‘All the Dangerous Things’

‘Metropolis’

By B.A. Shapiro. Algonquin. 368 pages, $27.95

“A Flicker in the Dark” made several best debut lists and has been optioned by actress Emma Stone for a limited TV series. “All the Dangerous Things” seals her place as a talented novelist.

Self storage

Best-seller B.A. Shapiro takes a break from her usual mysteries revolving around the art world for a thought-provoking character-driven story about a divergent group of people who live or set up their offices in, of all places, a storage facility in “Metropolis.” Secrets, solitude, money problems or a need to escape motivate the residents of the Metropolis Storage Warehouse in Cambridge, Mass.

While living in a storage facility is illegal, these roomy, yet claustrophobic units have become a refuge of sorts and a source of income for manager Rose, who helps support her family with the kickbacks from the residents. Rose keeps her side business and the residents’ situations from the owner, Zach, for whom the warehouse also is a refuge as it allowed him to stop being a drug dealer.

These warehouse residents include a Venezuelan Ph.D. student in the country illegally. a street photographer and a wealthy socialite who has created a shrine to her children because her husband sent them to Switzerland for school. Harvard-educated lawyer Jason set up his office in the warehouse after losing his high-powered position at a top Boston firm. Jason doesn’t live there but does know of at least two other attorneys who operate out of a unit.

This cozy arrangement becomes public when someone falls down an elevator shaft. The police investigation takes myriad routes as no one seems to know if it was an accident, a potential suicide or attempted murder. The tension builds as Shapiro keeps secret the identity and the fate of who plunged down the shaft until mid-way through “Metropolis.”

“Metropolis” smoothly gives a full view of each character, showing what brought them to the warehouse. While each could find other options for living arrangements, each gravitates to the self-imposed exile the warehouse appears to offer. Slowly, but effectively, each person intersects with the other. “So many mysteries inside a building . . . always considered lifeless,” muses Zach.

For most people, storage units are a place for things we can’t leave behind. “Metropolis” shows that sometimes these are places to store one’s life.

Meet the author

B.A. Shapiro will discuss “Metropolis” with moderator Oline H. Cogdill beginning at 10 a.m. Jan. 17 at the Mandel Jewish Community Center, 8500 Jog Road, Boynton Beach. Cost is

$10. Visit JCConline.com/ artsandculture to register.

Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol. com.

MARY HANNAH HARTE By Stacy Willingham. Minotaur, 336 pages, $27.99 Stacy Willingham’s second novel is“All the Dangerous Things.”