Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal

Title: Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal

Author: Michael Van Rooy

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Series: Monty Haaviko, Bk 2

ISBN: 9780312606305

Pages: 324

Obtained: ILL library copy

Comments:

I read the first book in this series, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, for The Canadian Book Challenge 6. I read this one because I wanted to know how things went for Monty after the last book.  The only way to do that (without purchasing it) was ILL.

A smuggling ring is being set up to traffic people (refugee sorts) between Canada and the US, and Monty has been paid to help with making the route secure and the smuggling so quiet as not to be noticed by officials on both ends.  Too bad one of the original crew had a drug problem and a big mouth.  Now others want to use the route for more nefarious purposes (drugs, guns, etc.), and Monty needs to clear this issue up.

I think Monty is slipping. Oh he says he's gone straight, but he's does more and more criminal like activity as he goes. It's as if he thinks, "If it isn't for gain, or if it is for good, it's okay." Mmhm. Right. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing how he solves the situations he comes across. I have to say that the violence is pretty up there though. The willingness to torture, etc.  Somehow, despite Monty's tendency toward violence and a character that is so very different (from me and my world) that it's hard for me to comprehend, he makes the story.

Anyway, I have to try the third book, A Criminal to Remember.  But that will be the last since the author, Michael Van Rooy, passed in early 2011.

An Ordinary Decent Criminal

Title: An Ordinary Decent Criminal

Author: Michael Van Rooy

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Series: Monty Haaviko, Bk 1

ISBN: 9780312606282

Pages: 278

Obtained: ILL Library copy

Comments:

Michael Van Rooy was a Canadian author I discovered on NoveList (unfortunately he passed in 2010).  This is the first of his crime series, and it sounded interesting so I decided to try it.

Monty/Sam is a criminal trying to go straight.  He's moved with his wife and young son to Winnipeg to get a fresh start.  But that's kind of hard to do when you have guys breaking into the house you're renting and you shoot them - all in the first 2 pages of your story.  Monty is arrested and assaulted by the police and can't really lead his new life with this hanging over his head.

The detective who arrested him is set to let everyone know about his past and ruin his start before it's even begun.  And the cousin of one of the robbers he shot is after him to hold up his reputation.  His very first employer fires him after one day's work, and his landlady is trying to have them evicted, and the neighbors don't want him around, and someone's trying to get him to break under his addiction, and, and, and...

So maybe Monty needs to go back to his old ways - just a little - to set things right and make his future possible.

The language and everything else is pretty graphic.  Monty is going straight for his family and new beginnings  - not because of any remorse.  The dust jacket says he's a "antihero who readers will root for against all odds."  I don't know what to think of him really.  I wouldn't say I like him (and I can and do like criminal protags - thieves and assassins and all).  But I did root for him too.  I think it was the justice (or lack) of the thing.  I mean, the man is trying to do things differently, whatever the reasons, and you're gonna mess that up for him?  It riled the part of me that wanted to advocate for prisoner's rights back when (If only I had the nerve to actually speak up - which I don't because I'm terribly shy, really.  But that was a career path I considered at one point.).

The story kind of reminded me of the television show Prison Break, even though Monty's completed his time and isn't even on parole or anything so it isn't the same thing at all.  Anyway, I hope to read the second book, Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal, because I'm curious how things go for Monty, but I'll have to ILL it, too.