Death in Uptown [Hardcover]

Michael Raleigh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1991

Death in Uptown is the first book in Michael Raleigh's widely praised Paul Whelan series. In this novel, a killer is loose in Chicago's colorful and racially-diverse Uptown neighborhood, and Paul Whelan finds himself drawn in for personal reasons. His search for the killer is complicated by the arrival of a client, an attractive young woman seeking her lost brother, and Whelan soon realizes that the woman's brother is somehow involved in his search, a search which does not end till five men are dead.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From 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.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Murder and other, slower, forms of death and decay on Chicago's skid row, as marginal p.i. Paul Whelan prowls among the winos and street preachers looking for the man who killed his even more marginal friend Artie Shears, who'd been interviewing derelicts for a book he hoped would turn his life around. When Whelan lands another client- -small-town ing‚nue Jean Agee, searching for her wayward kid brother Jerry--it's clear that the cases are connected, but how? Does Jerry know the mysterious Sharkey (a street person with a bodyguard, no less) whom Artie was excited about talking to, or is he another victim, or the killer himself? Whelan's persistent intimations of mortality amid the mounting body count (eventually including both the bodyguard and Sharkey) hint that things won't go well for him, and they don't; but the novel's depressive charge is offset by rare qualities of perception and pity. Newcomer 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. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 247 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (August 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312058497
• ISBN-13: 978-0312058494
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suspenseful Edge of your Seat Murder Mystery..., June 22, 2001

By 

Theodore Simon (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death in Uptown (Hardcover)

If you like murder mysteries, you have to read Death in Uptown. The way Michael Raleigh makes his characters come to life, with rich depth and great description, makes you want to page deeper and deeper into the book. It's suspenseful, it keeps you thirsty for more, and it shocks you at the end with the suspenseful ending. Michael Raleigh is my favorite murder mystery author...I definately recommend reading this book...If you like this book, check out his other paul whelan mysteries.

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-written Murder Mystery, August 24, 2010

By 

AirCharcoal (IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death in Uptown: A Paul Whelan Mystery (Paperback)

I liked this book, a good murder mystery, plausible characters, a very stark & realistic depiction of the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago in the 1980s (it has actually changed quite a bit!)..the best thing I liked about it was the colution was unexpected but made a lot of sense, not like some mystery authors who in prder to 'fool' the reader often come up with a perp which may be uexpected all right, but totally illogical & leave too many loose ends or forced explanations. So why 4 stars instead of 5? The one thing I didn't like was Paul's dialogue; OK a few wisecracks were OK, but repeatedly mocking the police detectives obesity or making jokey comments about murders...sorry that is acceptable im middle school, in a grown man it wears out very quicky. I guess the author thought it would make him cool - on the contrary it makes him sound immature. In my opinion that's 1 flaw in this otherwise very well-written book.