I really wanted to like this one but it just did not work for me. Too much random dialogue with not a lot happening.

An Honest Living is anything but! A lawyer turned private investigator is asked to find out if a husband is selling his wife's rare book collection. The wife turns out not to be the wife and the real wife is a famous author. The setting in New York is fun, but the plot twists a bit too much.

This was not for me. I think Murphy is talented and I love CrimeReads.com, which he edits. I think this title might be accurately described as a love letter to New York and to noir and, even, to books. But there is too much internal dialogue, too much exposition (even if clearly and elegantly relayed) and too little plot to maintain my interest.

An Honest Living begins with a familiar noir trope— our unnamed protagonist is approached by a mysterious woman named Anna Reddick asking for help in exchange for ten thousand dollars. She wants her husband found with evidence of his wrongdoing (selling her rare books). What looks like an easy case transforms into something else entirely when the real Anna Reddick shows up.

When trying to describe this book to friends, the best I could do was to call it a noir detective novel with a Seinfeld feel— not the absurd humor from Seinfeld but rather the sense of nihilism that permeated the early aughts. It's also a charming love letter to New York. It makes for a enjoyable, smart, rather circuitous read.

Neo-noir meets a New York summer in this captivating debut, where no-one is quite what they seem, and secrets lurk around every corner.

It’s a classic opening – a woman walks into a lawyer’s office, promising a case too easy and too well-paid to be true; catch her husband trying to sell any of her book collection, provide proof, receive fifteen thousand dollars for just a few hours of work. Somehow, though, it all comes off without a hitch, the money and evidence switch hands, and it begins to look like this will be a very short book. Luckily for readers, it is, of course, only the beginning of the story.

I found An Honest Living entirely compelling; post-pandemic I have struggled to sit down and read for long periods, but when it came to this book I lost track of time again. Our protagonist is nameless and genderless – though the blurb refers to the lawyer as male, there’s no such reference in the novel itself. But far from a shapeless reader-insert, I found them to be an interesting and very well-developed character, one I liked and one whose head was a fascinating place to spend time in.

This is a novel where the journey is the point, rather than the ending. Readers who are familiar with the movie Chinatown will recognize some plot beats, but rest assured – it’s intentional, done as homage and acknowledged in the text. The sense of atmosphere is second to none, and the feeling of those sweltering summer days provides the perfect counterpoint to the darkness of the central investigation.

An Honest Living is an impressive debut, one that serves as a love letter to New York and the noir genre – and establishes the author as a talent for readers to look out for.

If bookseller noir is more to your liking, An Honest Living (Viking, $26) by Dwyer Murphy, editor-in-chief of CrimeReads, hits all the right notes. A recovering lawyer turned private eye is hired to find proof that Newton Reddick, a prominent book dealer and member of the Poquelin club of “old bookmen,” is stealing rare books from his wife, a famous novelist. But then Reddick dies, and it looks like a bizarre set-up. A larger biblio-mystery involving stolen identities and murder trial pamphlets is afoot. Set in New York City in the early 2000s, the characters conjure the murk and grit of the city then, even as it was slowly being overhauled by the kind of real estate developers that turn up later in this smart and seductive page-turner.

As someone who lived and played in and around Brooklyn for most of the early aughts, this book was, amongst other things, a nice little trip down memory lane. It evokes that short, singular period of time, after 9/11 but before the prevalence of smart phones, where the city seemed poised between two worlds, a liminal period of transition between eras. The book is an engaging mystery but it balances this expertly with a laid-back, fun, "stoner noir" vibe that is absolutely a blast to spend some time with. It loves books, movies, and bars-- like all good Brooklyn hipsters-- and the specificity of its references to NYC institutions and culture prove its bona fides. A must-read for anyone who has ever complained that they loved something when it was still underground-- and I mean that in the most loving, generous way possible. =)

This short, quirky book is a quick reading experience, but that doesn't detract from an entertaining and insightful reading experience. With a big part of the plot dealing with rare books and collectors, it's a mystery that's well suited to book lovers. Set in the early 2000s, it feels oddly jarring at times to realize that while it's stylistically old-fashioned, it's not that long ago- just long enough that the main character, a lawyer functioning, essentially, as a reluctant private detective, can't rely on a quick Google to solve his cases.

Dwyer Murphy's An Honest Living is a really interesting book that feels like vintage Elmore Leonard. More than once I got vibes of books like Unknown Man No. 89 and Get Shorty as I was reading this book and I look forward to what Dwyer Murphy brings to the table next.

Like the previously mentioned reference to Elmore Leonard, Dwyer Murphy is a master of the craft of writing a solid PI novel. I was immediately drawn in to the main character's life. As a librarian I was immediately fascinated with the rare books subculture depicted in this book and was drawn into the subterfuge of this community. Murphy has created a fantastic depiction of that odd world of rare books in this book and even at it's most odd, it feels real and that's no small feat.

The other element that Murphy hits out of the park is his fantastic supporting cast. The main character is fantastic but the supporting cast pulls the weight of the book (as any good PI/Noir novel should). Most are outlandish and nearly all of them are very memorable and I'll be reading Murphy's books for a long time if his books continue to offer as great supporting casts in the future.

How funny that fictive Noir - that place of dark streets and jangling desk phones and meeting in person - can now be ascribed to such a time period as “pre smart phone / post 9-11” as it is in this novel. Times changed!