The Chicago Way

By: Michael Harvey

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

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. When Gibbons turns up dead, Kelly enlists a team of his savviest colleagues to connect the dots between the recent murder and the cold case it revived: a television reporter whose relationship with Kelly is not strictly professional; his best friend from childhood, now a forensic DNA expert; a detective with a special interest in rape cases; and a friend from the DA’s office. 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 and a marvelous debut.©2007 Michael Harvey; (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

Praise for Michael Harvey’s The Chicago Way

“A magnificent debut that should be read by all.”
—John Grisham

“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)

“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

“Michael Harvey’s tightly plotted evocation of the Chicago underworld is set in the present but brings to mind the voices of Chandler and Hammett.”
—New York

“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

“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

“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

“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

“Not to be outdone by his work in television, Harvey has written 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. . . . Readers will find the clipped cadence of Harvey’s dialogue and narrative wonderfully reminiscent of Raymond Chandler.”
—USA Today

“[Harvey] composes punchy noir sentences that he stacks into punchy noir paragraphs that have all the rhythm, irony, and wit of the genre’s manly classics of the 1920s and ’30s.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“This contemporary police procedural by the man responsible for TV’s Cold Case Files smacks of Raymond Chandler filtered through Robert B. Parker.”
—Go Magazine

“The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey is as entertaining as a night out on the town.”
—The Missourian

Amazing

Amazing book. I was at the edge of my seat biting my nails. Very interesting.

Too much Robert B. Parker

Only a little of which is attributable to the reading. I said.

The literary hook is Greek tragedy. Which works remarkably well.

The guy did a good job of plotting, and by the way his hero has a conscience.

So I'm not dis-recommending it. Just warning you that you will be frequently annoyed if you listen to this too soon after reading or, especially, listening to a Spenser novel.

excellent book and naration

I hope there will be many more Michael Kelley adventures with Stephen Hoye as our man.

not bad

First, let me say that I love Stephen Hoye as a narrator. Anything he reads (especially when he reads in first person, and with a hint of world weary sarcasm) is pure enjoyment. The book's subject matter, however, was a little off putting. I really don't like the details of a serial killing, or anything gory. So I might rethink this author's next novel.

A wicked good storm of cliches

No, it isn't high literature, but it sure is fun. While the author's knowledge of Chicago sometimes comes off a bit tin, it's a great listen. It's perfectly within that two-fisted, hard-boiled, modern pulp genre, and a wonderful exemplar of it. The narration is top notch. The crime's solution and ending is almost hilariously improbable, but along the way you've just had too much fun to care.