I read this because my book club recommended it. Even though it's not my genre, I thought it might be a good opportunity to stretch myself, to get myself out of my usual reading habits. I thought it might be a bit like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - enjoyable because it's impressively well written.

But, this book felt formulaic. It felt like it was steady work for the author, rather than art. Like a paper that'd you'd write for school rather than an essay you're dying to publish.

There wasn't much interesting dialogue or plot. We know hardly anything about Carney's wife, apart from where she works. What would it be like to married to someone on the edge of crime? What kind of fears would you have? How would you know your husband was still alive, day after day? What if you couldn't reach him? Now that would be interesting.

I did really like the details of the neighborhood and the people who lived there. The author must have done a tremendous amount of research. But, the details couldn't really make up for the lack of plot and thin characters.

Edit: I wonder if telling this in the first person might have really improved things. The info dumps of research would have to go, because Carney doesn't seem like someone focused on history. Also, Carney as an unreliable narrator might have created more interest (is Freddie a bum or a victim? Is Carney being fair to him?). The kind of thing I'm looking for is detailed scenes from his perspective: "when I said I was going to be headed out for a bit, Elizabeth set down her glass very slowly, but didn't say anything." Something that indicates there's tension, without directly saying "if my wife finds out about this, she's going to leave me". The book actually does say this directly :(