“The Doorman” is Chris Pavone’s sixth novel and second best-seller.  In 2013 he won the Edgar Award and Anthony Award for best first novel, “The Expats.”

This book is different from many thrillers in that it takes 300 pages to fully develop the complex and interesting characters.  From the eponymous doorman  Chicky Diaz at The Bohemia, a West Central Park 11 story apartment building with a rich history, to the individuals who inhabit two of the building’s apartments, Pavone patiently acquaints the reader with the details of these two worlds, the loyal but poor Hispanic employee’s and the wealthy and desperately unhappy occupants’ of 11C-D and the less wealthy but not much more happy occupants of 2C.

These three worlds collide violently in a pulse-pounding finale.  The build up to those final pages was so intense that I had to set the book aside for 2 days before finding the extended time during the day (Never at bed time!!!) to finish the last 80 pages.  I’m going to avoid a spoiler alert by not summarizing the plot.  I’ll just let you know that it’s intricately and skillfully done; the bad guys are dead at the end as is one of the good guys,; though weird, it does seem to have a happy ending.

This is a great book for the beach, the airplane, or just sitting by the wood stove when it’s 10 below zero outdoors.  Just be forewarned that it is not going to help you calm down from the real world’s tumult.