Chicago cop Gus Carson was bad, crooked, and dangerous before he went to war. But, having survived a Japanese submarine attack in the Pacic, he returns a changed man. So it is plain lousy luck that hes with a pretty hooker in a brothel when a gunman murders two people there. Old habits die hard, and Carson takes the gunman down, saving the state of Illinois the cost of a trial...and gets suspended from the police department for his good deed. Now, with few prospects and no cash, Carson accepts a job that smells shy from jump street: an aspiring politician hires him to nd a kidnapped black racketeer. The hunt will send Carson on a dangerous ride through the city, where his life soon isnt worth the price of a beer. And for those who dont remember the 1940s, thats ve cents. A page-turning noir detective story, 46, Chicago proves Monroe to be a new master of the genre. Crime fiction readers who insist that the good guys win and the bad guys lose, and that you ought to at least be able to tell the two apart, should steer a wide course around Steve Monroe's '46, Chicago . Moral compromise and relativism are the very foundations of this somber yet compulsively driving yarn about power and greed and the corruption they engender. Gus Carson used to be as mendacious and brutal a cop as the Windy City could produce. But after barely surviving a World War II Japanese submarine attack in the Pacific, he's turned positively respectable. "No fights, no bribes, no extortion," his superior recalls, approvingly, "not even a restaurant owner complaining that you demanded free doughnuts and coffee." Then one night, Carson shoots a black man who's just killed a white lawyer in a brothel, and he's suspended from the force--just in time to go to work for a Republican mayoral hopeful, who promises him reinstatement and $500 if he can find a kidnapped black racketeer named Ed Jones. Sounds straightforward enough, except that Carson suspects the attorney's death and the Jones case are connected. To whose benefit, though? And how do these crimes relate to an underworld struggle for control of Chicago gambling? As he did in his first novel, '57, Chicago , Monroe brings distinction to a fairly conventional noir plot. His juxtaposition of caviar-class white and worker-class black cultures adds depth to this occasionally violent drama, his exposure of Carson's conscience is patiently and convincingly done, and some of the dialogue here is sharp enough to cut lips. '46 Chicago treads where more practiced detective novelists, such as Max Allan Collins, have already been, but still leaves tracks worth following. --J. Kingston Pierce Former bad cop Gus Carson must battle both criminals and his past in this well-crafted work of hard-boiled fiction from Monroe ('57, Chicago). Before going to fight in World War II, Carson was as corrupt as they come, but he's returned a changed man after watching his friends die. Soon after coming back, however, Carson is witness to a murder during a whorehouse tryst, eventually felling the shooter himself. Suspended from the force for his indiscretions, Gus is soon hired privately to track down a missing person. What seems a relatively simple kidnapping, however, soon turns into a complicated scheme involving numerous members of Chicago's high society. The action moves quickly, and Carson is a likable character despite some glaring flaws. Monroe not only manages to capture perfectly the flavor of 1940s Chicago but also writes in wonderfully spare prose. The obvious comparison is to James Ellroy, but Monroe deserves to have this one stand on its own. Recommended for public libraries. Craig Shufelt, Lane P.L., Fairfield, OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Monroe has moved the clock back 11 years since '57 , Chicago (2001), but the focus is still on the city's gritty underworld, and the mood remains decidedly noir. Postwar malaise, the breeding ground for noir, weighs heavily on the shoulders of Gus Carson, who isn't the dirty cop he was before the war but still can't stay out of trouble. In the wrong brothel at the wrong time, he intercedes when a gunman shoots up the place, getting himself suspended in the process. Out of work, he is hired by an aspiring politician to find the kidnapped gang boss who runs the city's numbers racket. Hidden agendas loom everywhere as Carson's search takes him from the squalor of the South Side to the opulence of suburban Lake Forest. One thing is clear: Carson has been handpicked as the fall guy. There are some plot holes, and the conclusion isn't as dark as it should be, but Monroe's homage to postwar noir hits enough right notes to please fans of the genre. If only Dana Andrews were alive to play the lead. Bill Ott Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "(A) classic hard-boiler." -- Publishers Weekly "A splendid sense of place and time...a swift plot, crackerjack dialogue and an oddly appealing hero." -- Chicago Sun Time