The Fifth Floor

Reissued to coincide with the paperback of The Third Rail

When Michael Kelly is hired by an ex-flame to tail her abusive husband, what looks like a bread-and-butter domestic dispute turns out to be more than he bargained for. The tail leads him to a body and the answer to one of Chicago's most enduring mysteries: who started the Great Fire of 1871 and why.

When Michael Kelly agrees to track the movements of an abusive husband, little does he know he is about to become embroiled in a murder investigation and a plot to re-write history. What Kelly thinks is a routine domestic case soon turns sour when he finds a body in an old house. As links with the City Hall's notorious fifth floor and Chicago's longest standing mystery start to emerge, it turns out the history books may not be quite what they seem. Plunged into a world of corruption and startling intrigue Kelly struggles to unearth the truth before an unknown enemy can frame him for the murder.

Michael Harvey's tough-talking ex-cop turned PI returns in this urgent, stylish, ferociously absorbing follow up to his masterful debut, The Chicago Way.