White Plains Resident Pens New Novel
Midnight: A Book Review – By Peter Bassano
White Plains resident Kevin J. Egan has penned his sixth, and possibly best novel. Midnight is the story of law clerk Tom Carroway and secretary Carol Scilingo who discover that their boss, Manhattan Judge Alvin Carter, has died while napping in his chambers on New Year’s Eve. Under the rules of the Manhattan court, when a judge dies, his staff gets to keep their jobs until the end of the calendar year. Tom and Carol are now faced with unemployment at the end of the day – unless they can make it appear that the judge died after midnight.
Both Carol and Tom are desperate to keep their jobs. Carol is a single mother who is also caring for an aged mother. Tom is deep in debt to some impatient and vicious bookies. As the duo encounter unforeseen players including Carol’s curious court officer ex-boyfriend, the unsavory enforcer for Tom’s bookie and a meddlesome Court Officer Union President, the plan to cover up the judge’s death quickly spins out of control, reaffirming the law of unintended consequences.
In Midnight, author Egan deftly delivers relentless suspense, cinematic pacing, colorful, well-developed characters and the kind of descriptive imagery that brings this original and clever plot to life.
Egan Kevin has penned five prior novels but this is the first set in the famed New York City courthouse, recognizable from the opening credits of the TV series Law & Order. Egan’s first novel, The Perseus Breed, published in 1988, was a work of science fiction. In the mid-1990s, Egan tapped into his experience as a golfer and caddy and published a three-book mystery series under the pen name Conor Daly. These page turners featuring lawyer turned golf pro Kieran Lenahan, take place in familiar Westchester settings, including downtown White Plains and a fictionalized Rye Golf Club. In 2009, Egan accepted his publisher’s challenge and wrote Where it Lies, another golf course-based murder mystery but this time, from a women’s point of view.
Attorney Egan has worked in the New York State Court system for over 20 years. He studied creative writing at Cornell University and has taught creative writing at Westchester Community College and legal writing at Berkeley College in Manhattan.
Midnight is a Forge Book, published by Tom Doherty Associates LLC, and can be purchased at Amazon.com.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
