Bill Joe/Granger Gash

I'm fond of police procedurals where you can't tell reporters and cops apart. Here Bill Grainger's pulp-fiction alter ego Joe Gash makes them equally world-weary and ambivalent about solving the crime at hand, a boozy reporter's beating death near Bughouse Square. This 30-year-old novel feels current yet absolutely reflects Chicago at the time, complete with a Canadian press baron, a street gang's religious trappings and a glum, snowy winter.

Excellent murder mystery set in 1970s Chicago. The dialogue of the cops, reporters & prosecutors is so authentic it's like you're a fly on the wall of the smokey back rooms of the insider's Chicago.