The Third Rail                                            

Alfred E. Knopf Press, ISBN 978-0-307-27250-8

Fiction-crime, drama, thriller, murder, mystery

285 pages

May/June 2010 Review for Bookpleasures

Reviewer-Michelle Kaye Malsbury, BSBM, MM

Review

Michael Harvey, author of “The Third Rail” is a esteemed journalist and producer of documentaries. (insert, 2010) He has authored two previous books, “The Chicago Way” and “The Fifth Floor”. (back pages of “The Third Rail”, 2010) Awards and acclaim for Mr. Harvey’s work range from international and national awards to several Emmys’s to Academy nominations. He is a graduate of Duke Law School with a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and undergrad in classical languages from Holy Cross College. For more information about this incredibly interesting author please log on to his web site at www.michaelharveybooks.com.

 

I’ve not had the pleasure, yet anyway, of reading the other two books by Michael Harvey, but there is one character that is a common thread in them. His name is Michael Kelly. Mr. Kelly was a cop and is now a PI. In “The Third Rail” Mr. Kelly gets sucked into a high profile case involving a series of shootings on an L train and in other strange places in the greater Chicago land area that appear somewhat planned, yet random. The suspected killer in these crimes even has the audacity to call Mr. Kelly on his cell phone and gloat over his recent killings.

 

As the police endeavor to find out more about this complex case Mr. Kelly figures more and more prominently in the mix. Eventually this case is kicked up from the local Chicago Police to the FBI because it has some similar traits to an unsolved case regarding some missing biological/chemical warfare and a weird connection to another L train wreck, both decades old. [If you want to know how this is all connected then you’ve got to read the book.] Mr. Kelly gets curious, does some snooping, and finds out that story about the chemical/biological warfare was covered up, mostly forgotten, and nobody intended it to ever resurface. At least that was the plan…

 

I love mysteries and crime stories, especially those that take place in settings I am familiar with. I am an Illinois girl with lots of friends and family in and around the Chicago area. Mr. Harvey’s words on the pages made me feel the city and its sometimes unforgivable weather, taste the grit that is part and parcel of city life, and experience the ride along the way. The characters were wonderfully thought out and complex. The story believable, not at all contrived. He [Michael Harvey] has a very keen insight into the personalities of the Feds and the local police as well as the criminal mind. “The Third Rail” was a spellbinding read. I was so absorbed that I read this book in two short days because I, literally, could not put it down! I would definitely suggest you add this to your must read list!