雷迪克(Reddick)是一名艺术指导,他把业余时间都花在打篮球上,而忽略了自己的绘画生涯。一个冬天的晚上,在布鲁克林的贝德福德-斯图维森区,一个喝醉了酒的年轻金发女人跟着雷迪克来到一条小巷,请他吻她。他拒绝了,反而提出送她回家。他还没来得及叫车,她就消失了。第二天,他从报纸上寻找笑料,直到一位同事提醒他,几年前在科尼岛有一名女性在类似情况下失踪,她的尸体在海滩上被发现。他开始质疑自己的不作为,担心女孩的命运。
那天,他和一群人一起在苏厄德家(The Seward Family)拆装艺术品。苏厄德家族是美国最富有的家庭之一,也是艺术的赞助人。在他们家,他得知前一天晚上遇到的女人是汉娜(Hannah),她是巴克利·苏厄德的未婚妻,苏厄德是家里唯一的孩子。雷迪克很想分享自己的信息,但苏厄德一家对他怀有敌意,要求他不要联系他们,不要向他们提及汉娜的事,也不要向警方隐瞒如果他不服从的话,他们会解雇他。
他们的反应让雷迪克大吃一惊,他确信汉娜即使没有死,也有危险,于是他开始自己的调查。
随着调查的不断深入,雷迪克发现整件事情的真相埋藏在重重包裹的谜团中,抽丝剥茧后才呼之欲出,调查结果不但撼动了雷迪克善良好心的高大形象,而且暴露了集财富与权力于一身的富人阶层关系网的盘根错节,这其中肯定少不了会涉及到曼哈顿上东区气势雄伟的
联排别墅富豪以及布鲁克林区崭露头角、低调谦逊的褐沙石房屋主人。
威尔·米迪里斯(Wil Medearis)的处女作的成就显而易见。《富豪阶层》(Restoration Heights)这部悬疑小说内容紧凑,引人入胜。它深入探究了由贫富差距、城市发展不加节制而引发的人与人之间心理不良影响以及深层种族矛盾尖锐的问题,振聋发聩、发人深省。在充满感情而令人着迷的行文中,威尔•米迪尔里斯提出了一个问题:在一个以多样性和包容性而自豪的城市,谁对未来拥有最终决定权?是长期居住的居民、新进移民,还是那些只是因为某些见不得人的原因而一夜暴富的有钱人?
原文摘录:
“The Seward family underwrote the New York art world—their name beside your favorite painting, revered by curators and directors, cited in provenances. They re-hung the walls of their Upper East Side townhouse regularly, flaunting prized acquisitions or plucking favorites from the depths of their Lockstone vault, succumbing at times to the gravity of the neighboring Met by syncing a wall or room to a special exhibition—assuming that the relevant works weren’t on loan already. The breadth and depth of their collection allowed for quirks of hubris. The current installation was the largest Reddick had been part of in his six years at Lockstone. It was scheduled for the entire week and covered all five floors—a dozen paintings, a handful of smaller framed drawings, and a few assorted wall-hanging sculptures, plus crating and storing all the work that was currently on display. Five of the paintings were for the front gallery, two more for the dining room downstairs, the final six or seven for three rooms on the second floor—including the parlor, which was set aside for the collection’s newest addition: a small, stern Richter whose acquisition had prompted this rearrangement. The fifth floor was left unplanned, to be improvised from the leftovers.”
---Retoration Height