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Chicago P.I. Michael Kelly is hired by his former partner 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 his friend turns up dead, Kelly turns to some of his savviest colleagues for help: a television reporter whose relationship with Kelly is not strictly professional; his best friend from childhood, a forensic DNA expert; and an old ally from the DA's office. To close the files, Kelly will have to face the mob, a serial killer, his own double-crossing friends and the mean streets of the city he loves.
Praise for The Chicago Way
"You will see this book everywhere—airports, beaches, trains. It is a magnificent debut and will be read by all."
—John Grisham
“The Chicago Way is a wonderful first novel. Michael Harvey has studied the masters and put his own unique touch on the crime novel. This book harkens the arrival of a major new voice.”
—Michael Connelly, author of the bestselling Harry Bosch novels
“An intricate, fast-paced crime thriller.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“A smart, stylish debut. . . . The dialogue is snappy and crisp, and characters pop off the page. The plot flows along swimmingly with plenty of surprises.”
—The Boston Globe
“A provocative novel that captures the grittiness of the Windy City and spins a murder mystery with a satisfying and out-of-left-field ending. . . . Wonderfully reminiscent of Raymond Chandler.”
—USA Today
“Gritty and witty, The Chicago Way is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way. Harvey’s taut plot, snappy prose, and memorable characters make this debut novel a real winner.”
—Kathy Reichs
“Heartfelt, ambitious . . . Kelly, a wisecracking Irish Scrapper, slings metaphors like Philip Marlowe and reads Homer and Aeschylus in Greek . . . Harvey ends up delivering the goods.”
—Kirkus
The opening pages are packed with the kind of wry, dry narration that goes down as smoothly as a pulp paperback with a shot of rye. It's a twisty page-turner…
—Graff, Keir, Booklist
Michael Harvey’s gritty debut, The Chicago Way, rips the classic crime novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett from their 30s origins and slams them like a brass fist into the teeth of modern-day Chicago. All of the pieces are here: Chandler’s Byzantine plots and tack-sharp dialogue; a smorgasbord of knuckle sandwiches to sate the die-hard Hammett fan; and a damaged dame (platinum blonde, natch), straight out of a James Cain roadside diner. Seemingly destined for noir greatness, The Chicago Way both respects its gnarled roots and catapults hardboiled crime fiction into a new century.
–Jon Foro, Amazon.com; Amazon Significant Seven, August 2007
"One of the most impressive debuts of the year... fast-paced, well-written and highly enjoyable reading."
–The Times
“The efficiency of [Harvey’s] cinematic style . . . suits the brisk, animated shots of Chicago that give the story both grit and authenticity.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Harvey’s debut delivers a fast-paced thrill ride through Chicago’s seedy underbelly . . . [He] masterfully combines the sardonic wit of Chandler with the gritty violence of Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro series. 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 (starred review)
“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.”
—The Washington Post Book World
“The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey is as entertaining as a night out on the town.”
—The Missourian
"Harvey spins us an intriguing yarn and produces a very good crime thriller...the denouement is both unexpected and extremely clever."
—The Guardian
