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Title details for The Doorman by Chris Pavone - Wait list

The Doorman

A Novel

by Chris Pavone
Edoardo Ballerini
Audiobook
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"The many characters, who come from a variety of socioeconomic, racial and ethnic scales, are all captured convincingly by narrator Edoardo Ballerini."—The Washington Post

"This novel is way better than good...Cynical, tender, sharp, dense, funny, and loaded with inside dope about how New York works (and how it doesn't)."—Stephen King

A pulse-pounding novel of class, privilege, sex, and murder, from the New York Times bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon and The Expats.
Chicky Diaz is everyone's favorite doorman at the Bohemia, the most famous apartment house in the world, home of celebrities, financiers, and New York's cultural elite.
Up in the penthouse, Emily Longworth has the perfect-looking everything, all except her husband, whom she'd quietly loathed even before the recent revelations about where all the money comes from. But his wealth is immense, their prenup is iron-clad, and Emily can't bring herself to leave him. Yet.
And downstairs in 2a, Julian Sonnenberg—who has carved himself a successful niche in the art world, and led a good half-century of a full and satisfying, cosmopolitan life—has just received a devastating phone call that does nothing at all to alleviate his sense that, probably for better and worse, he has aged out and he's just not that useful to anyone any more.
Meanwhile, gathered in the Bohemia's bowels, the building's almost entirely Black and Hispanic, working-class staff is taking in the news that that just a few miles uptown, a Black man has been killed by the police, leading to a demonstration, a counterdemonstration, and a long night of violence across the tinderbox city.
As Chicky changes into his uniform for tonight's shift, he finds himself breaking a cardinal rule of the job: tonight, he'll be carrying a gun, bought only hours earlier, but before he knew of the pandemonium taking over the city. Chicky knows that there's more going on in his patch of sidewalk in front of the Bohemia than anyone's aware of. Tonight in the city, enemies will clash, loyalties will be tested, secrets will be revealed—and lives will be lost.
This program is read by award-winning narrator Edoardo Ballerini, called "a master in his field" (The New York Times) and "in a class by himself" (Oprah Daily).
"Edoardo Ballerini's masterful performance highlights growing tension in Chris Pavone's The Doorman, a tense portrait of New York City's social and economic divisions."— BookPage
"Narrator [Edoardo] Ballerini skillfully offers varied voices, accents, and emotions in the outstanding audio production." — Library Journal

A Macmillan Audio production from MCD Books.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 20, 2025

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250401786
      • File size: 351260 KB
      • Duration: 12:11:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2025

      Pavone's (Two Nights in Lisbon) latest explores the intersecting worlds of the ultra-wealthy and the people who work for them at Manhattan's exclusive Bohemia Apartments. The chasm between the high-society residents and their working-class staff once seemed vast. But when New York City erupts into violence, the thorny entanglements, hidden frustrations, and secrets that bind them together are laid bare. Residents include Emily Longworth and her billionaire husband, Whit: the perfect aspirational couple, though Whit's ruthless business dealings could destroy everything; and Julian Sonnenberg, an art expert with a surprising connection to the Longworths. Their doorman is the popular Chicky Diaz, who has secrets of his own. Events unfold simultaneously, with civil unrest affecting Manhattan and all the characters. Narrator Ballerini skillfully offers varied voices, accents, and emotions in the outstanding audio production. His pacing emphasizes the growing convergence of passions, lies, and actions that impact each person. The novel's tension increases to almost unbearable levels as listeners wonder if anyone will come out of this safely. Unreliable narrators add to the confusion and heighten the stakes. VERDICT A superbly narrated suspense novel where a clash of people and motivations might have fatal results.--Allison Gray

      Copyright 2025 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • BookPage
      Taxi hailer, package handler, bouncer, greeting dispenser, secret keeper . . . Chicky Diaz wears a multitude of hats beneath his bell crown cap as he patrols the “little patch of earth” outside the Bohemia Apartments. But all is not well in the city today, and he’s going to need more than his calm demeanor and understated charm to protect the building’s well-heeled residents. Today, he’s going to need a gun. Chris Pavone, New York Times-bestselling author of jet-setting thrillers including The Expats and Two Nights in Lisbon, sticks close to home in his sixth novel, The Doorman, set in New York City’s posh Central Park West. At the novel’s outset, the city is on tenterhooks after the cops have fatally shot an unarmed Black man, leading to street protests. This makes it a particularly bad time for one of the Bohemia’s megarich residents, Whit Longworth, to find his fortune-building past as a war profiteer in the media spotlight. On the homefront, Whit’s wife, Emily, is poised at the edge of cancellation, as her liberal cohorts in nonprofit charity circles now see her husband’s business as radioactive. While she is furious with Whit for putting her in this bind, her marriage’s ironclad prenup has handcuffed Emily to him, at least for the immediate future. Meanwhile, several floors down, gallerist Julian Sonnenberg finds himself equally trapped in a failing marriage, with his heart under assault, both figuratively by his infatuation with Mrs. Longworth and literally by a failing valve that could cost him his life if put under any additional strain. And strain is out there by the bucket load, as Chicky tries to navigate around his criminal-adjacent extended family, associates of which would like nothing more than to compel the doorman to be the linchpin for a robbery at the very apartments it’s his job to protect. While formulaic “MAGA vs. woke” tropes scattered throughout tend to flatten his characters’ three-dimensionality, Pavone proves to be a master of deception, keeping the reader guessing the direction from which violence may come. When it inevitably does, it arrives as Hemingway’s famously described bankruptcy from The Sun Also Rises: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Breathtakingly, in fact.
    • BookPage
      Edoardo Ballerini’s masterful performance highlights growing tension in Chris Pavone’s The Doorman (12 hours), a tense portrait of New York City’s social and economic divisions. Protagonist Chicky Diaz is drowning in debt from his late wife’s cancer treatment and facing eviction from his modest apartment. If only Chicky had the wealth of the residents at the Bohemia, the luxury condominium where he works. But money doesn’t grant immunity from problems. Bohemia resident Emily Longworth, voiced by Ballerini in a gentle, sophisticated falsetto, is increasingly disillusioned with her husband’s suspicious dealings at work and at home, but would be penniless without him due to her prenup. Another Bohemia resident, savvy yet sensitive art mogul Julian Sonnenberg, is also facing trouble at home, and fears his family may no longer value him. Ballerini shifts fluidly between the distinct character voices, capturing them in moments when their personal integrity falters, while his portrayal of the affable Chicky conveys the doorman’s emotional capacity as he faces trials and tribulations with quiet street smarts. The intrigue keeps ratcheting up, immersing listeners in the personal and political unrest in this tale of human complexities. Read our review of the print version of The Doorman.
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from March 3, 2025
      This adrenaline-pumping thriller from bestseller Pavone (Two Nights in Lisbon) delivers a lacerating, Tom Wolfe–worthy dissection of Manhattan society in the post-Covid era. The primary setting is the Bohemia, a storied Central Park West co-op where protagonist Chicky Diaz stands watch. A streetwise former Marine who moonlights as a security guard to pay off his late wife’s crushing medical debt, Chicky has seen and done a lot—but nothing approaching the perfect storm of catastrophes that converge during the fraught hours over which the narrative unfolds. The intersecting story lines—which culminate in an armed robbery at the Bohemia—involve some of the building’s highest-profile names. Chief among them are gorgeous former gallerist Emily Longworth and her billionaire husband, Whit, who was recently outed as an arms dealer but is privately known to Chicky as a man with a propensity for hiring call girls who look like his wife. Page-turning from the opening paragraph to its killer finale, the narrative combines noirish atmosphere with a sharp attunement to the particular depravities of ultrawealthy urbanites. Pavone’s provocative look at the city that never sleeps will keep readers up well into the wee hours. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Co.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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