A Prudent Man

In Michael Sears’s latest Queens Mystery, a vicious attack from a long-time adversary forces Queens lawyer Ted Molloy to decide how far he is willing to go to fight an opponent much bigger than him.

Never trust a rat. Never corner one, either. When you corner a rat, it attacks. Ted Molloy—disgraced Queens lawyer turned semi-heroic private investigator—has learned this over the years. Problem is, for Ted: there are too many rats in New York City, and never enough space for them to roam.

And so they attack. Kenzie Zielinski—Ted’s longtime girlfriend, who runs a nonprofit campaign to stop the construction of a luxury tower in Queens—just happens to be on the receiving end of it. After Kenzie lands in the hospital, and Ted narrowly escapes an attack on his own life, the pair’s relationship is gravely tested, and both may be willing to make a deal with the devil to the stop the madness.

Meanwhile, Lester McKinley—Ted’s parter-in-crime in their small-time foreclosure business—takes the lead in in the case of a recent widower who stands to make bank from a surplus money case. But his investigations bring him into a world of gambling, addiction, and buried secrets that awaken his own demons, and lead him to an explosive finale on the streets of outer Queens.