The Fifth Floor
by Michael Harvey
Alfred A. Knopf, August 28, 2008, $23.95

Classic PI novels follow a formula: A beautiful woman comes to the PI for help, he takes the case and finds himself deep in intrigue and murder. Michael Harvey’s The Fifth Floor, is a superb example of why the formula works. In his talented hands we have a first rate PI mystery that doesn’t stray from the formula, but uses it so effectively that it seems new and exciting.

The PI is Chicago’s Michael Kelly and the beautiful woman is his former lover whose husband, Johnny Woods, periodically beats her up and whose daughter begs Kelly to kill her stepfather. Woods is a “fixer” on the fifth floor of City Hall, the Mayor’s office, and since this is Chicago, politics rule supreme. A murder occurs and Kelly learns that it revolves around a missing book about the great 1871 Chicago fire, and a question over whether the fire was started by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow or by the Mayor’s great grandfather in a land grab plot. The Mayor wants Kelly off the case and applies “fifth floor” pressure, but you can’t keep a good PI down.

Yes, it is formulaic, but the dialogue sparkles, the pace never lets up, the characters come alive (the city itself an intricate character), and the plot twists and turns enough to maintain high suspense. The Fifth Floor is a follow-up to Harvey’s smash debut novel, The Chicago Way. This is an author who knows his city, his criminals, his politicians and, best of all, how to put them on the page for our enjoyment. Highly recommended.—Robert Smith

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Reviews, PI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.