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Published Aug 2007
320 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
From the co-creator and executive producer of the television show Cold Case Files, a fast-paced, stylish murder mystery featuring a tough-talking Irish cop turned private investigator who does for the city of Chicago what Elmore Leonard did for Detroit and Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles.
Chicago private investigator Michael Kelly is hired by his former partner, John Gibbons, to help solve an eight-year-old rape and battery case, a case it turns out his old friend was once ordered to forget. When Gibbons turns up dead on Navy Pier, Kelly enlists a team of his savviest colleagues to connect the dots between the recent murder and the cold case it revived: Diane Lindsay, a television reporter whose relationship with Kelly is not strictly professional; his best friend from childhood, Nicole Andrews, a forensic DNA expert; Nicole’s boyfriend, Vince Rodriguez, a detective with a special interest in rape cases; and Bennett Davis from the DA’s office, a friend since Kelly’s days on the force. To close the case, Kelly will have to face the mob, a serial killer, his own double-crossing friends, and the mean streets of the city he loves.
Ferociously plotted and crackling with wit, The Chicago Way is first-rate suspense steeped in the glorious, gritty atmosphere of a great city: a marvelous debut.
"Starred Review. Bringing Chicago to life so skillfully that the reader can almost hear the El train in the distance, Harvey is poised to take the crime-writing world by storm." - Publishers Weekly.
"It's a twisty page-turner (and Chicagoans will enjoy seeing the Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville neighborhoods cast as mean streets), but if Harvey had chosen either a lighter plot or darker prose, the book could have been much better." - Booklist.
"Despite a certain lack of originality in the serial killer, who resembles notorious murderer John Wayne Gacy, this is recommended for all public libraries." - Library Journal.
"If you can shrug off the mannered narration, ex-TV producer Harvey ends up delivering the goods." - Kirkus Reviews.
"It is a measure of the ambition of Michael Harvey's first novel, The Chicago Way, that we start it thinking about Dashiell Hammett and end it pondering Aeschylus…With its fast pace, sharp dialogue, vivid characters and horrific crimes, The Chicago Way is hugely readable, even though we remain baffled about what's happening. The plot stays several jumps ahead of us; only at the end, after some startling leaps, do we see how the pieces fit together." - The Washington Post.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: David Turner
Michael Harvey is a writer, journalist, and documentary producer. He is the co-creator, writer and executive producer of the Prime Time Emmy-nominated television series Cold Case Files and a former investigative producer for CBS in Chicago. Michael's work as a documentary producer and journalist has won numerous national and international awards, including multiple Emmys and an Academy Award nomination for the Holocaust documentary Eyewitness.
Harvey earned a law degree from Duke University, a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and a bachelor's degree in classical languages from Holy Cross College.
Harvey was born and raised in Boston and graduated from Boston Latin School. He now lives in Chicago with his wife, Mary Frances.
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