Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Michael Raleigh

Born: 1947 in Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Raleigh is a lifelong Chicagoan. He grew up on the north side of Chicago, spending the first 11 years in the neighborhood around old Riverview amusement park, a neighborhood that is the setting for his novel ''In the Castle of the Flynns''. The family later moved to the area now called Wrigleyville. Michael attended DePaul Academy for high school, and then attended DePaul University, where he received a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in English literature, with a minor in American history.

Biography: The author of eight novels, Raleigh has received four Illinois Arts Council awards for fiction. He is an emeritus professor of English and History of the City Colleges, currently teaching at DePaul.


Awards:
  • Fellow of Illinois Arts Council 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1989

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction; Mystery

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Email: castleflynn@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.midlandauthors.com/raleigh.html
Michael Raleigh on WorldCat : http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=michael+raleigh


Selected Titles

A body in Belmont Harbor
ISBN: 9781626816206 OCLC: 908245058

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1993.

The body of a small-time drug dealer washes up in Belmont Harbor among the yachts of Chicago's wealthy. Convinced that this murder connects to her husband's suicide two years prior, wealthy widow Janice Fairs hires private eye Paul Whelan to investigate. Whelan's investigation takes him into the rarefied air of the wealthy, where he begins to discover unlikely connections between the two men in the harbor. But Whelan isn't the only one snooping, and he discovers himself an unwitting player in a game of cat-and-mouse, with deadly consequences.

A body in Belmont Harbor /
ISBN: 059509340X OCLC: 54446962

ToExcel Press, an imprint of iUniverse.com, San Jose : ©2000, 1993.

Death in uptown /
ISBN: 0595093418 OCLC: 53141502

ToExcel Press, an imprint of iUniverse.com, New York : 2000.

Death in Uptown.
ISBN: 1626816190 OCLC: 908245025

Diversion Books, 2015.

A killer terrorizes Chicago's diverse Uptown neighborhood. 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. His investigation is interrupted by the arrival of an attractive young woman, Jean Agee, who is on her own search for her missing 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.

  In the castle of the Flynns
ISBN: 9781501288838 OCLC: 935359029

MODERN & CONTEMPORARY FICTION (POST C 1945). The year is 1954 and Daniel Dorsey learns at the age of eight the intimate meaning of death when his parents are killed in a car crash. Taken in by his colorful, at times mad, and always tender and caring extended family, Daniel learns that even the deepest sorrows and hurt can be healed. Michael Raleigh's In the Castle of the Flynns is about a young boy growing up Irish in a vibrant 1950s Chicago neighborhood. Now grown and looking back on those years, Daniel recalls his bouts with grief and fear of abandonment as he learns to adjust to his new surroundings amidst his oddball family. It is a time of wakes and weddings, conflicts and romance. Above all, it is a time when Daniel comes to understand both his own loss and the dark places in the lives of his loved ones. In the Castle of the Flynns is a poignant, often hilarious story of hope, passions and unforgettable memories.

In the castle of the Flynns :
ISBN: 0425190366 OCLC: 52824784

Berkley Books, New York : 2003.

  Killer on Argyle Street
ISBN: 9781435656987 OCLC: 234092290

Books in Motion, Spokane, WA : 2008.

Private investigator Paul Whelan searches for a runaway boy. What he finds along the way leads him into a dangerous maze of complicated loyalties, where neither the police nor possible witnesses will cooperate.

Killer on Argyle Street /
ISBN: 0595093434 OCLC: 841370249

ToExcel Press, an imprint of iUniverse.com, San Jose, CA : 2000, ©1995.

  Maxwell Street Blues.
ISBN: 1626816212 OCLC: 908244896

Diversion Books, 2015.

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, the world of street 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. Soon Whelan is swept up into a whirlwind of old feuds, dark pasts, unlikely romances...and a killer hiding in plain sight.

Peerless detective
ISBN: 162681242X OCLC: 916529654

Diversion Books, New York, New York : 2015.

Home from the war, Billy Fox leaves Michigan for Chicago, hoping to find his ex-girlfriend, Rita--now another man's wife. Chicago isn't a town that takes kindly to strangers, and Billy finds himself barely scraping by, working odd jobs and living in squalor among convicts and other men that the city hasn't spit out just yet. A chance encounter lands him a job with Harry Strummer, the streetwise owner of the Peerless Detective Agency. At Harry's oddball agency, Billy hones his skills, learning how to stake out a mark, find a bug, and spot a tail. Odd life lessons and unexpected romance come his way. But as he searches for Rita, an even bigger mystery comes along, one that puts Harry, and Billy with him, in the crosshairs.

Peerless detective /
ISBN: 1626817804 OCLC: 909319962

"Home from the war, Billy Fox leaves Michigan for Chicago, hoping to find his ex-girlfriend, Rita--now another man's wife. Chicago isn't a town that takes kindly to strangers, and Billy finds himself barely scraping by, working odd jobs and living in squalor among convicts and other men that the city hasn't spit out just yet. A chance encounter lands him a job with Harry Strummer, the streetwise owner of the Peerless Detective Agency. At Harry's oddball agency, Billy hones his skills, learning how to stake out a mark, find a bug, and spot a tail. Odd life lessons and unexpected romance come his way. But as he searches for Rita, an even bigger mystery comes along, one that puts Harry, and Billy with him, in the crosshairs." --

Riverview Murders.
ISBN: 1626816239 OCLC: 908245118

Diversion Books, 2015.

Margaret O'Mara's brother disappeared thirty years earlier, so when his last known associate is found murdered, O'Mara hires Chicago 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 where another murder took place forty years prior. Soon, Whelan finds himself navigating his way through dark pasts, deep secrets, and a mystery that may cost him his life.

The Blue Moon Circus :
ISBN: 1402202385 OCLC: 78194334

Sourcebooks Landmark, Naperville, Ill. : ©2002.

Although he is a circus man through and through, Lewis Tully has not been in the business since he was wiped out by a flood in 1919. When a poker game generates a fair amount of cash, he decides to give it one more go. From across the country, he summons veteran performers to create a small but special circus with unique acts, including an ancient magician, a lonely giant, and an ailing clown, not to mention an outgoing red gorilla and a bellicose camel. Perhaps his most difficult task, though, is to take care of a nine-year-old orphan put in his care. Lewis then sets off to thrill the inhabitants of small western towns, many of whom have never seen a circus.

The Blue Moon Circus :
ISBN: 9781492616498 OCLC: 882097218

Together with a magician, a snake handler, a Russian animal tamer, and a nine-year-old orphan, ringmaster Lewis Tully tours the American West in 1926 with his circus act for one last time before settling down.

The conjurer's boy /
ISBN: 0983321663 OCLC: 823740714

Harvard Square Editions, New York : ©2012.

The Maxwell Street blues /
ISBN: 0595093426 OCLC: 54446977

ToExcel Press, an imprint of iUniverse.com, San Jose : ©2000, 1994.

The Riverview murders :
ISBN: 0312156413 OCLC: 36343465

St. Martin's Press, New York : 1997.

Margaret O'Mara hasn't seen her brother in thirty years, when he was running a bar in Florida with an old war buddy. When the buddy turns up dead on a Chicago pier, P.I. Paul Whelan turns up a group of World War II pals and a forty-year old unsolved murder in the ruined amusement park at Chicago's Riverview Park.

 

 

Accessibility