by John Wessel
Page-Turner of the Week
A CHICAGO SHAMUS WHO GOES SIMPLY by the name of Harding has lost his P.I. license, spent a few months in prison for trying to kill a child molester and then, while on a cheating-hus-band surveillance, becomes a murder suspect. The sensual Elenya Rosenberg, bent on divorcing her husband, who favors very kinky sex, holds the key to Harding's past and present. Author Wessel, a former Chicago bookseller, has a perfect eye for the Windy City—and for crime. He assembles a cast Raymond Chandler would love. Along with slam-dancers and alcoholic lawyers, there's Harding's ex-partner, who, says Harding, "grew up with me on the South Side and paid his Catholic school tuition stealing ten-speeds from the church lot." For a perfectly executed mystery, a reader need go no further. (Simon & Schuster, $23)
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