Publication Date May 20, 2025

I’ve loved Chris Pavone since I read The Expats back in 2012.I loved it! It was an international thriller, telling the story of a couple who pick up and leave the US so the husband, Dexter, can take a lucrative job in Luxembourg. They jump at the chance to start a new life abroad with the promise of a much higher standard of living…only catch is that the wife, Kate, has been leading a double life, with all sorts of entanglements and plot twists. In 2016 I read The Travelers, in 2019, Paris Diversion, and in 2021 Two Nights in Lisbon. ALL were solid 5-star reviews from me! So I was super happy to receive a copy of The Doorman from FS&G and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review. 

As with any of his books that I’ve read, telling too much about the story would likely reveal details that would ruin the surprise(s), and I just don’t do that. So let’s just go with the tiny details that the story revolves around a doorman named Chicky Dioaz who works at an upscale building in New York and basically knows everything that is going on, in the neighborhood in addition to his building. Various residents in the building are prominently featured, and all are “elites” living alongside the staff who work in the building, who are primarily black and brown…and when a man of color is killed by  police activity near the building, things start to look scary enough that Chicky decides to carry a gun to work. (What could possibly go wrong?)

There is action in the plot, and well-defined characters…in addition to pointed social commentary revolving around race, class, power/privilege, and sex. It’s a wild ride, and well worth reading. Another winner from Pavone!