Jonathan Mahler’s first book, the 2005 Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning , was a work of historical journalism that re-created the summer and fall of 1977. Mahler interweaved the story of the New York Yankees World Series-winning season with the chaotic events in the city that year, including the Son of Sam murders, the massive city-wide blackout that summer, and the free-for-all mayoral election that featured Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo, and Bella Abzug. Now Mahler, a staff writer for the