Death in Uptown
-
- $10.99
-
- $10.99
Publisher Description
A killer terrorizes a diverse Chicago neighborhood in this "impressive first mystery" (Publishers Weekly).
Private investigator Paul Whelan's specialty is tracking down missing persons. But when his good friend is found slain in an alley, Whelan is steered down a path of violence as he searches for answers in a murder case.
His investigation is interrupted by the arrival of an attractive young woman who is on her own search for her missing kid brother. But as clues lead Whelan to believe the two cases may be connected, the body count rises quickly, and he finds himself racing to catch a killer before he strikes again . . .
"Raleigh seems to have gotten so deeply inside his hero and his seamy world that there may be nothing left for a sequel. But it would be great to be wrong about that." —Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The vividly realized setting of this impressive first mystery is Uptown, an ethnically diverse Chicago neighborhood peopled with winos, street preachers, students, derelicts in doorways, juvenile gangs, Iranians, Greeks, Koreans, Mexicans, Pakistanis and other citizens of the world. Nice-guy private eye Paul Whelan is an Uptown native who avoids violence when he can, uses fists when he must, and often defuses incendiary situations by establishing common ground with very unlikely types. Although Whelan's speciality is tracking missing persons, he isn't having any luck locating a young would-be construction worker who has disappeared from the YMCA. But there's progress in his other quest, cracking the murder of an old friend, an alcoholic ex-newspaperman found bashed to death in an alley. Eventually he makes a key deduction that breaks both cases. Raleigh dishes up a slew of characters here, and even those who appear only in passing are named, causing some confusion but also lending verisimilitude. Graphic descriptions and just enough action make this a promising debut.
