Gritty New York mob plot twists with a Kiwi detective

Ben Sanders returns to exundercover cop Marshall Grade in this excellent New York-based thriller, which was released in North America last year with the title Sometimes at Night.

Sanders has given his bestknown anti-hero a few years off after a whirlwind shootout in 2017’s Marshall’s Law that ended with Marshall getting away with a large haul of ill-gotten mob cash which he keeps – in a ducttape wrapped package – under his apartment’s floorboards; a haul the cops suspect he has but can’t prove.

In the meantime, Aucklandbased Sanders, who works parttime as an engineer and writes nine-to-five Wednesday-toFriday, introduced readers to two similarly pitched tough-guy archetypes – both guarded, damaged souls and pretty handy with a gun – in The Stakes (2018) and The Devils You Know (2021).

But like Jack Reacher, Marshall is a character readers warm to despite the brutal body count he unleashes. The good news is that he’s still the same haunted figure fans recall from American Blood, Sanders’ international breakout book and one which was initially optioned by Hollywood star Bradley Cooper, and Marshall’s Law.

Sanders’ razor-sharp prose – always a strength – continues to deliver. This from the first page: ‘‘He looked like he’d eaten nothing for a week and then driven here at a hundred miles an hour with no windshield.’’

But there are some changes. Here, Sanders allows Marshall a little more romance; he also drills down into his OCD tendencies – a trait that had always been there but is now given more page-time. Marshall can’t push a stool under a table without carefully lining it up to the bench-edge and he also has a thing for doing complex Jackson Pollock jigsaw puzzles in his spare time.

His new love interest – an excop who grew up in a commune and someone who sees ‘‘the magic of the world in the same way he did’’ – is from New Zealand. It’s one of a couple of moments where Sanders’ shoehorns some local references into the narrative. But save for Marshall, the star of the show might be New York City itself. Sanders knows the subway routes, alleys and storefronts like a local and brings the city to life with cinematic zeal.

While details remain a little opaque, it seems that Marshall has been hiding out in New Mexico then skipped witness protection and returned to New York where he’s working on the downlow as a private investigator. When an ex-NYPD colleague in trouble contacts Marshall and asks for a meeting, Marshall agrees. When the colleague is shot dead as he talks, Marshall sets out to find who’s responsible.

A NYPD detective, who’s on his last week on the job, is assigned to the case but it’s Marshall who takes full advantage of his rogue status and gets the investigation rolling. What seems like a simple mob hit soon leads Marshall down a series of bewildering twists and turns: missing mobster’s wives, rural shootouts and one of the weirdest death scenes in recent memory when Marshall fetches a mobster a Tupperware container of Greek salad to eat in his last minutes.

This review was originally published on ketebooks.co.nz and is reproduced with kind permission.