Howard Akler’s debut novel, The City Man, is an engrossing and entertaining quick read. Part crime novel, part love story, The City Man is set in Toronto over three months in 1934. Swiftly moving scenes, most lasting only as long as it would take the thieves who populate the novel to pick your pocket clean, move between the offices of the Daily Star newspaper and the commotion of the streets of Toronto.

The story centres on Eli, a reporter returning to the Daily Star after a mental breakdown, and Mona, one half of a pickpocket team working out of Kensington Market. Eli is assigned to report on the growing pickpocket problem after a particularly successful spree during the Toronto centenary celebrations. A photograph leads him to Mona, and he quickly moves from interviewer to lover, at the same time transforming Mona and her partners’ status from a small-time menace to public enemy number one.

The novel slows considerably in the middle, as the thieves lie low in response to the increasing public outcry. Akler uses this time to explain much of the language and actions of the thieves. He accomplishes this by having Mona, who is unable to truly give herself to Eli, offering to teach him her craft. Akler writes in a highly visual style, but it is a welcome relief to have the period slang and actions explained in a bit more detail. The pace picks up again in the final part as the thieves return to action and Eli’s torn loyalties bring the story to its exciting conclusion.

Akler, co-author of Toronto: The Unknown City, uses his familiarity with the city to quickly establish the gritty working-class setting of the novel. Characters are well developed, with the supporting cast all given enough detail to make them interesting. At only 160 pages, the novel can be read in a sitting, yet never feels rushed. Hopefully Akler’s next outing will steal an entire weekend and not just an evening.