Riverside Drive · Border City Blues

Jack McCloskey returned to Windsor, Ontario, from the Great War shell-shocked and battling inner demons. Channeling his energy into amateur fights, he's noticed by a gangster sidelining as a boxing promoter. After a brief professional stint, Jack is invited to join the crew. It's the early days of Prohibition along the Detroit River. Feeling trapped, Jack often tries to escape by throwing himself into relationships that are doomed from the start. Complicating matters further, a crime lord descends on the Border Cities, taking over all smuggling activity to finance his covert political agenda.

In sharp contrast is the story of Vera Maude, a young librarian also yearning to escape, but to the cafes of Greenwich Village or the Left Bank. All she lacks is will. The climax occurs in a gripping battle at the crime lord’s house on Riverside Drive and its surprising aftermath the following morning.

From BooklistApril 1919. Jack McCloskey, a WWI veteran, comes home to Windsor, Ontario. Aimless, still trying to shake off the horrors of the war, he drifts into competitive boxing, eventually hooking up with a promoter who is a small-time bootlegger with eyes on expanding his operation. Jack becomes one of the bootlegger’s soldiers. Complications ensue, as Jack’s father and brother are also bootleggers and have become a nuisance to Jack’s boss, encroaching on his territory. When Jack discovers that his relatives have been murdered, he sets out to determine if his boss was responsible. This is a gritty, stylishly written novel. It has a Boardwalk Empire feel, and the story itself, which finds Jack searching for a killer and accidentally finding out some things about himself, is—if not blindingly original—dramatic and occasionally moving. It’s the author’s first novel, but readers will hope it isn’t his last. --David Pitt

ReviewThis is a writer to watch.br br

(Globe and Mail 2013-05-18)

Windsor may look and feel a bit more like HBOâ??s Boardwalk Empire after reading Riverside Drive, the latest release from Michael Januska.

(The Drive Magazine 2013-06-01)

The book is well-written, itâ??s a great read and at fewer than 300 pages it can be finished in a relatively short time. . . [Januska] appears to be on his way to becoming a nationally recognized figure.

(Windsor Life Magazine 2013-01-01)

Itâ??s powerful material for a novel, and Januska shows great strengths for plotting and dialogue.

Revealing the history of the Border Cities, as the story unravels, gives insight as to what it was like to live in Windsor during that time.

This is a gritty, stylishly written novel. The tale has a iBoardwalk Empire/i feel, and the story itself, which finds Jack searching for a killer and accidentally finding out some things about himself, is . . . dramatic and occasionally moving. Itâ??s the authorâ??s first novel, but readers will hope it isnâ??t his last.br br

(Booklist 2013-01-01)