We All Fall Down Hardcover - 2011

Media reviews

Praise for Michael Harvey's We All Fall Down

“Harvey shows how a thrilled focused on bioterrorism should be done in his outstanding fourth novel. . . . The complexity of the plot never overwhelms the narrative flow in this utterly persuasive view of a present-day apocalyptic nightmare.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
Praise for Michael Harvey’s The Third Rail
 
“Jolting. . . . Harvey’s feel for Chicago ramps up the fast-paced, grimly realistic action.”
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
 
“Somebody needs to notify the authorities, because Michael Harvey is bound to create havoc and mayhem with his new thriller. . . . Harvey does for the Windy City what Michael Connelly did for Los Angeles: He commandeers it, warts and all, and wrangles it into his fiction.”
— Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune
 
“[A] knockout thriller. . . . Harvey dispenses the pressure plays, cruel surprises and heartbreaking setbacks of his plot with crack timing, never allowing the reader a moment to unfasten his seat belt. And all the while Harvey renders [P. I. Michael] Kelly’s Chicago in crisp, tough and ironic prose.”
—Gerald Bartell, The Washington Post Book World
 
“The suspense hums and the dialogue is truthfully tough, but it’s the writing that elevates Harvey to the top of the PI genre. He’s the best Chicago novelist . . . since Nelson Algren.”
—Les Roberts, Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
“Michael Harvey should be read by all.”
—John Grisham
 
“A major new voice.”
—Michael Connelly
 
“[A] stellar third novel. . . . Harvey stakes a persuasive claim as the preeminent contemporary voice of Chicago noir.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“[A] book-length jolt of pure adrenaline.”
—Kirkus
 
“The expert use of Chicago politics that distinguished Harvey’s previous novel, The Fifth Floor, is much in evidence here as well. . . . [T]he action is nonstop, Harvey once again captures the unique zeitgeist of the city, and Kelly, tough, smart, and a bit rough around the edges, is a true native son.”
—Thomas Gaughan, Booklist
 
“Harvey drives his third Michael Kelly entry (after The Fifth Floor) like an efficient train. . . . The mixture of high-speed drama and historical elements showcases the author’s journalist roots.  It comes off like a juicy true-crime story with abundant twists, ensuring that the reader is left feeling unbalanced most of the time.  Harvey shares his passion for Chicago, much like Gabriel Cohen does with his Brooklyn crime novels.”
—Teresa L. Jacobsen, Library Journal
 
Praise for Michael Harvey’s The Fifth Floor
 
“In The Fifth Floor, Michael Harvey gives us a tale of murder, bare-knuckle mayoral politics, and historical catastrophe–in short, the perfect Chicago detective story, complete with a loving tour of the city’s funkier locales that’ll make any displaced Chicagoan long for home.”
—Erik Larson, author of The Devil In the White City
 
“Michael Harvey has done for Chicago what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles and Dashiell Hammett for San Francisco. . . . Dazzlingly good.”
—Les Roberts, Cleveland Plain Dealer
 
“This is a first-rate detective novel that brings back the glory of those earlier heroes, but with the appeal of today’s modern world. They don’t come much better than this one.”
—The Journal Star
 
“Harvey is a budding superstar.”
—The Daily News
 
“Impressive . . . a tangled, fascinating tale.”
—Dick Adler, The Chicago Tribune
 
“A sophisticated caper that keeps readers guessing. . . . Rapt attention is necessary to keep track of the plot twists and characters, but Harvey brilliantly brings all the threads together, and provides a satisfying conclusion.”
—The Missourian
 
“Harvey . . . weaves Chicago history and politics with the conventions of mystery writing to create meditations on power—how it’s used, who it helps, and the way it hurts. . . . Honest, smart and funny.”
—Joe Kolina, Chicago Sun-Times
 
“A fresh take on the classic American private-eye novel. Reading it feels like putting on a favorite old sweater on a nasty Chicago November day, and it recalls Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald at the top of their form. Harvey makes Chicago and its politics a primary character, and the picture he paints is knowing and shrewd. . . . Like Chicago itself, The Fifth Floor is edgy but intoxicating, and Harvey seems ready to join Sara Paretsky at the top of the city’s crime-fiction A-list.”
—Thomas Gaughan, Booklist
 
“Supurb. . . . Harvey’s plot twists in all the right places, and his noir-inspired dialogue crackles without sounding showy. Marlowe and Spade would readily welcome Michael Kelly into their fold.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
 
 
Praise for Michael Harvey's The Chicago Way
 
“The efficiency of [Harvey’s] cinematic style . . . suits the brisk, animated shots of Chicago that give the story both grit and authenticity.”
—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
 
“An intricate, fast-paced crime thriller. . . . The book’s tightly drawn, relentlessly page-turning plot grabs the reader and doesn't let go until it rockets to a truly nasty surprise. In the end, it’s a fascinating story of revenge and expiation as old as the classics Harvey studied in college.”
—Joe Kolina, Chicago Sun-Times
 
“It is a measure of the ambition of Michael Harvey’s first novel, The Chicago Way, that we start it thinking about Dashiell Hammett and end it pondering Aeschylus.”
—Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post Book World
 
“A smart, stylish debut . . . fresh. . . . The dialogue is snappy and crisp and the characters pop off the page. The plot flows along swimmingly with plenty of surprises.”
—Hallie Ephron, The Boston Globe
 
“Michael Harvey’s tightly plotted evocation of the Chicago underworld is set in the present but brings to mind the voices of Chandler and Hammett.”
—Boris Kachka, New York
 
“[Harvey] composes punchy noir sentences that he stacks into punchy noir paragraphs that have all the rhythm, irony, and wit of the genre’s manly classics of the 1920s and ’30s.”
—Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly
 
“Gritty and witty, The Chicago Way is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way. Harvey’s taut plot, snappy prose, and memorable characters make this debut novel a real winner.”
—Kathy Reichs
 
“The Chicago Way is a wonderful first novel. Michael Harvey has studied the masters and put his own unique touch on the crime novel. This book harkens the arrival of a major new voice.”
—Michael Connelly
 
“Harvey has written a provocative novel that captures the grittiness of the Windy City and spins a murder mystery with a satisfying and out-of-left-field ending. . . . Readers will find the clipped cadence of Harvey’s dialogue and narrative wonderfully reminiscent of Raymond Chandler.”
—Carol Memmott, USA Today
 
“[Harvey] composes punchy noir sentences that he stacks into punchy noir paragraphs that have all the rhythm, irony, and wit of the genre’s manly classics of the 1920s and ’30s.”
—Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly
 
“The opening pages are packed with the kind of wry, dry narration that goes down as smoothly as a pulp paperback with a shot of rye. . . . A twisty page-turner.”
—Keir Graff, Booklist
 
“Harvey’s debut delivers a fast-paced thrill ride through Chicago’s seedy underbelly . . . [He] masterfully combines the sardonic wit of Chandler with the gritty violence of Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro series. Bringing Chicago to life so skillfully that the reader can almost hear the El train in the distance, Harvey is poised to take the crime-writing world by storm.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Heartfelt, ambitious . . . Kelly, a wisecracking Irish Scrapper, slings metaphors like Philip Marlowe and reads Homer and Aeschylus in Greek . . . Harvey ends up delivering the goods.”
—Kirkus