The Paul Whelan Mysteries Series

“The mystery fiction that Sara Paretsky fashions from Chicago’s South Side is fully matched in Raleigh’s gritty North Side tales” (Publishers Weekly).   Margaret O’Mara’s brother disappeared decades ago. But now that his last known associate has just been found dead, O’Mara hires PI Paul Whelan to investigate.   Whelan makes the rounds through seedy bars and dilapidated apartment buildings, discovering connections to a long-gone Chicago amusement park that was once the site of another murder. Soon, Whelan is navigating his way through dark pasts, deep secrets, and a mystery that may cost him his life.   “What makes this riveting private-eye yarn work is a mixture of superior Chicago atmosphere, with the ghost of the legendary Riverview amusement park lurking in the shadows; great dialogue; and compassionately drawn characters.” —Booklist

A killer terrorizes a diverse Chicago neighborhood in this “impressive first mystery” (Publishers Weekly).   Private investigator Paul Whelan’s specialty is tracking down missing persons. But when his good friend is found slain in an alley, Whelan is steered down a path of violence as he searches for answers in a murder case.   His investigation is interrupted by the arrival of an attractive young woman who is on her own search for her missing kid brother. But as clues lead Whelan to believe the two cases may be connected, the body count rises quickly, and he finds himself racing to catch a killer before he strikes again . . .   “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.” —Kirkus Reviews  

A Chicago PI hunts for a missing kid who fell in with the wrong crowd: “Raleigh presents a genuine good guy in the luckless Whelan” (Publishers Weekly).   An elderly woman has asked private investigator Paul Whelan to look into the disappearance of Tony Blanchard—a young man she’d taken in after his parents died. Instead, Whelan discovers a string of murders, all tied to a car-theft ring.   All the evidence suggests that Tony is dead as well, but Whelan keeps digging until he finds himself surrounded by a dangerous maze of silent witnesses, crooked cops, and people willing to kill to keep the truth from surfacing. When a friend from Whelan’s past emerges—a friend Whelan thought long dead—his investigation takes a dangerous turn: one that brings him no closer to Tony, and a lot closer to his own demise.   “Raleigh’s Paul Whelan series brings to mind the late Ross McDonald’s Lew Archer novels . . . Read Whelan now; he won’t be a secret much longer.” —Booklist

A PI combs the seedy Chicago streets to untangle a web of old feuds that may have turned fatal: “This series is a small treasure” (Booklist).   Chicago private eye Paul Whelan is hired by an elderly jazz musician to find a missing street hustler named Sam Burwell. As Whelan delves into Burwell’s past, in the world of sidewalk vendors and corner musicians, he uncovers old enmities and love affairs, but his search for Burwell comes up empty. That is, until Burwell is found murdered—and Whelan is swept up into a whirlwind of old feuds, dark pasts, unlikely romances . . . and a killer hiding in plain sight.   “There is method as well as charm in the congenial manner of Mr. Raleigh’s detective, who manages to conduct a very thorough investigation by winning over grumpy bartenders, crabby waitresses and wary old men on benches. He likes these people—and that’s good enough reason to like him.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times   “The smells and the sounds are evocative: the greasy food that Whelan thrives on, the dank workingman’s bars and the ever-present rattle of the el overhead . . . Raleigh presents a genuine good guy in the luckless Whelan and offers a knockout supporting cast.” —Publishers Weekly

Death on the Chicago waterfront pulls a PI into a twisting case: “An underappreciated, carefully crafted series” (Booklist).   Two years ago, a computer software specialist was found dead in Belmont Harbor, an apparent suicide. Now, the body of a low-rent bookie has been found very close to the same spot—and the businessman’s wealthy widow hires Paul Whelan to find out whether her husband really killed himself at all.   There are, in fact, connections between the two men—and as Whelan tries to sort them out with some unofficial help from a friend on the force, he’s drawn into a world of missing accountants, mysterious tough guys, and dirty deals . . .   “Sleek plotting . . . Raleigh, who delivered the goods in his debut novel, Death in Uptown, shows no signs of faltering.” —Publishers Weekly