Join McIntyre’s Books for Con Lehane, The Red Scare Murders in Conversation with Eryk Pruitt on Sat, Jan 17, 2pm-3pm. This wry, big-hearted noir brings 1950s New York to life, from the tenements of Hell’s Kitchen to the mansions of Riverdale, from Sing Sing to City Hall, with a gripping murder mystery laying bare the explosive conflicts between its big wheels, its working stiffs, its gangsters, and its dreamers.

BOOK SUMMARY

July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is broke, divorced, and in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. First off, it’s impossible. Worse, it’s liable to get him killed.

Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried, and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution.

Lots of people might have wanted Irwin Johnson dead—anyone from his betrayed wife to his jilted mistresses’ jealous husbands to the mafiosi he was stealing business from. But no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold Williams, and some of Irwin’s former associates are happy to take a blunt object to the head of anyone asking awkward questions. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Con Lehane is a mystery writer, living in Washington, DC. He is the author of The Red Scare Murders (Soho Press, 2025), as well as the 42nd Street Library mysteries, featuring Raymond Ambler, curator of the library’s (fictional) crime fiction collection. He’s also the author of three mysteries featuring New York City bartender Brian McNulty, and has published short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Over the years, he has been a college professor, union organizer, and labor journalist, and has tended bar at about two dozen bars. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and teaches writing at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Eryk Pruitt is a screenwriter, author, and filmmaker living in Durham, NC, with his wife Lana and his cat Busey. In 2011, he wrote and produced the short film FOODIE, which won eight top awards at more than 16 film festivals. Since then, he has written several others, including KEEPSAKE, LIYANA, ON COMMAND, and THE HOODOO OF SWEET MAMA ROSA. Pruitt’s short fiction has appeared in The Avalon Literary Review, Thuglit, Pulp Modern, and Zymbol, among others, and in 2014 was a finalist for a Derringer Award. His novels DIRTBAGS and HASHTAG are available in print, audio, and electronic formats. His latest novel, WHAT WE RECKON, was released on October 10th, 2017. “If there’s one thing I want to do, it’s tell a good story. Horror, noir, suspense…Film, stage, page…To me, all that matters is the story. I’ll tell you one at the bar over a bourbon or in a packed movie house during a film festival. Life is short; in the end, all that remains are the stories.”

This free event takes place indoors at McIntyre’s Books. The space is ADA-compliant. Free parking is available on-site. No pets are allowed. Fearrington Village is part of the Chatham County Craft Beverages & Country Inns Trail. See more events at Fearrington Village.