Michael Haskins: August 2010 Archives

Canadian author Michael Van Rooy introduces an appealing antihero, Montgomery Haaviko, in his debut, a gritty, offbeat suspense novel, An Ordinary Decent Criminal, that has been released this month by Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books.

Haaviko is what the guards in London's Wormwood Scrubs Prison call "an ordinary decent criminal." It's a way of differentiating the burglars and smugglers from pedophiles or terrorists. Only there's very little about Haaviko that is ordinary.

A reformed career criminal, he knows every trick of the trade: from how to conceal your fingerprints with a spot of Crazy Glue to the best way to survive a brutal police interrogation (scream a lot; it makes the cops feel better to know you appreciate their work).