Something’s rotten in the Big Apple

TO make a “long story short, in an isolated setting the developer has to include housing for the waiters, gardeners, and maids. Something they can afford ... it’s necessary. Otherwise you get a trailer park springing up down the road. That will lower the price point of your units.”

The speaker is a pragmatic cold fish of an architect, explaining to Ann Montgomery, a New York City Department of Investigation officer and the protagonist of S.J. Rozan’s new novel, “In This Rain,” precisely why a developer’s plans for a ritzy project in the middle of Harlem need not include small rental units to aid the locals.

That this sequence has the ring of authenticity is probably because the author is herself a New York architect. But as Montgomery lead-foots her Boxster around Manhattan, determined to deconstruct a smarmy, and possibly homicidal, developer’s plans of worming deeper into the Big Apple, the author displays an equally intimate knowledge of the way things work in other areas of the city, notably its political, ethnic and criminal corridors of power.

The novel is a murder mystery, make no mistake, but it also may be the most Manhattan-centric entertainment to come our way since Woody Allen switched his cameras to London. Its main point of interest is Block A, a hunk of prime Harlem real estate that the city is putting into play. The developer, Walter Glybenhall, whose clout is mightier than even the Donald’s, wants to transform it into a gentrified neighborhood with elegant town houses and jazz clubs for the tourist trade. His opposition is Ford Corrington, a righteous Harlem civic leader who objects to the space being turned into “a theme park,” when it could better serve the needs of locals. Caught in between is Mayor Charlie Barr (think John Lindsay with a shade less conscience) and his dream of becoming the next governor.

When “accidents” escalate at a current Glybenhall construction site and a woman is killed by a dropped brick, the press and the people want to know if it’s carelessness or, as the developer claims, sabotage, designed to discredit him at a time when bids on Block A are being considered. Charged with investigating allegations of corruption and criminal misconduct by those doing business with the city, the DOI puts Montgomery on the prowl. She immediately seeks the assistance of her former partner, Joe Cole, whose last attempt to clean up the construction industry was rewarded with a trumped-up prison sentence. Only recently released, he is a pariah eking out a meager existence while nurturing an elaborate garden behind his rented cabin -- not exactly eager to see her or to talk business.

But Montgomery knows Cole has a genius for sniffing out mendacity and she is nothing if not persistent.

For approximately the first third of the book, her attempts to court his help are interspersed with sequences setting up the novel’s rather convoluted plot while introducing its large cast of city pols and their minions, wheeler-dealers, gang-bangers, construction workers and society gals, nearly all of them, Montgomery included, with hidden agendas. These pages contain a bit more information than is needed. For example, while it is important for us to be aware of the people and events that contributed to Cole’s arrest and conviction, some of his back story -- particularly the sequences depicting his life in prison -- do little more than slow the plot.

This is unfortunate because, while perusing these smoothly written but leisurely paced pages, readers seeking nothing more than the occasional adrenaline rush from a competent thriller may grow restive. They would be wise to hang in for just a little longer, at least until a key player in Cole’s downfall pops up.

That’s when the puzzle pieces Rozan has carefully laid out start to take shape, the pace quickens and the energy level ratchets up and remains high until the breathless denouement.

Adding to the overall effect is the novel’s New York vibe, reflected not only in the loving attention paid to the passing scenery but also in the language and attitudes of the characters. Roaring down the crowded streets, leaving road rage and near accidents in her wake, Montgomery is both aggressively self-centered and tremendously appealing. The same can be said of the city.

Rozan doesn’t shy away from the island’s coarseness and fondness for corruption, but she also pays homage to its vibrancy and hard-boiled beauty. You close the book completely convinced of its dangers and duplicities, but you also may find yourself hoping it’s not too late to plan a trip eastward in the spring.

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Dick Lochte is the author of the Nero Wolfe Award-winning “Sleeping Dog.” His new thriller, “Croaked!” will be published in April.