A series of terrifying crimes threatens to paralyze Chicago in Harvey's stellar third novel featuring Chicago PI Michael Kelly (after The Chicago Way
and The Fifth Floor
). First, a gunman executes two people, apparently at random at different locations, while they ride the T, the city's elevated railway. Next, the sniper shoots at commuters on Lake Shore Drive, killing three people while missing Kelly's girlfriend, Judge Rachel Swenson. Kelly suspects the shooter has an accomplice, a theory dismissed by official law enforcement. The hard-boiled investigator, who at age nine survived a horrific subway accident at the site of one of the T murders 30 years earlier, wonders if there could be a link between that past tragedy and the current spree. The author deftly alternates between his hero's first-person perspective and third-person accounts of the mindsets of the men Kelly seeks. Harvey stakes a persuasive claim as the pre-eminent contemporary voice of Chicago noir. 100,000 first printing; 8-city author tour.
(Apr.)
