Remembrances of Things Past

Reading the 'The Man Who Never Returned,' by Peter Quinn doesn't require you to be of a certain age and a native New Yorker. It does help, however.

Mr. Quinn is of a certain age, is a native New Yorker, grew up in a political atmosphere, worked in one as an adult, and has been forever fascinated by the disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater since sometime between birth and learning the multiplication tables.

So, if you’re old enough to remember Automats, Schrafft’s, the Savoy Plaza, the Third Avenue El, and of course Penn Station (pictured above) before it was torn down and replaced by what still makes some people cry, then there is good likelihood that the fictionalized account of solving New York’s longest running missing persons case is for you.

It is 1955 and Fintan Dunne, Peter Quinn’s free-lance detective has been retained by a media mogul to solve the Crater case, just in time for the 25th anniversary of the Judge’s permanent disappearance that will neatly coincide with a magazine launch by media mogul’s publishing empire. The Judge has been missing since August 6,1930, after hailing a cab (not yellow) upon leaving a restaurant on West 45th Street after having dinner with some people. He was actually unheard from for a month before anyone officially notified anyone that perhaps something happened to him. And he had friends. And a wife.

The Judge Crater case is a true story. The Judge has been missing for 80 years. This is longer than Jimmy Hoffa, and just as unexplained. No doubt someone’s speculation is true. But which one?

Mr. Quinn’s detective, Fintan Dunne, through logic, interviews, old police contacts, favors and speculation of his own, solves the case. Or, does he?

Of course we know, however, that Judge Crater is still considered missing, and the circumstances unexplained. But after reading the book you do accept that the Judge is still missing. Yes, but should he be?

As Mr Quinn observes, if the interest of the living brings some comfort to the dead, then whatever the circumstances of the Judge's demise, he's resting more than comfortably somewhere.

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