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 broth...

For the boy, it was the first real chance for a future. For the man, it was one last chance to triumph over his past. Opportunities like these happen only once in a Blue Moon."An absolute charmer."—Library Journal Starred Review"Simply put, this is a ripsnorting good historical yarn full of circus lore, so smartly told by an expert storyteller that it's the kind of book truly deserving that overused term 'page-turner.'"—Chicago Sun-Times"With no safety net, Raleigh ...

A PI combs the seedy Chicago streets to untangle a web of old feuds that may have turned fatal: "This series is a small treasure" ( Booklist).Chicago private eye Paul Whelan is hired by an elderly jazz musician to find a missing street hustler named Sam Burwell. As Whelan delves into Burwell's past, in the world of sidewalk vendors and corner musicians, he uncovers old enmities and love affairs, but his search for Burwell comes up empty. That is, until Bur...

In the summer of 1967, a Florida bookie is found dead in a Chicago motel, a businessman is missing along with a satchel of money, and Private Eye Harry Strummer is in the middle of it.

In 1970s Chicago, a young man searches for the woman he lost—and finds a mystery: "Clever and surprising, a pleasure of a read" (Michael Allen Dymmoch, award-winning author of the Caleb & Thinnes novels).Home from military service, Billy Fox leaves Michigan and gets on a Greyhound to Chicago, hoping to find his ex-girlfriend, Rita—now another man's wife. Chicago isn't a town that takes kindly to strangers, and Billy finds himself barely scraping by, working odd job...

Death on the Chicago waterfront pulls a PI into a twisting case: "An underappreciated, carefully crafted series" ( Booklist).Two years ago, a computer software specialist was found dead in Belmont Harbor, an apparent suicide. Now, the body of a low-rent bookie has been found very close to the same spot—and the businessman's wealthy widow hires Paul Whelan to find out whether her husband really killed himself at all.There are, in fact, connections b...

A Chicago PI hunts for a missing kid who fell in with the wrong crowd: "Raleigh presents a genuine good guy in the luckless Whelan" ( Publishers Weekly).An elderly woman has asked private investigator Paul Whelan to look into the disappearance of Tony Blanchard—a young man she'd taken in after his parents died. Instead, Whelan discovers a string of murders, all tied to a car-theft ring.All the evidence suggests that Tony is dead as well, but Whelan...

It is the summer of 1946, the sinister, Gatsby-like millionaire Cary Morrison is found dead in his Chicago mansion, apparently the victim of a burglary gone hopelessly wrong. Soon after, the burglars themselves are found dead, one by one. Ray Foley, just returned from wartime service in Europe, finds himself embroiled. One of the dead burglars was Ray's boyhood friend Eddy Walsh, and Ray decides to involve himself in the search for the killer. At the heart of the mystery is a missing statu...

"The mystery fiction that Sara Paretsky fashions from Chicago's South Side is fully matched in Raleigh's gritty North Side tales" ( Publishers Weekly).Margaret O'Mara's brother disappeared decades ago. But now that his last known associate has just been found dead, O'Mara hires PI Paul Whelan to investigate.Whelan makes the rounds through seedy bars and dilapidated apartment buildings, discovering connections to a long-gone Chicago amusement park t...

The year is 1954 and Daniel Dorsey learns at the age of eight the intimate meaning of death when his parents are killed in a car crash. Taken in by his colorful, at times mad, and always tender and caring extended family, Daniel learns that even the deepest sorrows and hurt can be healed.Michael Raleigh's In the Castle of the Flynns is about a young boy growing up Irish in a vibrant 1950s Chicago neighborhood. Now grown and looking back on those years, Daniel recalls his bouts with...

A cheating spouse sparks the creation of a monthly dinner club as the heroine attempts to have an affair of her own.After Mary Ann’s husband cheats on her, the suburban mom decides to have her own affair. She starts up a neighbourhood dinner club as a cover and invites three men she has earmarked as potential lovers. Along for the ride is her best friend, Alice, who has recently returned with her young daughter to Oakdale, the cozy bedroom community where the two women grew up and ...

There aren't any zombies (yet), but the world is still at the brink of destruction: It's 2028 and global warming has led to rising oceans, crazy weather, and resource scarcity. On top of that, someone just turned the Internet off. Seeing as how it's humanity's last chance to turn things around manners are a bit frayed.Bookish etiquette buff Olive O'Malley is busy microfarming her urban property and minding her own business (and her chickens) when the government comes calling. Their...