Sleepless City

Reviews

“Hardboiled master Reed Farrel Coleman has returned and his latest, Sleepless City, shudders with gritty intensity. Nick Ryan, a cop and fixer, navigates a New York riddled with corruption and deceit in a story that propels us forward constantly, bringing us to the precipice again and again, and leaving us breathless.”

“Sleepless City is a contemporary take on a 1970s New York cop movie, both a love letter and a slap down of a city defined by its crime. Nick Ryan is a cop who embodies New York City in all its gritty splendor and harrowing complexity. Reed writes the city the way Lumet or Scorcese would shoot it. Brilliant stuff.”

“With vivid, muscular writing that is one-part poetry and one-part hard-boiled noir, Sleepless City is Reed Farrel Coleman at his best. Nick Ryan is a conflicted, cynical, and inspiring hero as you’ll ever find. I’m already hungry for what comes next for Nick.”

“Sleepless City is magnificent in every way. A book you can’t put down, won’t forget, and must not miss!”

“One of the coolest characters I have ever read and the start of a remarkable new crime series. If Steve McQueen made Bullitt in 2023 it would be just like this.”

“Sleepless City is a fast-paced and fascinating look into the moral complexity of a man working both sides of the law. Reed Farrel Coleman is one of our leading literary lights, and if Sleepless City is any indication, this series will be utterly magnificent.”

“Gripping, poetic, absolutely riveting. Sleepless City proves Reed Farrel Coleman is one of our most powerful voices in crime fiction. His remarkable voice and brilliant storytelling, combined with his taut poetic style and powerful understanding of the human condition, makes his novels heartbreakingly immersive. What does it mean to do the right thing, and what are the consequences? And how do you survive a rigged system? Sleepless City is a face-paced battle between honor and necessity, and will forever change the way you look at justice.”

“Sleepless City is an extraordinarily well-written and plotted novel about Nick Ryan, an Afghan veteran and NYPD detective…With crisp dialogue, taut suspense, and an incredibly detailed vision of New York’s boroughs, author Reed Farrel Coleman has written a modern noir tale that will be long remembered. Highly, highly recommended.”

“[Sleepless City] will restore your faith in crime fiction. It will make up for the last fourteen novels you bought and read that turned out to be overhyped dreck. If you’re a writer, you’ll learn everything you would have learned in a Master Class and save yourself a lot of money. As the saying goes, ‘Run, don’t walk, etc.’”

“By turns, thrilling, threatening, and tender, Sleepless City reminds us why Reed Farrel Coleman is one of the most admired and respected crime-and-mystery writers of his generation. In Nick Ryan, he introduces us to a complex crime fighter with a tarnished badge who patrols the dark and glorious streets of New York, dispensing his brand of justice in a manner that forces us to ask: Is he on our side? Coleman’s compelling novel is both classic noir and a reflection of these treacherous modern times—and one worthy of his award-winning talents.”

“Nick Ryan is a great character. Sleepless City grabbed me right away. The characters and action jumped off the page.”

“Sleepless City is urban noir at its finest—lyrical prose written with a straight razor. Nick Ryan is a compelling protagonist who’ll stride into your soul and never leave.” 

“New York City is about to explode, and the only cop who can stop it is Reed Farrel Coleman’s Nick Ryan. Aptly titled, Sleepless City, is a page-turning pressure cooker of a thriller brimming with authenticity and guaranteed to deprive you of sleep because you can’t put it down. One hell of a read. Coleman has never been better.”

“Sleepless City presents Nick Ryan, a cool, complex and complicated hero living on the knife’s edge of morality in a New York City just as noir as you’d expect from master craftsman Reed Farrel Coleman. Meet Nick and enjoy the wild ride.”

“Reed Farrel Coleman is a master of urban noir. His mastery is again on display in Sleepless City, where cop-extraordinaire Nick Ryan makes hard-boiled cool.”

“[In Sleepless City] Reed Farrel Coleman writes about raw emotion, raw violence, raw sex and power, and he exposes the underside of New York City. I loved it!”

“Part twisty noir, part spy thriller, Sleepless City is an incendiary device from the first page to the last. All hail Reed Farrel Coleman. The master has spoken.”

“Reed Farrel Coleman captures the still mean streets of New York City better than anyone in a generation and creates the best-written action scenes this side of Jack Reacher.”

“Once again, Reed Farrel Coleman takes you on a rollercoaster ride in Sleepless City. Imprinting his tattoo of ‘noir poetry’ on hero/anti-hero Nick Ryan, Reed knocks it out of the park with edge-of-your-seat suspense from first paragraph to last. Also, how can you not love a Brooklyn author who writes Totonno’s and Spumoni Gardens into his story? Five stars—no questions asked.”

“Reed Farrel Coleman is one of the all-time greats. No one else writes so beautifully about complex characters who never stop wrestling with their demons. Sleepless City is an absolute winner.”

“No one writes New York better than Reed Farrel Coleman, and with Sleepless City, he’s at the top of his game. The writing is delicious, the plot breakneck, and the characters larger than life. An absolute thrill ride.”

“A razor-sharp NYC thriller from a writer who knows the territory. Nick Ryan is a new breed of hero, working the dark and deadly of a city on edge.”

“From the cemeteries and pizza joints to the synagogues and housing projects, Sleepless City is New York to the bone. The atmosphere bleeds through the page. Nick Ryan is a hell of a character, an embattled and resilient guide. Coleman’s prose hits like a wrecking ball, and this is his best and gutsiest book yet. A marvel of pacing and tension. I only wish Sidney Lumet were still around to adapt it.’”

“Nick Ryan is a cop who embodies the city in all its darkness and complexity. He’s equal parts Serpico and Batman…a compelling character who grabs you and won’t let you go in this masterpiece of urban noir.”

“Sleepless City read as a series of vignettes to me. Snapshots of conversations and actions in clear relief. It’s brisk, nimble, and well paced. Reading how Ryan navigates the cesspit of manipulators will keep you gratified.”

“Sleepless City in a nutshell? Imagine Jason Bourne joins the cast of NYPD Blue.”

“Reed Farrel Coleman’s Sleepless City is a tour-de-force! The pace is relentless, the plot smart, his new lead character Nick Ryan is a hero for the times. Flawed and decent. A wonderful creation. But what really elevates this book is the writing. Reed is a brilliant storyteller and this book shows off all his skills. I cannot wait to read the next Nick Ryan. I devoured this book!”

“Reed Farrel Coleman has created the urban James Bond.”

“Look out, Jack Reacher. There’s a new tough guy in town named Nick Ryan. The best thing about him? He sounds a lot like Reed Farrel Coleman, who always gives readers the good stuff from the top shelf. Don’t miss this one.”

“Unless you doze on roller coasters, there’s no napping through Reed Farrel Coleman’s thriller, Sleepless City. The plentiful plot twists and turns—more like ricochets—from breathless start to satisfying finish, and careen across a New York landscape Coleman renders like no one else. At least as surprising as the story twists, though, is its protagonist, Nick Ryan. He ticks all the action hero boxes—tough, brave, resourceful, relentless, but because he’s a Coleman character he has a core of intelligence, humanity, and vulnerability that make him great company over a single malt, a car chase, or a new series.”

“Sleepless City is Reed Farrel Coleman at his finest, and that’s a very high mark. Nick Ryan is a hero for our times—thoughtful, sure-handed, the right guy to have with you in a fight. Any fight. He’ll take your breath away.”

“Nothing is as it seems in this mind-bending blend of current events and action-packed what-ifs. Sleepless City is New York City noir at its finest and proves Reed Farrel Coleman is at the top of his game.”

“Coleman captures the racial tensions of present-day New York City perfectly and offers a memorable, complicated hero in Ryan. Robert Daley fans will be eager for a sequel.”

“What’s one cop gonna do against a rigged system? Sleepless City answers that question in a blaze of pace, action, suspense, and intrigue, all underpinned by thoughtful moral questions and a truly great new character in Nick Ryan. Coleman is a noir grandmaster, and I hope this series runs forever.”

“This is all just the tip of the iceberg as Sleepless City is packed with suspense and nonstop thrills sure to please those who enjoy realistic, noir-like thrillers. I could not put this book down and became immediately attached to Nick Ryan—a larger-than-life but still very human character and loyal citizen of the greatest city in the world. There are few writers outside of Reed Farrel Coleman who could have conceived of such an individual, and I am eager to see where this saga takes us next.”

“In Nick Ryan, Coleman gives us his most hard-boiled character yet—and one of his most clear-eyed and compassionate. Coleman’s prose, as always, is musical and taut, his plot complex and satisfying, and there’s never a moment violence, either the opportunity for it, or the necessity of it, is approached without ambivalence. Hardboiled literature is about people being forced to make impossible choices. Coleman and Ryan acquit themselves with honor.”

“Sleepless City is a dark read with edge-of-your-seat pacing and winding twists and turns that hold your attention without fail. It’s a genuine story of how good and evil can sometimes balance on a thin line, and how it’s the little actions that sometimes tip the scales.”

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