I’ll be honest.. I wanted to DNF this because I was just bored but I soldiered through it. When I requested this I was excited to have the interweaving of the current state of politics with the thriller genera that I love. I just felt the execution fell completely flat.

This is the first time that I felt like the author was trying to push an agenda onto his readers rather than giving seeds of thoughtful discourse. The examination completely overshadowed the plot of the book rather than supporting it.

The narrator Edoardo Ballerini did a good job with the recitation. I did have to speed it up a touch as it was a bit sleepy but he did a great job falling into the accented speech of the various characters.

I am thankful to have gotten the audio ALC for free from MacMillian Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars and I rarely round up.

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

I've read everything Chris Pavone has published, so I didn't even read the jacket copy before diving into this novel. I expected everyman protagonists sucked into the world of espionage, or a thriller set in an exotic travel destination... And I got something completely different. Something I've never seen from Chris Pavone before. It's a domestic tale set in contemporary New York City. It"s being marketed as a thriller, but I'm not entirely sure that I'd classify it that way. It has thriller elements--criminals, guns--but it's more a novel of social commentary.

The Doorman, despite its title, has an ensemble cast. It's set at a Dakota-like apartment building called the Bohemia. The residents are all very affluent, though not equally so. There are the rich, and there are the uber-rich. Then there are the staff, mostly people of color, barely getting by. There are various dramas playing out at the Bohemia. People have all kinds of hidden agendas. And as the pressure and tension ratchet up, the denouement plays out against a backdrop of social unrest that might as well be ripped from the headlines.

And this is what makes the novel work... Pavone does an excellent job with his character development. There's more depth here than the typical thriller, somewhat at the cost of the novel's pace. But it all worked for me. Who doesn't love an old dog with new tricks?

If you are in the top 0.1%, if your money comes from unsavory sources, if you are racist, you will not enjoy this book. Since those don’t apply to me, I enjoyed the taking down of an evil villain (as his wife describes him).
The main story is of a few residents and the long-time doorman of The Bohemia, a fancy and formerly artsy residence on the West Side of NYC. This is a story about today: racial division, unrest, and another black man shot by a white cop. The city is in an uproar. Does The Bohemia need to hire more security for the weekend? The novel skewers white liberals alongside their MAGA opposites. Everyone else is a pawn, or a rat made to move around in a maze for a little cheddar. It’s a sad place to be among people who want only the best for their kids but don’t spend much time with them. Who can’t imagine surviving on only $900k/year, while others less fortunate owe more in past-due medical bills than they can ever afford.
There are a number of inconsistencies in the story and some actions that seemed out of character, but I was able to go with the flow and enjoy how the author chose to surprise us at the end. The story includes a lot of background material on the characters, perhaps to paint each of them as human and conflicted. And that’s about where I am with this review: between a 3 and a 4 and conflicted about rounding up. It was still fun to listen to the audiobook, despite the holes in the story, and I don’t want to discourage people from giving it a try, so 4 it is. I enjoyed the author’s previous novel more.
My thanks to the author, publisher, Macmillan Audio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #Doorman for review purposes. Publication date: 20 May 2025.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced audio book.

I"ve enjoyed the fast paced, complex stories of Pavone's previous, so I was excited to read THE DOORMAN, a braided series of stories about residents of The Bohemia, including the eponymous doorman. THE DOORMAN was too much of a departure for me to enjoy it; at first the idea of a thriller centered on a tony New York City building, but the static setting ended up keeping the narrative from having the same propulsiveness that Pavone's previous books have had. This time out is a miss for me, but I'll look forward to the next thing this writer publishes

Most of Chris Pavone’s thrillers have taken place abroad and I loved “Two Nights in Lisbon.” I think the author should have kept closer to action packed suspense plots and international locations. “The Doorman,” set in New York City, is a very serious, slow moving, sad version of “Only Murders in the Building,” more a political or class satire with a lot of reflection on the state of modern day racism and wealth inequality. From the title, you’d assume the book should be starring Chicky Diaz, the Hispanic doorman of a Dakota-like upper West Side co-op (the “Bohemia”) who in the prologue is armed for the first time and worried about spillover from possible protests after a Black man was unjustly killed (with no guarantee that the civil disturbance will become a ransacking riot).

But we’re also delving into the lives of tenants like penthouse dweller/unhappy housewife of a billionaire villain Emily and lower level resident/co-op board member Julian. We endure multiple vignettes about the characters’ pasts and their current situations. There is literally no action until Chapter 9 when the board argues about hiring extra armed security in anticipation of the street protests and whether they should allow a Black athlete willing to pay 10% above the asking price to buy an apartment there. Continuous banter occurs about secrets and who’s hiding what, but it’s mostly so frustratingly vague.

Pavone commits what I consider a mortal error: no character is likable enough to care about in order to keep reading. Chicky, Emily, and Julian are all lost souls, each angry with some part of their worlds, but I just couldn’t work up much sympathy even knowing that these are the three people I should be invested in.

Thank goodness for Edoardo Ballerini, a narrator extraordinaire. I was fortunate enough to have access to both the ebook and audiobook, and if not for the well-known narrator, I might have DNFed “The Doorman” at the one third point. Ballerini’s excellent narration kept me going to — at last — the final part of the book titled “Tonight” at the 80% mark. This is where a plot finally appears and there’s enough action worth staying until the end. Overall, in comparison to his previous works, Pavone’s story disappointed me and only rates 3 stars, but Ballerini’s performance is a 5 that rescues “The Doorman.” I recommend the audiobook version if you decide to select this and be prepared to skip ahead. The final chapters are twisty and well-plotted, but it’ll take patience to get there.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Hailey’s bright blue eyes are the only eye colors mentioned.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO There is an acknowledgement about the stand of American elm trees in Central Park that is being defended by arborists against Dutch Elm disease.

Thank you to Farrah, Straus, Giroux and NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for advanced reader copies.

It disappoints me to say this because I’ve loved every book Chris Pavone has written up to this point, but this one, while of course well written, is essentially the literary equivalent of doomscrolling.

I know some people cope with what’s wrong in the real world by leaning into its fictional equivalent (hence climate horror, most dystopias, and so forth), but as someone who reads for either edification or entertainment, this book proved to be a very tough hang.

I thought the central plot was a good one, and the bones of the story had a lot of potential, but I’ll echo other reviewers in saying that I think this got incredibly bogged down by class politics and a veritable kitchen sink of hot button issues, which is both exhausting to read and also difficult to recon with even if you want to do the work because it’s trying to address seemingly everything wrong with today’s America all at once.

Pavone’s sharp wit helps make this at least palatable, and he is, of course, largely correct about the horrors facing the country at the moment. But the book is neither an enjoyable place to spend time nor an edifying piece of political commentary. Mostly, reading this is like scrolling a version of Twitter that is exactly the same as the real deal but without all the spelling errors.