Eddie Miles is a cabdriver working the night shift in the city of Chicago. He doesn’t have much of a reaction to the spate of recent killings of local streetwalkers or cabbies, until it becomes personal: He notices a prostitute on a street corner, little more than a child, who he later finds has become the latest victim of the man who has been preying on the working girls. That was bad enough. But when a good friend is the fifth cabbie to be murdered, that does more than just get his attention.
In an interesting touch adding authenticity to the tale, each chapter is preceded by one of the Rules promulgated by the Public Vehicle Operations Division of the Chicago Department of Consumer Services. Not that authenticity is lacking in any respect. Indeed, the reader will come away from the book feeling as though he or she could navigate the streets of the town easily, so thorough is the geography provided by the author. And of course he comes by his knowledge legitimately, as the book was written while Mr. Clark was working as a Chicago cabbie. He describes the scene at the after-hours eatery where the cabbies congregate after their shifts, when the streets are populated by “the cops and the cabdrivers, and the drunks heading home,” and they share their stories, which become embellished with repetition.
The city is laid out for the reader warts and all, with no attempt to hide the more unsavory areas. Indeed, the reader is reminded not infrequently of the areas to which many, if not most, cabdrivers will not even venture for fear of being robbed, or worse. But the protagonist’s, and the author’s, pride in the Windy City is evident as well.
This is noir fiction at its best, with spare, realistic writing, a sympathetic protagonist, and a fast-moving plot. Highly recommended.
