted flash backs the plot accelerates towards a terrifying, violent and unexpected conclusion. 

A novel for our time, a super read and highly recommended.
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Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Chris Pavone grew up in New York City and attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn and Cornell University. He worked at a number of publishing houses over nearly two decades, most notably as an editor at Clarkson Potter, where he specialized in cookbooks; in the late nineties, he also wrote a little (and mostly blank) book called The Wine Log. His first novel, The Expats, released in the U.S. and the U.K. in early 2012, was an instant New York Times bestseller, and is being published in fifteen languages on five continents, and developed for film. Chris is married and the father of twin schoolboys, as well as an old cocker spaniel, and they all live in Greenwich Village and the North Fork of Long Island. 

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.