"THE CHICAGO WAY" by Michael Harvey (A)

This book first captured my interest when I saw the name of my home town in its title. Then my nascent admiration grew when I read that the title is a direct quote taken from the 1987 Brian de Palma movie, "The Untouchables." It occurs in the scene where Officer Jim Malone (Sean Connery) talks to Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) in the pews of an empty church, one of the few places where they are safe from being overheard. Malone tells Ness, "You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him. He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way..." I love that movie, and anything that is inspired by it is more than okay in my book.

Furthermore, this novel has the added advantage of being filled with local Chicago landmarks and colorful Midwestern details that are familiar to many of us Chicagoans. I cannot tell you how many detective novels that I have read about Los Angeles that describe that area in detail, and yet I have remained utterly clueless since I have never been there. A sense of geography and place is always helpful when reading a book. Finally a novel that takes place on my home turf! Of course, some of the locales are fictionalized, but still enough local color remains to please almost anyone.

This is Michael Harvey's inaugural outing as an author, and it is an astonishingly fine literary effort. Crisp writing and full characterizations with well fleshed out personalities. There is also a depressing note of cynicism running throughout this story indicative of the local political realities. Kelly and his few friends try to seek justice in a town reeking of corruption and influence peddling. It is embarrassing to admit that these notations strike close to home, but the sad reality is that "the city that works" far too often still only functions with hidden payoffs.

I felt for a while after I had started reading this book that it read too much like a television script with its short descriptions and clipped dialogue. Then I decided that I was being unfair since many books today are written in this style. So, rather than belittling it, I settled back, got involved in the story, and then I really enjoyed the read. Immensely. No matter what town you are from, do yourself a favor and check this book out.

The author happens to have a day job, which is that he is the co-creator and executive producer of the hit CBS television series, "Cold Case Files." It would appear that Harvey now has another option for that day job. It might not pay as much, but it has to be more rewarding. In any event, he has my best wishes in trying to top this novel, but I don't see how he is going to do it.

The hero is a rough-looking former Irish cop from the South Side by the name of Michael Kelly, but don't let his background fool you. Inside the pug face and the broken nose is a keen intellect that thrives on reading the Greek classics in their original language. He also possesses a strong sense of justice first exhibited when he rescued a young black girl from being raped when they were both only 14 years old.

Mike and that girl, Nicole Andrews, have remained best friends ever since. Although she grew into a stunningly beautiful woman, that's all that they have ever been, best friends. Recently divorced, Mike still carries a torch for his former wife. She has moved on and is now involved with someone else, so Michael has been left at loose ends in the romance department. He lives by himself in an apartment in Wrigleyville where he spends his free time analyzing the stats of the Cubs players in the hope of finally deciding the best players of all time.

One day while he is pleasantly cogitating this never-ending internal philosophical debate, Michael is interrupted by the appearance of his former patrol partner, John Gibbons, who walks into his apartment and greets his old friend for the first time in years. Gibbons has a problem that he can't shake, which is that he suffers from a guilty conscience for having allowed a brutal attack and rape to have been buried without investigation many years before. Now the victim, Elaine Remington, has appeared out of nowhere to hire Gibbons to solve the crime.

But before Gibbons can do anything, he is shot dead with a 9 mm gun near Navy Pier. Strangely enough, Michael first hears about this from a local television reporter. Prominent newscaster Diane Lindsay wants the background story on the murder. Both she and the police think that Mike might know something about the murder since Gibbons had his business card in his pocket. The police will later call Kelly in for interrogation, and their techniques will not be as refined as Lindsay's.

He will soon find out that Elaine Remington wants to hire him now that Gibbons is dead, especially since Gibbons had praised him as being the best detective that he had ever known. Elaine wants justice finally to prevail, but what concerns Mike the most is what this bitter and angry woman might do to the man if she ever finds out who he is. 2007, Alfred A. Knopf, 303 pages.