The Fifth Floor
by Michael Harvey
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael HarveyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2008-08-26
ISBN: 0307266877
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of The Fifth Floor
Book Review: TheFifth Floor is an end-of-summer sizzler
Summary: 5 Stars
From page one of THE FIFTH FLOOR, a follow-up to 2007's THE CHICAGO WAY, it is evident that former police officer Michael Kelly is no ordinary private eye. When Kelly's ex-lover, Janet Woods, shows up at his office wearing sunglasses to conceal her battered face, Kelly slides a book of poetry across his desk. He then translates for Janet the first line of an ancient poem written by Catullus: "Odi et amo" --- I hate and I love.
It's not the first time that the well-read PI has tried to convince Janet to break free from the cycle of abuse, take her teenage daughter, Taylor, and leave Johnny Woods for good. Janet isn't searching for inspiration from an ancient Latin poem. She isn't seeking advice from Kelly and doesn't want her husband to know she has hired a private investigator. But she does agree to let Kelly trail Johnny. Kelly hopes he can talk some sense into Johnny, a well paid "fixer" who works for the mayor on the fifth floor of Chicago's City Hall.
Kelly enlists the help of Fred Jacobs, a reed-thin-Camel-smoking-deeply-paranoid-Pulitzer-Prize-winning investigative reporter --- and a source of information about Chicago's politicians and elite. Once Kelly gets a lead on Johnny's daily schedule, he tails the thick-necked bruiser's cab to a neighborhood on a tree-lined street in the old-money part of town. From a safe distance, Kelly observes Johnny entering an elegant cottage. Almost immediately, Johnny rushes out with a shocked look on his face.
After Kelly enters the cottage, he discovers the reason for Johnny's quick retreat. Hanging from the second floor railing is the body of an elderly man whose mouth is stuffed with sand. Kelly briefly examines the victim and crime scene before making his own speedy exit. He later calls the police from a pay phone to anonymously report the murder. The next day, after reading a report about the man's death in the newspaper, Kelly senses a cover-up in the making. While the article about the dead man includes the fact that he had been an amateur historian with a special interest in the Chicago fire, there's no mention of a homicide.
Kelly's discovery of the body and his deepening interest in the case propel him on a collision course with the police department and some of Chicago's most powerful and prominent citizens. With the help of some trusted friends, the fast-talking, street-smart and gritty Chicagoan uses his intellect and broad shoulders to stand up to all manner of crooks and thugs.
Author Michael Harvey has created a page-turner with a damaged yet interesting hero worth rooting for. THE FIFTH FLOOR is a novel about the worst and the best of the human condition --- power, greed, corruption and hate; loyalty, sacrifice, courage and love. Vivid writing, snappy dialogue and fast-paced drama, along with the mystery and intrigue of Chicago and its legendary fire, make THE FIFTH FLOOR an end-of-summer sizzler.
--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt
Summary of The Fifth Floor
Michael Harvey?s sizzling follow-up to The Chicago Way (?A wonderful first novel . . . Harvey has studied the masters and put his own unique touch on the crime novel . . . Heralds the arrival of a major new voice? ?Michael Connelly) opens with a murder in contemporary Chicago and winds its way back to Mrs. O?Leary?s cow and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.Private investigator Michael Kelly, the Windy City?s answer to Philip Marlowe, is back in another page-turner that revives a tantalizing mystery buried in Chicago?s past. When Kelly is hired by an old girlfriend to tail her abusive husband, he expects trouble of a domestic rather than a historical nature. Life, however, is not so simple. The trail leads Kelly to an old house on Chicago?s North Side. Inside it, he finds a body, and perhaps the answer to one of Chicago?s most enduring mysteries: who started the Great Chicago Fire and why. The ensuing investigation takes Kelly to places he?d rather not go: specifically, City Hall?s fabled fifth floor, where the mayor is feeling the heat. Kelly becomes embroiled in a scam that stretches from current politics back to the night Chicago burned to the ground, and along the way, he finds himself framed for murder, before finally facing a killer bent on rewriting history.
The Fifth Floor is fast-stepping, intricately woven suspense, rich with the lore and atmosphere of a great city. A marvelous successor to Harvey?s critically acclaimed debut.
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