The Doorman

The Doorman by Chris Pavone 

From the bestselling author of Two Nights in Lisbon comes a taut, razor-sharp thriller set at the intersection of privilege, protest, and murder in Manhattan.

In The Doorman, Chris Pavone returns with a propulsive, socially charged novel that follows Chicky Diaz, a beloved doorman at the exclusive Bohemia Apartments in New York City—a building where the rich and powerful live above the fray, but trouble is always just an elevator ride away.

Chicky knows the city better than most. He watches everything, says little, and holds the secrets of the Bohemia’s elite close to the vest. But tonight, as protests erupt across the city after yet another police killing of an unarmed Black man, Chicky does something he’s never done before—he straps on a gun.

Upstairs, in the opulent penthouse, Emily Longworth is trapped in a toxic marriage to a recently disgraced financier. In 2A, Julian Sonnenberg, a once-successful executive, faces his own mortality and a crumbling sense of self. And all throughout the Bohemia, tensions—personal, political, and racial—are coming to a boil.

As the city simmers and the night unfolds, these lives collide in a gripping story of murder, power, sacrifice, and identity. What starts as a typical evening shift for Chicky turns into a deadly unraveling of secrets that threatens to destroy the fragile balance of a building—and a city—on the edge.

Blending the suspense of a high-stakes crime thriller with the nuance of a social novel, The Doorman explores urgent questions of class, race, loyalty, and justice. With echoes of The Bonfire of the Vanities and American Psycho, Pavone captures New York in all its glamor and grit—and dares to ask who gets to survive when the system fails.

Perfect for fans of Don Winslow, Laura Lippman, and Gillian Flynn, The Doorman is a timely, thought-provoking novel that will keep readers riveted until the final page.