Reviews

This is the Chicago story of my grandfathers and father and uncles. It's as tough and real and bittersweet as an old neighborhood dive. In fact, it might just be one come alive. - Bill Hillmann, author of The Old Neighborhood ...this smart, gripping crime novel has no place for nostalgia. It's a tough-minded 240 pages whose protagonist and narrator, Andy, would fit right in to classic film noir. - Pittsburgh City Paper In this memorable and tender novel that brings to vivid life working-class bar culture of 1970s Chicago, Bob Hartley has created a lovable cast of miscreants that brings to mind the great Studs Lonigan novels of James T. Farrell. - Joseph G. Peterson, author of Wanted: Elevator Man You're not sure you want to be among these people and yet...you're not going to find a good way to leave any of them. - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Is there a Chicago School? North and Central belongs on the shelf alongside Sister Carrie, Studs Lonigan, Native Son and The Man with the Golden Arm, works that truthfully portray the grit of Hartley's favorite city (and mine). - Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White Hartley tells a morality tale without preaching at the reader, letting the details build a finely crafted story. - Pittsburgh Quarterly Bob Hartley nails late-seventies blue collar Chicago, with jobs going away, bills coming due and cops you can't tell from the robbers. North and Central captures the loyalty, the toughness and the desperation of the shot and beer crowd. - Sam Reaves, author of Mob Cop