Monty Haaviko is back.

The bad guy-turned-good from An Ordinary Decent Criminal, by Winnipeg's Michael Van Rooy, has more stuff to deal with in Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal (Ravenstone).

This time around, Monty is putting his criminal expertise to work in order to help refugees. And he's found time to flush out the neighbourhood crack house.

Monty wants to do good, but his past keeps catching up to him. First off, his attempts to do the right thing always seem to involve breaking the law. Even worse, his jailhouse pal Smiley Wiebe drops by, wanting tips on going straight, and complicating things generally.

"I've done lots of research along the border and I've met a lot of interesting characters," Van Rooy says. "Smiley draws on them.

"To the best of my knowledge, Smiley is the first Mennonite bad guy," he adds. "Smiley is Monty with the heat turned up. There are some key elements missing from Smiley's life.

"Smiley doesn't know what he is. Monty does. When Monty looks at Smiley, he can see what he was."

As Monty tries to figure out what Smiley is up to, a local crime boss takes an interest in people-smuggling. Suddenly, Monty has got plans to make, stopping by the city's hardware stores to stock up on supplies such as duct tape and a Bionic Ear.

"Monty has a hustler's instinct," Van Rooy says. "He looks at the world and sees opportunity. He sees unguarded purses. It's a way of seeing that only bad guys have.

"Almost never does he use what he buys for its intended purpose."

An Ordinary Decent Criminal picked up the Sykes Award for Best First Book by a Manitoba Writer, and Roman Buchok of Winnipeg's Big Mind Films was so impressed, he optioned to purchase the film rights.

"I'm working on the script," he says. "I'm having a fantastic time."

Van Rooy launches Your Friendly Neighbourhood Criminal at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park, on Sept. 8 at 8 p.m.