Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal, the second novel by Winnipeg writer Michael Van Rooy, is a well-written, convincing, and compelling novel. Reminiscent of Elmore Leonard and Andrew Vacchs, this is hard-boiled fiction laced with humour and an odd wisdom – a book you won’t mind losing sleep over. 

Monty Haaviko is trying to do the right thing, to live the right way. He wants nothing more than to be a good husband, a loving father, and a respected and active member of his community. The trouble is, Monty is a lapsed career criminal and a recovering drug addict. And no one seems willing or able to let him forget it.

Monty’s struggle is not for salvation but for normalcy. Of course, for Monty “normal” is somewhat different than it is for the rest of us. While most people would do little more than lock their doors and call the police when a crack house opens in their neighbourhood, Monty feels comfortable taking the notion of a neighbourhood clean-up quite literally.

His sense of morality, combined with his frank desire for a payday, sets the events of the novel in motion. He agrees to implement and supervise a smuggling route to bring refugees into the country, considering it an opportunity to use his criminal skills for a greater good.

When a powerful drug dealer gets word of the operation, however, and tries to take over the route for her own ends, some of Monty’s other criminal skills come in handy. And when a former prison buddy and partner shows up at his front door, looking to go straight himself, Monty finds himself in treacherous moral and psychological terrain.

Despite its bantering surface, there is much genuine feeling to the novel and its characters. Monty reveals considerable depths and inner contradictions, which add to both the book’s moral weight and its propulsive second half. The dialogue crackles, the characterizations are solid, and the plot unfolds in often surprising zigs and zags. It’s the sort of book that makes you want to keep reading. Thankfully, there are apparently more Monty Haaviko novels to come.