Love The Stranger continues with the adventures of Ted Molloy, a Queens attorney with a troublesome penchant for noble causes, who investigates the murder of a corrupt immigration lawyer in the follow-up to his 2022 Nero Award winner Tower of Babel.

Ted Molloy has hit his stride with a foreclosure investment scheme that brings him into contact with a cast of shady characters across New York’s most diverse borough, from Hollis to Howard Beach. On the side, he helps his activist girlfriend, Kenzie, with her work to halt construction on “the Spike”—a corporate-backed development project in Corona that would displace the largely immigrant communities surrounding it.

Stop the Spike is heating up: Kenzie spends most of her waking hours fending off smear campaigns and touring community spaces in Queens to spread the word, which she can do thanks to Mohammed, Ted and Kenzie’s close friend, a recent Yemeni immigrant and most expedient cab driver. But when Kenzie learns that Mohammed’s immigration lawyer may be taking advantage of him financially, she decides to snoop around at the law offices—and comes face to face with a dead body and a shadowy figure, fleeing the scene. Now Kenzie is the sole witness to a potential murder. Can Ted and his team get to the bottom of the murder so they can stop the Spike once and for all?

Explore every shady corner of Queens in this keen mystery, the second installment of award-winning author Michael Sears’s critically acclaimed series.

Michael Sears spent more than 20 years on Wall Street, rising to become the managing director in the bond trading and underwriting divisions of Paine Webber and later, Jefferies & Company. Black Fridays was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Barry, Shamus, and ITW Thriller Awards, winning the Shamus. Mortal Bonds won the Silver Falchion Award for best crime thriller. He lives in Sea Cliff, New York, with his wife, the artist Barbara Segal.

About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist based in Toronto with a focus on tourism, lifestyle, entertainment and community issues. He has written several travel articles and has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors and other public personalities. He’s willing to take on any assignments of interest, attend parties with free booze, listen to rants, and travel the world in search of the great unknown. He’s eager to discover the new, remember the past, and look into the future.