"The Chicago Way"- a well crafted...

I am having a good time diving into the new crop of Summer/Fall novels in advance copies. I just finished reading "The Chicago Way" by Michael Harvey. You probably will not recognize the author's name, as this is his debut as a novelist. But Harvey is the co-creator of television's "Cold Case Files"- a pretty good show that shared the sorrowful, elegiac qualities of this book.

"The Chicago Way" is in the time honored tradition of the hard boiled private investigator novel. Maybe you are familiar with the brilliant beginnings of the tradition in the 1930s, books like "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep" that made good Humphrey Bogart movies. Contemporary standouts of this genre include James Lee Burke's famous character, Dave Robicheaux, a tormented, middle aged, ex-cop in New Orleans, or Martin Cruz Smith's fabulously tough and world-weary Russian detective Arkady Renko who we met long ago in the novel "Gorky Park". The lead character of "The Chicago Way" is Michael Kelly, an ex-cop and private investigator in today's Chicago.

Kelly is mildly surpised when his ex-partner shows up one day and offers him a job resolving an eight year old rape case, and slightly more suprised when the partner turns up dead the next day. Kelly enlists a team of friends to help unravel the cold case, as well as the brand new murders that are clearly connected to it. The story is tightly plotted, with strong characters, and it seems like the hard boiled detective thing has still got a bit of life in it after all. Harvey cleverly weaves modern DNA technology into the tale, as you would expect from a former TV producer.

All in all, this book kept me involved. The plot twists were quite believable- but you do not figure it all out on page fifty either. While Harvey is definitely not yet up there with Burke or Smith on the top shelf, he has the potential of getting there and I am hopeful of a sequel. The world of crime is, for many readers, the ultimate venue of hero vs. evil. How appropriate that PI Kelly loves to read the ancient Greek poets and playwrights and relates their insights on revenge and self knowledge to his challenging work of bringing killers to justice. Keep writing, Harvey, you have my interest. "The Chicago Way" will be published August 21.