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The Third Rail

Michael Harvey
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (2010)
ISBN 9780307473639
Reviewed by Enid Grabiner for RebeccasReads (7/11)

Third in a series of Chicago-based mysteries, Michael Harvey has proven himself an intelligent, well informed craftsman of the genre.   Michael Kelly, is his recurring private investigator, formerly a Chicago cop, who maintains strong connections within the city neighborhoods and the police force.  He is savvy about the goings-on in the Windy City.

What first appears to be a random shooting on the platform of the elevated soon proves to be more complicated than an indiscriminate execution.  It seems too much of a coincidence that it happens on the 3oth anniversary of a horrific crash of two commuter trains.  Michael becomes personally involved by the sniper, the reason yet to be revealed to the reader.  He is teamed up with the police, homeland security and the FBI, as he tries to decipher clues and threats which clearly implicate him.  As more bodies pile up, he goes renegade.  His contacts are killed and his girlfriend is seriously injured as more information surfaces.  A vendetta also tying in the Catholic Archdiocese and a terrorist plot to release deadly bacteria through the train tunnels is developed as well.   Kelly has to follow the trail and at the same time face personal demons.

I like the character of Michael Kelly.  He is not the typical hard-shelled figure haunted by a wretched inescapable past that makes it impossible for him to bond with people.  Although he has the toughness and determination of a cop, he has a very likeable demeanor and a soft side reflected in his personal relationships.  Unfortunately, always an issue is that ever present a ménage a trois:  him, the woman and the job.

Harvey’s intricate mysteries have a noir quality.  The tone is often dark and gritty, accurately reflecting the seedier side of the city.  Interwoven into the fiction, well-researched terrorist reports and abuse by the Catholic Church, play a role as important as the “L” accident itself in this intricate and visual novel.  Anyone familiar with Chicago gets the added advantage of walking along with Kelly as he moves through the train tunnels, the Irish bars, Cabrini-Green housing projects and Bucktown. The plot of revenge, collusion, corruption and greed is neatly and satisfyingly tied together.  Harvey has proven himself an author difficult to resist.

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