Love the Stranger

Queens, N.Y., attorney Ted Molloy gets entangled in another case of murder and real estate in Sears’s arresting sequel to Tower of Babel. Ted and his business partner, Lester McKinley, have begun using their legal expertise to invest in foreclosed properties and broker dubious loans with local mobsters. They’re also advising Ted’s girlfriend, activist Kenzie Zielinski, as she tries to stop a development project aimed at gentrifying Corona, Queens, and pricing out its largely immigrant community. As Kenzie’s opposition efforts heat up, she asks Ted and Lester to help her friend and frequent cab driver, Mohammed, who’s being exploited by his immigration lawyer. When Kenzie pays that lawyer an unexpected visit, she finds him dead and winds up a suspect in his murder. As Ted works to clear Kenzie’s name and uncover the real killer, Kenzie becomes the target of a sophisticated smear campaign orchestrated by the man behind the development project—who may have been framing Kenzie from the beginning. Everything that worked in Tower of Babel works just as well here, with sharp characters and noirish atmosphere to spare. This series deserves a long run. Agent: Judith Weber, Sobel Weber Assoc. (Dec.)