Behind every great fortune lies a crime, according to Balzac—who knew how to write a gloriously immersive novel about sex, status, and society. In Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s second novel, Long Island Compromise, the crimes are ongoing and generally dispersed, but the result is just as enthralling. It’s a portrait of the Fletchers, the richest family in the affluent and predominantly Jewish suburb of Middle Rock. They believe that their many florid dysfunctions are rooted in the 1980 kidnapping of Carl, the head of the family. Five days after his abduction, once Carl’s wife Ruth delivered a ransom of $250,000 to a baggage carousel at JFK, her husband was returned to her, but the ordeal leaves him a broken man.
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