Middleman - by Brendan Flaherty (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A soul-seeking family man pursues the American Dream through a series of comic nightmares involving Zoom calls, rental houses, and a narcissistic con man's plot to rob the dead

Jake Flynn is an underpaid and overstressed remote worker feeling pulled apart by the demands of modern life and middle age. His parents need care. His young children need attention. And his burnt-out wife needs support. With his boss hounding him at all hours and the debts rolling in, Jake worries that he'll never be able to give his family the home and stability they deserve.

When they move into a new rental house, the neighbors only make things worse. There's Edwina, the town historian with an increasingly strange newsletter hinting at a dark past. There's her son, Eddie, a freewheeling aspiring artist hungry for easy money, erotic encounters, and revenge. And then there's Trevor, a lonely 15-year-old whose desire to take care of his mother and little brother lands him in the wrong place at the wrong time.

At the center of their odd small town, there's the old cemetery with three mausoleums containing beautiful treasures and hideous secrets. Unable to resist temptation, Eddie concocts a scheme to rob them of something valuable, and he manipulates Trevor and Jake to help pull it off.

Middleman presents a humorous, heartfelt, and unsettling account of an amateur heist gone wrong, the damning consequences of playing someone else's game, and the human desire for both freedom and security in a world of uncertainty.

Review Quotes

Praise for Middleman:

"The human comedy takes a wicked turn in Flaherty's masterfully orchestrated novel."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"A delightfully strange and satisfying story of a man whose life has fallen to pieces and the mysteries that lie at the heart of this devastation. Dwelling on the edge of madcap insanity, Middleman never loses its narrative steam."--Booklist

"Surely a wife, two kids and a job are enough to make a person feel like they've made it, right? Nope . . . A darkly funny, wonderfully offbeat crime story about family, money, responsibility and just how easily a decent person can find himself standing somewhere he never intended to be."--Teresa Brock, Best Thriller Books

"A middle-aged everyman struggling with family life and mounting debts gets drawn into a wild grave-robbing scheme when he moves to a small town with shadowy secrets. Flaherty is a writer on the rise, and his charms are on full display in this new novel, with a story full of big characters with subtly powerful arcs."--Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

"Middleman is a darkly comic, compulsively readable story of a down-on-his-luck family man who gets dragged into a boneheaded criminal scheme involving mausoleums and Tiffany windows and ugly sculptures. Brendan Flaherty is a sharp observer of the human comedy, and his wise and wryly funny voice never falters."--Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of Little Children

"Tense, dark, and very funny, Middleman is a small-town crime story driven by one questionable decision after another. A propulsive, nail-biting read."--Tom Ryan, bestselling author of Return to Breakneck Island

"Middleman is not your father's crime novel. This is something new, something fresh and bold, and somehow, still tender. There's real heart here."--Eli Cranor, bestselling author of Mississippi Blue 42

"A mystery set in small town Connecticut, Brendan Flaherty's Middleman is far more than a crime novel. Witty, clever, and funny, yet without any hint of gimmick, the voice of its narrator fuels this compelling story about a place and its people and displays Flaherty's versatility as an author. This is an intoxicating gem of a novel; filled with hope and grief that is hilarious and heartbreaking, Middleman is impossible to put down unless you're doing so to savor the prose."--Henry Wise, Edgar Award-winning author of Holy City

Praise for The Dredge:

"Flaherty writes with stealthy acuity, his prose seemingly simple yet full of coiled power."--Sarah Weinman, The New York Times

"[The Dredge] is deep in characterization and entertaining in its narrative; it makes a very philosophical point about how well we are aware of those we consider ourselves close to and how time changes them."--Toni V. Sweeney, New York Journal of Books

"Flaherty deftly conjures up an atmosphere of dread and suspense, with all roads leading to the pond, and all concerns pointing toward what lies at its bottom. This is an assured, compulsively readable debut."--Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

"In this accomplished debut mystery, Flaherty revitalizes the familiar trope of old secrets threatening to resurface with sinewy prose and well-tooled suspense."--Publishers Weekly

"How these well-drawn traumatized characters and their secrets collide in the present day, permanently changing the course of their lives, is the theme of Flaherty's beautifully written debut . . . this sad novel about the corrosive effects of family trauma and pain will linger in readers' minds."--First Clue Reviews

"The intense story dramatizes how the past always shapes and determines the main characters' quotidian existence and mental activities. An ambitious, splendid debut."--Ha Jin, National Book Award winning author of Waiting

"It's clear that Brendan Flaherty is not here to f*ck around. With his debut novel, The Dredge, he catapults us right away into dark family dysfunction with tight, athletic prose reminiscent of seasoned masters like Elmore Leonard and Harry Crews."--Brian Panowich, International Bestselling Author of Bull Mountain and Nothing But The Bones

About the Author

As a remote worker, Brendan Flaherty climbed the ranks of lower-middle management in some of the world's tallest corporations. He has an MFA from Boston University, where he taught fiction. His debut novel, The Dredge, was published by Grove Atlantic in 2024. Middleman is his second book. He grew up in Connecticut's Farmington River Valley, where he now lives with his family.