Lehane’s 42nd Street Library series feature the curator of the crime fiction archive-turned-sleuth Ray Ambler. Along with his colleague, Adele, whom he shares a cloudy relationship, his favorite bartender, McNulty, and detective friend, Mike Cosgrove, also return.

An attractive researcher has been using the archives of author Jane Galloway. Ray decides Shannon Darling not the usual scholar, a theory firmed up when he sees her with McNulty as he and Adele share a drink at the popular Library Tavern.

His curiosity blows up when a security man is murdered in Shannon’s room and she disappears, along with McNulty. With the spotlight falling on McNulty, the woman’s real identity is soon confirmed. She’s a married Connecticut physician who has a young daughter.

So why is she with McNulty? And why are they on the run from the law?

Believing his friend hasn’t murdered anyone thrusts Ray and even Adele into the investigation. Soon Shannon’s lifestyle choices turn up a slew of suspects that Cosgrove must whittle down, while Ray follows his own threads.

There will be more deaths, a missing professor, and even a parrot as the story unfolds and Ray tests the bounds of friendship to solve the mystery surrounding the deaths.

The personal life of Ray and his grandson Johnny fills out the complicated life of this archivist. Ray’s emotional reticence grinds his relationships into a layer of frustration he carries around, as he does the guilt he feels at not being a better father to Johnny’s dad, his own son. These counterpoints, plus a domineering grandmother Ray shares Johnny’s custody with, add a nice texture to the life illustrated on the streets of New York.