First Avenue

Since its opening in the 1920s, Chicago's North Michigan Avenue has been one of the city's most prestigious commerical corridors, lined by some of its most architecturally distinctive business, residential, and hotel buildings. Planned by Daniel Burnham in 1909, the avenue became the principal connecting link between downtown and the wealthy, residential "Gold Coast" north of the Loop. Some thirty buildings were constructed along its path in the ten-year period before the Depression, an urban expansion comparable in significance to that of Pennsylvania and Park Avenues.

John W. Stamper traces the complex development of North Michigan Avenue from the 1880s to the 1920s building boom that solidified its character and economic base, describing the initiation of the planning process by private interests to its execution aided by the city's powerful condemnation and taxation proceedings. He focuses on individual buildings constructed on the avenue, including the Renaissance- and Gothic-inspired Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and Drake Hotel, and places them within the context of factors governing their construction--property ownership, financing, zoning laws, design theory, and advertising.

Stamper compares this stylistically diverse mixture of low- and high-rise structures with earlier, rejected planning proposals, all of which had prescribed a uniformly designed, European-like avenue of continuous cornice heights, consistent facade widths, and complementary stylistic features. He analyzes the drastically different character the avenue took by 1930, with high-rise towers reaching thirty stories and beyond, in terms of the clash among economic, political, and architectural interests. His argument--that the discrepancies between the rejected plans and reality illustrate the developers' choice of economic return on their investment over aesthetic community--is extended through to the present avenue and the virtual disregard of the urban qualities proposed at its inception. Generously illustrated, with an epilogue condensing the avenue's history between the end of World War II and the present, this is an exhaustive account of an important topic in the history of modern architecture and city planning.

In a small Florida town near Lake Okeechobee, an innocent young man's fate hangs in the balance. Rudy Kelly, bi-racial and borderline retarded is targeted by the local police as a suspect in a brutal murder. Convinced of his innocence, his mother hires a famous defense attorney, but loses him when her money runs out. Turned over to the drunken public defender, and framed by the police and prosecutor, Rudy is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. After spending ten years on death row, top trial lawyer Jack Tobin, a boyhood friend of his father's, learns of Rudy's situation and decides to take on the case. Jack engages in a non-stop race against time to uncover evidence to exonerate Rudy and overturn his conviction.

Through fierce courtroom battles, legal maneuverings, and surprise twists and turns, Jack Tobin fights to see justice done against Jimmy DiCarlo, the well-connected Miami criminal lawyer steeped in corruption.

More than a typical legal thriller, THE MAYOR OF LEXINGTON AVENUE tells a story of enduring friendships, love and loss, promises kept and loyalties fulfilled, all against a backdrop that sweeps from the streets of New York City to the bayous and barrios of Florida.

Though I had lived in Seattle (Rainer Valley) for some years twenty years ago, I now live and work in Olympia. However, I occasionally drive to downtown Seattle, to visit SAM (Seattle Art Museum), or check out the many used book shops along First Avenue from Jackson to the Market, and recognize some of the semi-disguised businesses in the story; the characters are quite believable, and the "local color" agrees with my observations.

The shop locations, such as Silve's diner on the lower level of Pike Place Market, and the "Re(a)d and Green" leftist bookstore (across the cobbled street from the Market newsstand) feel familiar, as does "The Lusty Lady" peep show, with its naughty billboards (and ATM inside), across the street from SAM.

While I always thought the doughnut shop was on Second Avenue, I only knew about it from its unsavory reputation as a hangout for hookers of all ages and both genders.

The level of detail in your first novel reminds me of another author who has researched her specialty quite well: Laura Joh Rowland's "history mystery" series, set in 17th-century Japan, with its protagonist sosakan-sama Sano Ichiro, is an interesting look at the shogunate, and the seamier side of Japanese imperial court life, from a detective's point of view.

Your second novel (Second Watch) is recently published, and the protagonist is Katherine Murphy, not Sam. Interesting, and unexpected (a sexist expectation on my part?). I had looked forward to Henry, with Sam's tennis shoes as a redemptive gift, becoming his "sidekick."

The storyline accurately emphasizes the low-key relationships that a beat cop will establish with the everyday citizens, both the good and the bad, who inhabit his territory.

Clausen is a good writer and the story has the rich detail that only a real cop could put into a crime story. On the other hand, the story is just too low key. For sure, most police yarns have action that is far over the top, but in First Avenue, Clausen has gone the other way. In the end, the book is a well-written, ultra slow paced yawner.

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