The Third Rail by Michael Harvey



A Solid Crime Story

Originally Published in 2010.

The Third Rail is the third book in a series about Michael Kelly, a hard-boiled former cop turned private detective. Lots of action and lots of tension build throughout the book as Kelly investigates a series of seemingly random attacks on Chicago's famed Elevated Train system.
Photo by Kelly Martin

 For me, this was a welcome change of pace from the seemingly endless books about crime in NYC and LA, cities that I know only from television. I am a Midwesterner and I am familiar with the Windy City so I had no problems envisioning the neighborhoods and the city skyline.

That being said, the plot was not terribly original (the TV show Castle ran a similar premise as an episode while I was reading this book) and the old saw with the Catholic Church being corrupt and more worried about PR than anything else has been played too often as of late.

Chapter 26 features an especially clever point of view on victims of a shooting on Lake Shore Drive - it's rare when someone has a new way of looking at things in an overcrowded genre such as the crime novel.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5 and it can be found on Amazon.com here: The Third Rail by Michael Harvey. 

 Reviewed on April 21, 2010.

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