Wow. A good thriller. Clancy style. I even remember when the train fell off the El. It was good to read about home. Not a good book for school. Too much cop/shop talk. ( )

Book # 3, in Michael Kelly, PI series

Thrillers are all about fast-paced plots and a hero that faces impossible situations and somehow get himself/herself out just in the nick of time. Definitely Michael Harvey has patted down this formula to a tee and is exploring it to the max. In the previous novels some historical incident were the bases for the plot, “The Third Rail” is no deferent, the story in the 3rd book relates to an accident which happened in 1977 when a four cars on E1 derailed and plunged to the street killing 11 persons. In this mystery Kelly was on board, his father was the conductor….fast forward to today, Kelly is drawn into a deadly cat- and mouse game when one morning while he was waiting for a CTA commuter train a man shoots and kills a woman near him….this is déjà vu all over…..and the start of random killings…and a PI on the chase.

This story is pure adrenaline rush as its peels its mystery one page at a time in a tone that is tough reflecting the protagonist rough side. The author deftly alternates between Kelly’s first-person perspective and third-person accounts of the men Kelly seeks. The many intersecting plot threads in this convoluted tale need our full attention although they do come together by the end, you will miss out if your attention wavers just a bit. This book is an engaging and a pretty good action thriller featuring tough, cynical characters in a bleak setting and is one hard to put down. ( )

The first two novels in Michael Harvey's Michael Kelly mystery series, The Chicago Way and The Fifth Floor, were both 5-star reads. By those standards, The Third Rail fell a little short, but it is still an excellent mystery. Michael Kelly finds himself at the right place at the right time (or perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time) when a sniper kills a woman on the L. It soon becomes clear the killers have far bigger plans to terrify Chicago, and they want Michael Kelly along for the ride. Harvey lets the bad guys share narration in this novel, and the insight into their actions wasn't as compelling of the rest of the mystery. The ending, however, is delightfully ambiguous. ( )

In Chicago a sniper kills a woman as she waits for her train then another woman is killed while on a different train. While authorities in the city scramble to bring things under control, private investigator Michael Kelly is contacted by the killer who starts hinting at what may lie behind the killings. Kelly, an ex-cop, is allowed a tangential role in the hastily established task force and, of course, he becomes pivotal to the events.

For me thrillers are all about fast-paced plots with impossible situations which a hero will somehow get himself and/or the village/city/world out of just in the nick of time. The Third Rail provided an interesting take on this formula and was certainly a quick read with plenty of tension. I did think the plot was unnecessarily convoluted though and this detracted a little from my enjoyment. I don’t think the book was helped by basing separate threads on completely unrelated real world events, one of which seemed to have no point whatsoever other than to, perhaps, lay the seeds for a future book. Surely a story about a rush to stop a series of terrifying spree killings and uncover the reason behind them should have been enough to sustain a great thriller.

I did like Michael Kelly and although I haven’t read the earlier books I didn’t feel that I was missing out on anything vital by not knowing his back story. Enough hints are dropped that I managed to create one for him in my imagination. In some ways he’s a typical thriller hero, being impossibly bullet-resistant and all of that, but I am a sucker for a guy who loves his puppy and is cynical about almost everything else. His relationship with his girlfriend, who struggles with the risks associated with his work, was one of the more realistic elements of the book for me and quite a highlight. Another highlight was the depiction of Chicago both physically and politically which helped add a credible element to the novel (though perhaps I am being unfair in thinking that corruption in the city’s political circles adds to the realism).

The alternating points of view between Kelly, the killer’s and others suited the style of the novel though jumping from first person to third person narrative was a bit awkward with such short chapters. Overall though this is a fast and easy read which you will not want to put down once you’ve started. ( )

A kind of far fetched motive for a serial killer but the story is otherwise OK. ( )