“Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal,” by Michael Van Rooy (Minotaur Books, 324 pages, $24.99)

The Canadian novelist Michael Van Rooy had a promising career as a crime fiction writer when he passed away suddenly in January. He had just published his third novel, “A Criminal to Remember.” He was on book tour in Canada to promote it when he died at the age of 42.

His American publisher just released his second novel here, “Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal.” Readers met the character Monty Haaviko in the first book, “An Ordinary Decent Criminal.” Monty is the criminal of the title. He doesn’t really want to be. Monty has done his time in prison. He’s trying to reform. He really wants to go straight.

Monty and his wife, Claire, hope to live quiet, law-abiding lives in Winnipeg. Monty would like nothing better than to stay home with their baby while Claire is out trying to make a living selling real estate. But money is tight, and Monty needs to find some new ways to generate income.

As the story begins, Monty is at the bank, where he is taking another step toward becoming a respectable citizen. Monty is there to open a bank account. But he’s unlucky. Trouble always seems to find him. As Monty is waiting in line, he spots some unsavory characters. The bank is going to be robbed.

Van Rooy stops the action there during the bank robbery and rewinds the clock back to the events that lead us up to that day. So Monty is looking for work. He gets a job offer from a woman named Marie. She wants Monty to help with her business. Marie smuggles people from Canada into the U.S.

Monty really needs the money. He accepts the job, then meets Marie’s disreputable crew of human smugglers. But before Monty can focus on new duties he wants to eliminate one distraction. He’s noticed a house in his neighborhood that is obviously being used for criminal activities.

The presence of that house makes Monty nervous. He takes matters into his own hands. Monty’s solution for the problem is amazing and amusing. Mission accomplished, Monty believes that: “with the drug house out of the way I could focus on the smuggling.”

But for Monty, nothing is ever simple. At 2:30 in the morning his doorbell rings. It is an ex-con named Smiley: “He was a bad man. As a bad man myself I can say with confidence that he was worse than I had ever been.”

The arrival of Smiley further complicates matters. He moves in. For a significant portion of the book, Monty wants to figure out why Smiley showed up when he did and what Smiley’s intentions are. Eventually he tells Smiley about the human smuggling operation.

He watches Smiley’s reaction to this news: “he listened and I waited and I saw greed spark in his eyes.” Skillfully, Van Rooy circles back to the original opening bank robbery. Van Rooy serves up a smoking, action-packed tale in “Your Friendly Neighborhood Criminal.”

It is sad he didn’t live to write more books. I can’t wait for his American publisher to issue that final Monty Haaviko thriller, “A Criminal to Remember.”

Vick Mickunas interviews authors every Friday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/ BookNook.html. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.