{read: murder and PIs, Chicago-style} We All Fall Down by Michael Kelly

This is the fourth in the series featuring Chicago private investigator Michael Kelly, a former cop. (Start with The Chicago Way if you're new to the series. It will be confusing to jump in mid-stream.) This is another great Michael Harvey read with short chapters and a fast-moving plot. A lightbulb that could be filled with anthrax falls in the subway, and the city and feds move quickly to contain any possible threat. Yet people with mysterious symptoms start showing up in the hospitals and dying. As the death tolls mount, the scientists try to uncover the threat and discover a vaccine, yet everything is not quite as it seems. Harvey does a good job of explaining the bioterroristic aspects of the plot in a way that's easy for regular people to understand, and, as always, he has a tight handle on the culture of Chicago and its seamier underside. 


I enjoy Harvey because his writing style is clean and tight and reminds me of Dennis Lehane, who as careful readers will know, is one of my favorite authors. (I'm excited to see what he does next now that Patrick and Angie seem to be retired from the PI biz. But I digress.) Harvey does for Chicago what Lehane did for Boston, although I confess that I got a bit lost on some of the political twists and turns. I guess that's Chicago.


We All Fall Down by Michael Harvey (Knopf Doubleday, 2011)
My rating: 4 stars