Howard Shrier’s first novel, Buffalo Jump, won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel. High Chicago, his second, will definitely be short-listed for another. It’s got the same stellar characters, the same clever plotting, and, if anything, an even better story.
If you missed Buffalo Jump, you might not know that investigator Jonah Geller, of Toronto, nearly died. He has left his very lucrative job at Beacon Security and opened his own small investigative shop, which he calls World Repairs. He may not be able to solve the world’s biggest problems, but he’s willing to try on the small stuff. That, Jonah believes, is where the interesting work is to be found.
Jonah and his partner, Jenn Raudsepp, are hired to investigate the suicide of a young woman. It seems simple enough, but the case leads Jonah into the very high-stakes construction business, and particularly a large development on the Toronto waterfront. From there, it’s a quick skip to murder and a trip to Chicago, to uncover the past and present of a rich and powerful man who seems to be able to order the death of anyone who gets in his way. — Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
