Peter Quinn
Novelist, political historian, and foremost chronicler of New York City.
Peter Quinn joined Time Inc. as chief speechwriter in 1985 and retired as corporate editorial director for Time Warner at the end of 2007. He received a B.A. from Manhattan College in 1969, an M.A. in history from Fordham University in 1974 and completed all the requirements for a doctorate except the dissertation. He was awarded a Ph.D., honoris causa, by Manhattan College in 2002.
Peter Quinn's New York
Banished Children of Eve
"Historical fiction as well made and whole as this is not common…Convincing and intriguing… Hardly a page of this book is without some revelation."
- The New York Times Book Review
"Peter Quinn’s extraordinarily fine and ingenious novel, Banished Children of Eve, shows how much we are made of history… Unflinching in its depiction of prejudice and, for that matter, of grace, Quinn deftly weaves the lives of his characters into an intricate web of past and present, of association and moral involvement, until I, at least, had a sense not only of this terrible time but of history itself at the fundamental level, of the individual actions that make up its fabric."
- The Boston Sunday Globe
"One of the very, very best of modern historical novels."
- Thomas Flanagan
Looking For Jimmy
"You don't have to be Irish or Irish-American to love this book. Whoever you are, you are in it. This is the kind of book you will want to bestow on anyone with, or without, a hyphen in their history."
- Frank McCourt
"An exceptionally thoughtful and interesting inquiry into Irish America."
- Johnathan Yardley, The Washington Post
"A sweeping tale of disaster, survival, and triumph."
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hour of the Cat
"The pacing is tight, the descriptions of New York in the 1930s rich, the characters engaging, and the dialogue pitch perfect. Only a churl could resist"
- Boston Globe
"A chilling history lesson wrapped in a murder mystery... It is the best kind of historical novel, driven by memorable characters, a suspenseful plot, and real-life questions"
- USA Today
"Extremely readable... A Gotham version of Philip Marlowe."
- The Chicago Tribune
The Man Who Never Returned
"Freely mixing history, mystery, and novelistic license, Quinn offers a noir-ish tale of Tammany Hall politics, sex, crime, Broadway moguls, and cops, populated by more than a dozen interesting characters. Quinn's rich, insightful, evocative descriptions of New York, both in Crater's time and in 1955, will certainly please fans of historical crime novels."
- Booklist
"A novel that suggests a fictional resolution to a historical mystery. The disappearance of New York's Judge Joe Crater in 1930 sparked speculation for decades that has never completely dissipated. Quinn plainly knows the lay of the land through experience and research. This hybrid of mystery and history builds a compelling case."
- Kirkus Reviews
“Interweaving the fabular and the factual – knitting into the tangled skein of acts and things a single golden thread of a story … Quinn works his jaded dicks and dames with scores to settle into that weave, where they sparkle and gleam.”
-Barnes and Noble Newsletter
Dry Bones
“A well-constructed thriller … brilliantly researched.”
–Publishers Weekly
"Peter Quinn is a poet and an historian and one of our finest storytellers. He sits at the fireside of the American imagination. He can carve mystery out of mystery. The work is generous and agile and profound."
- Colum McCann
“Ten Top Books of the Year” (2013)
- Commomweal Magazine
"Dry Bones is a savvy, suspenseful tale of World War II espionage and Cold War skullduggery in which Fintan Dunne cements his place in the PI pantheon alongside Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. Dunne can be misled and mishandled, but he can't be deterred. Every bit as unpredictable as Quinn's first two installments, this riveting conclusion to the trilogy leaves no doubt that Dunne is an ace of Spades who knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em."
- William Kennedy