A CrimeReads Best Noir Fiction of 2019 Pick
One of CrimeReads’ Best Crime Books of the Year
“Noirish…compelling…innovative.”—New York Times Book Review
A debut novel about a young artist, a missing woman, and the tendrils of wealth and power that link the art scene in Brooklyn to Manhattan’s elite, for fans of Jonathan Lethem and Richard Price
Reddick, a young, white artist, lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically black Brooklyn neighborhood besieged by gentrification. He makes rent as an art handler, hanging expensive works for Manhattan’s one percent, and spends his free time playing basketball at the local Y rather than putting energy into his stagnating career. He is also the last person to see Hannah before she disappears.
When Hannah’s fiancé, scion to an old-money Upper East Side family, refuses to call the police, Reddick sets out to learn for himself what happened to her. The search gives him a sense of purpose, pulling him through a dramatic cross section of the city he never knew existed. The truth of Hannah’s fate is buried at the heart of a many-layered mystery that, in its unraveling, shakes Reddick’s convictions and lays bare the complicated machinations of money and power that connect the magisterial town houses of the Upper East Side to the unassuming brownstones of Bed-Stuy.
Restoration Heights is both a page-turning mystery and an in-depth study of the psychological fallout and deep racial tensions that result from economic inequality and unrestricted urban development. In lyrical, addictive prose, Wil Medearis asks the question: In a city that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity, who has the final say over the future? Is it long-standing residents, recent transplants or whoever happens to have the most money? Timely, thought-provoking and sweeping in vision, Restoration Heights is an exhilarating new entry in the canon of great Brooklyn novels.
Genre: Mystery
One of CrimeReads’ Best Crime Books of the Year
“Noirish…compelling…innovative.”—New York Times Book Review
A debut novel about a young artist, a missing woman, and the tendrils of wealth and power that link the art scene in Brooklyn to Manhattan’s elite, for fans of Jonathan Lethem and Richard Price
Reddick, a young, white artist, lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically black Brooklyn neighborhood besieged by gentrification. He makes rent as an art handler, hanging expensive works for Manhattan’s one percent, and spends his free time playing basketball at the local Y rather than putting energy into his stagnating career. He is also the last person to see Hannah before she disappears.
When Hannah’s fiancé, scion to an old-money Upper East Side family, refuses to call the police, Reddick sets out to learn for himself what happened to her. The search gives him a sense of purpose, pulling him through a dramatic cross section of the city he never knew existed. The truth of Hannah’s fate is buried at the heart of a many-layered mystery that, in its unraveling, shakes Reddick’s convictions and lays bare the complicated machinations of money and power that connect the magisterial town houses of the Upper East Side to the unassuming brownstones of Bed-Stuy.
Restoration Heights is both a page-turning mystery and an in-depth study of the psychological fallout and deep racial tensions that result from economic inequality and unrestricted urban development. In lyrical, addictive prose, Wil Medearis asks the question: In a city that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity, who has the final say over the future? Is it long-standing residents, recent transplants or whoever happens to have the most money? Timely, thought-provoking and sweeping in vision, Restoration Heights is an exhilarating new entry in the canon of great Brooklyn novels.
Genre: Mystery
Praise for this book
"I read Restoration Heights in one sitting and found it absolutely astounding. Loaded with brilliant characters, rich dialogue and beautiful misdirection, this wildly entertaining debut made me want to relocate to Brooklyn and connect with the art world. It’s a portrait of contemporary New York that would have Jay McInerney green with envy. A beautifully assured debut. New York has a new noir poet in Wil Medearis." - Ken Bruen
"Restoration Heights is a smart social novel that uses the expectations and conventions of urban crime fiction to ask provocative questions about the misdeeds done and damage suffered in a community undergoing sudden gentrification. Medearis treads sensitive territory with self-awareness and nuance, all while telling a good story that moves." - Steph Cha
"A sly, nimble mystery. Real estate is to the Brooklyn of Restoration Heights what water is to the L.A. of Chinatown: the nexus of public corruption and private perversity." - Jake LaMar
"Restoration Heights is many things: a thrilling whodunit, an unsentimental ode, and a nuanced portrait of a diverse cast of characters who live, breathe, play, and—most importantly—talk on the page with vitality. In Reddick, his painter protagonist, Wil Medearis has given us an unlikely Philip Marlowe of gentrifying Brooklyn. He navigates the city's labyrinthine power structures of class, race, and real estate with an artist's obsession for meaning-making. Restoration Heights is a contemporary story about a New York City so fresh you could leave a handprint in its concrete." - Rachel Lyon
"So much more than a thrilling and suspenseful mystery, Restoration Heights is also a subtle examination of art's purpose and a nuanced portrait of a neighborhood in flux. Medearis is—like all great novelists—an anthropologist as well as a storyteller. Here he shines as bright a light on the complex interplay among Bed-Stuy’s new and longtime residents as he does on the relationships among the haves and have-nots on 5th Avenue. An important, magical debut." - Brian Platzer
"An atmospheric and poetic noir debut. Wil Medearis paints a vivid portrait of the changing face of New York City while crafting a compelling old-school mystery against that gritty, thoroughly modern backdrop. A Brooklyn artist turned private investigator—such a clever premise! And its stellar execution—rich with character, and sparking with the friction of all the city's hard edges of race, culture and class—is utterly immersive." - Lisa Unger
"Restoration Heights is a smart social novel that uses the expectations and conventions of urban crime fiction to ask provocative questions about the misdeeds done and damage suffered in a community undergoing sudden gentrification. Medearis treads sensitive territory with self-awareness and nuance, all while telling a good story that moves." - Steph Cha
"A sly, nimble mystery. Real estate is to the Brooklyn of Restoration Heights what water is to the L.A. of Chinatown: the nexus of public corruption and private perversity." - Jake LaMar
"Restoration Heights is many things: a thrilling whodunit, an unsentimental ode, and a nuanced portrait of a diverse cast of characters who live, breathe, play, and—most importantly—talk on the page with vitality. In Reddick, his painter protagonist, Wil Medearis has given us an unlikely Philip Marlowe of gentrifying Brooklyn. He navigates the city's labyrinthine power structures of class, race, and real estate with an artist's obsession for meaning-making. Restoration Heights is a contemporary story about a New York City so fresh you could leave a handprint in its concrete." - Rachel Lyon
"So much more than a thrilling and suspenseful mystery, Restoration Heights is also a subtle examination of art's purpose and a nuanced portrait of a neighborhood in flux. Medearis is—like all great novelists—an anthropologist as well as a storyteller. Here he shines as bright a light on the complex interplay among Bed-Stuy’s new and longtime residents as he does on the relationships among the haves and have-nots on 5th Avenue. An important, magical debut." - Brian Platzer
"An atmospheric and poetic noir debut. Wil Medearis paints a vivid portrait of the changing face of New York City while crafting a compelling old-school mystery against that gritty, thoroughly modern backdrop. A Brooklyn artist turned private investigator—such a clever premise! And its stellar execution—rich with character, and sparking with the friction of all the city's hard edges of race, culture and class—is utterly immersive." - Lisa Unger
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