No comments about Whiskey River (Detroit Crime Series #1).

No comments about King of the Corner (Detroit Crime Series #3).

5 comments about Retro (The Amos Walker Series #18).

1. I've become a fan of Loren Estleman. Whether he's writing of the Old West or contmporary Detroit, the man is simply an extraordinary storyteller.

   Amos Walker, former homicide detective and now struggling private investigator is asked to locate the long-ago runaway son of a local madam, so he can deliver her ashes to him.

   What begins as an oddball assignment turns into something far more when the son is murdered in his hotel room near the Detroit airport. Walker becomes a prime suspect.

   From that point on, Walker walks through past and present on a quest to find the real murderer - and solve a murder from decades past.

   There's a marvelous grittiness to Estleman's writing. His characters feel real, the plot twists and turns with not a few sub-plots to keep you guessing. And the ending leaves you wanting more Estleman. He's that good.

   Jerry




2. How appropriate to have a thriller based in Detroit read by a Detroiter! Veteran voice performer Mel Foster can summon many voices yet in this reading he returns to his roots. He sounds just like a Michigander, and a tough one at that.

   Estleman's creation, Detroit detective Amos Walker, can handle almost any situation. He's seen a lot in that city pierced by Belle Isle and rimmed by the upscale Grosse Pointes. Yet, he's not at all prepared for what's in store for him following the death of Beryl Garnet.

   Beryl was really something before she went to the great beyond. She was a madam who would make the contemporary Heidis seem inept. She enjoyed a lengthy tenure in the Motor City and made a small fortune.

   However, the lady has one last wish: she wants Walker to deliver her ashes to the son she hasn't seen in a number of years. Her plea is that she wants her son to know that he's always been in her heart.

   Well, Walker does have a soft side, so he goes in search of Beryl's offspring. The young man is soon located in Canada; he's a draft dodger. He need dodge no longer because shortly after Walker finds him Beryl's son joins his mom in the heavenly kingdom.

   Of course, Walker is a prime suspect in this murder. Obviously, Walker has to find the real killer in order to clear himself. For this smart Detroit detective that doesn't sound like much of a challenge - until he discovers one more killing. This time the victim is the father of Beryl's son. Now, mother, father, and son are perhaps traipsing about the clouds. But, it's not at all heavenly for Walker here on Earth.

   - Gail Cooke




3. A simple assignment--delivering a dead madam's ashes to her adoptive son--turns out complicated and dangerous as private investigator Amos Walker investigates. The son, a Viet Nam era fugitive, is surprisingly easy to track down, especially when Walker calls on a retired FBI former client. But, ashes delivered, the son has an idea that he'd like to hire Amos to track down his father's killer--a murder that happened decades earlier, in an era when black fighters were definitely not supposed to date white entertainers.
   
   When Walker's new client is killed in an airport hotel--a hotel behind all of the screening devices of modern anti-terrorism, Amos knows that the past has re-emerged. Especially since Walker was set up as a suspect.
   
   Walker mixes with a tough county police Captain, his retired FBI buddy, a couple of gangsters in town for what looks like a setup, the gangster's beautiful girlfriend who looks to Walker for help escaping, and the aging witnesses to the long-ago shooting. Whether in style, gangsters, or murder, everything old is new again--and Walker has to move quickly to stay alive himself.
   
   Author Loren D. Estleman delivers an exciting hard-boiled mystery. Walker, with his stuborn commitment to finding the truth no matter who gets in his way, is a classic retro figure himself. Interesting dialogue, fascinating introspection, Walker's cynical but true observations on life, and high suspense and danger, along with Estleman's compelling writing, make RETRO a fast-paced and hard-to-put-down novel. If you like hard-boiled private detective thrillers, RETRO is definitely one you should check out.



4. I'm a huge Loren Estleman fan and particularly love the Amos Walker series. While I'm tempted to give this lower than 4 stars, I can't because in spite of its flaws it's still a good read. Walker is probably one of the most enjoyable hardboiled PI characters there have been and Estleman is a great writer. The major flaw with this book is that the "whodunit" isn't a mystery. It's fairly clear early on, the only mystery is the why, and that's not terribly fascinating. I recommend reading any of the other Walker mysteries first. You should be invested in the series before picking this one up.



5. Loren Estleman is one of the grand old men of mystery writing, right up alongside Lawrence Block these days. Estleman, as far as I know, rarely makes the bestseller lists (Block's finally broken through) but among detective novel fans he's one of the best-known writers of his generation, turning out novel after novel in a series that is one of the best and longest-running in the genre. Amos Walker is a wonderful creation, a tough guy who's physically not that imposing, a wisecracking detective who's not above bending a law or two, an investigator who's pretty quick on the uptake but not quite as smart as he should be.
   
   In the current entry (the 17th) Walker's hired by an elderly woman who used to run one of Detroit's whorehouses. She's dying, and she wants her only son to have her ashes when she's cremated. She duly passes, and Walker finds the son hiding in Canada to avoid prosecution for indiscretions he committed when a young man in the 60s, that involved bombs and the deaths of his two co-conspirators. When Walker delivers the ashes, the son decides to hire him to find out who killed the son's father, a flashy black boxer from the late '40s, and soon after is killed by someone under circumstances that lead everyone to believe it's somehow connected to the death of dear old dad.
   
   From there the plot goes on, with mobsters, a moll, an upright cop and a decent and polite Canadian private eye, a bitter old mother, and an aging newspaper reporter. Estleman keeps the plot skimming along wonderfully, and the solution, while logical, isn't obvious (at least it wasn't to me) regardless of what anyone else says. I enjoyed this book and I'd recommend it to most anyone: it's a very good murder mystery.

5 comments about Sinister Heights (The Amos Walker Series #16).

1. It's an overworked phrase to be sure but Loren Estleman really is 'the legitimate heir to Raymond Chandler'. And even that's an injustice because Estleman is no mere imitator. His voice is his own - tough, poignant, as gritty as the streets he writes about, and with a killer ear for dialogue.

   The Amos Walker series has matured over sixteen novels from it's breezier, almost pulpish beginnings to one of the finest detective series in print. The sheer skill of his writing and his deftness of phrasing makes you gasp in wonder. I find myself constantly re-reading sentences just to savor them.

   Other reviewers have gone into the plot of Sinister Heights in some detail so I won't bother repeating it. The real magic here is the writing. This may not be the best Walker novel (Never Street and Sugartown are possibly better) but then I can't think of a bad one either.

   While other good PI writers have seen their glory days Estleman goes from strength to stregth with each new book. For those that still wish there were more Philip Marlowe novels, who've given up on Spenser and his clones or who just like the best in PI fiction available, don't go past Estleman and Walker.

   And, as other reviewers have noted, his western novels bout Marshall Page Murdock are well worth picking up too. They're really PI novels of the old west. Or his Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Hell, anything the man writes.

   Have I made my point? Don't miss Estleman. He's the real deal.




2. Being a huge noir detective fiction fan I found it a little difficult to muddle through this installment in the Amos Walker series. The plot starts out in typical fashion and then goes on to become Walker out for revenge, sort of like Walking Tall or something along those lines. The ending went back to a typical hard-boiled style of ending with the detective confronting the person behind the mayhem which was nice. Unfortunately this one just didnt do it for me. Estleman is definitly an accomplished author and all the other reviewers of this novel are right on target with most of their reviews but the revenge angle just didnt work for me.



3. I'm a huge fan of this series and of Estleman's books. My problem with this one is that it's completely absurd. I really have no idea what Estelman was thinking on this one. The ending is ridiculous. I'm sorry, you'll have to read it to find out exactly how silly it is. That being said, I could never tell a fan of the hardboiled PI genre to avoid any Walker mystery. Amos Walker always makes the read worthwhile, no matter how silly the events (this book) or predictable the killer ("Retro"). I do, however, recommend reading any of the other Walker mysteries before reading this one or "Retro."



4. Some of the Amos Walker novels are excellent. Sinister Heights is not one of them. The book has a too-short plot, so Estleman pads the novel with gobs of politico-babble, a car chase, and one of the most far-fetched endings I have ever read. Don't waste your time.



5. Loren D. Estleman's journeyman solo P.I., Amos Walker, is back working the mean streets of an ever-changing Detroit, as he is sent from the haunts of the very very rich to locate a lost heiress. His search will bring him into contact with various lowlifes from the social depths to those that walk in the ranks of elites, the movers and shakers of old Detroit. And criminality will be found everywhere, high and low.
   
   In an ever more computerized world, Amos knows he's a throwback, but finds there is still a niche for a tough guy, even a low tech one. This will turn out to be a nasty trek and a personally tragic one for Amos. The climax may be a little over-the-top but getting there is all the fun.
   
   Estleman's style is just as arch and funny as always. One reads him for the pleasure of the writing and the plentiful wisecracks, similes, and asides. Good stuff.
   
   Out of curiosity I read exactly one James Patterson novel, his last Alex Cross, and I was amazed at how badly written it was. And he sells by the ton. Go figure. Oh well, I'll never read another, so bless you Loren D. Estleman, and keep on keeping on.

2 comments about Hell on the Draw: The Best Western Stories of Loren D. Estleman.

1. I've never really thought of myself as a fan of the 'Western' genre, but soon found that this was not required in order to thoroughly enjoy "Hell On The Draw:Best Western stories by Loren D. Estleman". While each story is indeed rooted in the West, they are by no means your run of the mill 'shoot-em-ups.' Each one is completely different in mood and style, from lighthearted humor to dark twists of fate, from romance to a touch of the supernatural. The author fills each tale with people you'll find yourself wishing that you had known or vey glad that you didn't. The vividly described settings along with fine attention to historical details of events, people, equipment and weapons, pull you inside and make you feel as if you are there. Aside from the complete enjoyment of the stories themselves, this audio version features a variety of gifted voice talents well suited to the telling of these tales of the West.



2. These stories have a western flavor, though the one I liked best, 'A Web of Books,' was downright scholarly. He has a book collector on the run who had bought a ten dollar version of a volume of Shakespeare's tragedies from an old bookstore out West. He has been followed by another book collector to obtain a valuable rare volume entitled 'The Midnight Sky' which had been published in Scotland in 1758. There are murders along the way as the killer is bound to have what he thinks he deserves. Instead, he is found out by the crafty bookseller.
   
   He is my kind of writer who hates to have his work edited in any form or fashion. When he tried to get 'The Pilgrim' published, a crazy editor rankled him by changing a tad too much by using this as a scapegoat to vent all the vitriol accumulated in his job. He completely revamped it, omitting some of the necessary parts of the work. When he was demoted from that publisher to "Reader's Digest" it was a 'fitting punishment,' according to this author who had to almost rewrite the whole thing to satisfy this man's demands. Here, it is in the original state for the reader to decide on the changes.
   
   'Kate' was most interesting because this story gives the background of one of the important participants in the Wyatt Earp legend. She was born in Budapest but came to Davenport, Iowa, in 1863. She watched as the trains brought the alarming chain of coffins from Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Antitem, something which upset a young impressionable girl. And so she ran away and stayed in a convent for six months before marrying a 'professional' to get out of there. They went to Vicksburg, then to Atlanta, where things were all in a mess after Sherman's fateful March. In 1877, in a small town, she became acquainted with a personage of our history, one Doc Holliday and was just one of his women there in the saloon (like Gunsmoke's Miss Kitty). Before the big gunfight at the OK Corral, she became known as his wife.
   
   In 'Hell on the Draw,' the town of Persephone, out west, was taken over by the Devil on horseback. He bought the gambling house called Brimstone, and things went from bad to worse as he carried out his mission of death. It took a "retired" gunfighter named Marlowe (how about that?) to set things right again by not fighting fair. Whoever said that life is fair? I don't usually read short stories as they don't have the depth for elaboration as a novel, except for this writer. They may be based in the Old West, but they are varied and each a gem on its own.

3 comments about The Glass Highway: An Amos Walker Mystery.

1. Amos Walker has one heck of a rollercoaster ride in the third installment of Loren D. Estleman's suberb P.I. series. Its Christmas in Detroit and our hero gets seduced, beaten up, arrested, threatened; your usual yuletide activities. Along the way he encouters crooked cops, media hungry politicians, spoiled rich kids and ham-handed Federal agents. I'd rate "The Glass Highway" a notch above the first two novels in the series ("Motor City Blue" and "Angel Eyes") because its plot is tighter and more plausible. Nevertheless, there seems to be no such thing as a bad Amos Walker mystery.

   As a bonus, this I-Books edition features an afterword from the author regarding his inspirations for the novel. It also contains an Amos Walker short story, "Cigarette Stop" as the dessert to a very fine meal.




2. Loren Estleman's Detroit private investigator, Amos Walker, returns in the 4th instalment of what has become one of the most dependable private eye series of modern times. Displaying sharp humour, taut plotting and crackling dialogue, THE GLASS HIGHWAY is the archetypical hardboiled mystery.

   The storyline of THE GLASS HIGHWAY follows the well worn traditional formula of many private investigator books that have come before it or have followed. It's a missing person investigation that is solved very quickly, but in solving it many more questions are raised revealing a darker, more sordid mystery underneath. It's Estleman's ability to keep the pace high while the atmosphere borders on bleak that sets the story apart from others.

   The missing person that Walker is hired to find is Bud Broderick, the estranged son of local newsreader Sandy Broderick. Rather than showing concern for his son's safety, he wants him found because he is worried that Bud may be into drugs, a possibility that may adversely affect his broadcasting career. It doesn't take long for Walker to find Bud, but he also finds Paula Royce, the girl he has been staying with. It's Paula Royce who sends the investigation spinning off on a right hand turn.

   Soon after supposedly solving his missing person investigation, a murder takes place. Although Walker is, at best, a fringe participant, the police jump all over him, taking him in for questioning and locking him away for a couple of days. In quick succession, another couple of bodies are discovered by Walker, both somehow linked to Paula Royce, who has now gone into hiding, but who is still obviously the key to everything. It's up to Walker to piece the mystery together, save his own skin and keep his private investigator's licence.

   This is a gritty mystery combining clever, light humoured dialogue with Walker's darker more introspective moments. Walker displays a keen tenacity as well as an intuitive detective's brain in this very enjoyable hardboiled mystery.




3. Methaphor, descriptives, grit - Loren Estleman delivers it straight. No gratuitous violence, clear lines of right and wrong.
   
   "When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it." Amos would, except he's the kind of guy who would never want a partner. In a world of compromise, moral shades of gray and groupthink, Amos Walker stands out as a model of clarity and purpose.
   
   Then there's Detroit. No one captures the flat grayness of the city like Estleman, and, now that they no longer make Oldsmobiles, I don't know what he'll have Amos driving next.
   
   For pure escape into a bad world made better by the shine of one man, it's hard to beat this series. Within the series, though, this installment is not one of the steongest.

3 comments about Every Brilliant Eye (The Amos Walker Series #6).

1. "Every Brilliant Eye" is the sixth novel in the Amos Walker private detective series. Walker is a lonely, quick witted and highly principled P.I. who knows his native Detroit inside and out. In this novel, Walker is trying to locate an old friend he served with in Vietnam and in the process reveals more about his past than he ever had previously. He also becomes involved with the bewitching book editor Louise Starr, a holdover character from the previous Walker novel, "Sugartown." The only negative is that the story's police corruption angle is a bit shopworn. The Vietnam angle adds considerable weight and the ending is appropriately violent.

   Look for the i-books vintage paperback edition of this novel to be released sometime in Summer 2001. The i-books editions of the Walker series are first rate paperbacks with extra goodies added, including an afterword by the author.




2. I'm a big Amos Walker fan, and Every Brilliant Eye was excellent! When Amos, a smart-talking Detroit private investigator is hired to investigate the disappearance of his friend- a Vietnam vet- Amos finds himself at odds with the police and a series of odd-ball thugs, in cluding a union boss and a serial killer.

   In true Amos Walker fashion, he smart-talks, and one-liners his way through the plot, never relenting. Estleman has a great flare for writing and description.

   Overall, an excellent book, a must-have installment for fans of Amos Walker.




3. This is my first Loren D. Estleman book featuring his tough Detroit PI, Amos Walker. After the gratifying, but more "honored" works of James Lee Burke and Michael Connelley and Robert Crais, I found Estleman's hard-boiled prose imbued with the tough, wiseguy attitude both refreshing and perfectly pitched to capture the mean streets of the Motor City.
   
   Upon finishing, I bought nearly a dozen of Estleman's Walker books on Amazon, ranging as far back as possible up to the present, and am working my way through this, to me, previously unknown, but very talented, and very prolific author's works. And I am enjoying it immensely.

3 comments about Sugartown (The Amos Walker Series #5).

1. Loren Estleman writes in the author's notes that follow the story at the end of this i-books edition of "Sugartown," that the novel was his angriest in the series. Interestingly, Estleman places the source of his anger as the backdrop for the story. In the early 1980s, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young made a legally shaky eminent domain deal with General Motors that forced hundreds of long time residents from their homes so that a new assembly plant could be built. The displaced homeowners got a very raw deal and a historic neighborhood was destroyed.

   But the story Estleman weaves around these events is actually one of Amos Walker's more lively and fun. For once he finds a love interest to lighten his dreary existance. And the two cases he investigates involving Eastern European immigrants lead him in some interesting directions. Overall, this makes the fifth Amos Walker book the best so far in the series (I've been reading them in order) a fact which was confirmed when the book won the Shamus Award for best private eye novel of 1984. This i-books edition also includes inaddition to the newly published author's notes, a recent vintage Amos Walker short story at the end. Think of it as dessert after a fine meal.




2. Loren Estleman continues his excellent series of tough PI Amos Walker, working the mean streets of Motor City, complete with great thumbnail description, wiseguy dialogue, and rife with the sardonic simile and metaphor. This time Walker's missing-persons case takes him into the historic Polish section of Detroit, being quietly devestated by GM backed eminent domain, and mixing Amos up with Russian emigre writers, illegal religious articles traffickers and possible KGB agents. Not to mention encountering the gorgeous book editor Amos will meet again in Every Brilliant Eye, all the while finding a bit of illusive love with a nurse about whom he says "there are women that can be had, and there are women that can only be borrowed". Alas, Amos again must realize his limitations.
   
   Loren Estleman is doing as well with this genre as anyone. His books are great reads--lively, sharp and tough--and, yes, I am a fan and the rating reflects that.



3. Dryer than sand, more hard-boiled than ceramic eggs, makes Dashiell Hammett read like James Michener. Estleman has the hard-boiled detective genre nailed to the wall.
   
   Which raises the question: has the genre reached a point of diminishing returns? The logical conclusion would be books with one chapter, stories with one page, pages with one paragraph, paragraphs with one sentence, sentences with one word, words with one letter, stories so hard-boiled and fast-moving they consist of a blank sheet of paper.
   
   For this reason, the rating of Worth my time (4 stars) I think is the highest I can honestly rate any book in this genre. Not to take anything away from the enjoyment of reading it.

5 comments about Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17).

1. This is not the best Amos Walker by any means...very light plot, very apparent killer...but a "lesser" Amos Walker mystery is still miles above the best of most other authors. Buy it...you won't be sorry!



2. This latest Amos Walker mystery finds the Detroit based private eye in the employ of Latina singing sensation Gilia Cristobal. Apparently subscribing to the old saw that it's better to deal with the devil you know, Cristobal makes an unusual request: she wants Walker to track down a blackmailer, not to bring him/her to justice, but to determine whether he/she is alive and well. Accordingly, Walker embarks on a dangerous investigation, involving confrontations with the police, international drug smugglers, music industry gangsters and a pack of vicious guard dogs.

   Certainly one of the top mystery authors of modern times, Estleman offers yet another winning piece. Although Poison Blonde is his seventeenth (!) Amos Walker novel and his fiftieth (!) published book, the writing is as fresh and engaging today as it's ever been. Estleman has a real feel for the streets of Detroit, and a real understanding of his tough, frank, and often bemused private eye, an appealing mix of tough guy bravado and sensitivity. Rather than showing signs of wear, the series continues to offer up all the trademark humor, violence, suspense and surprises for which it is known. Hard-boiled detective fiction at its gritty best.




3. I was given "Poison Blonde" by a friend who is a big fan of the author and his work. I have an interest In Robert B Parker's Spenser series and Peter Corris's Cliff Hardy so Amos Walker should be part of a natural progression.
   
   Unfortunately, I cannot say that Estleman's creation, Amos Walker, lived up to some of the hype. I found "Poison Blonde" to be confusing to the point of losing interest. The narrative itself tries too hard to be of a crime genre. In fact, the narrative lapses to clichés regularly. Quite quickly, the clichés tire.
   
   Could I recommend the adventures of Amos Walker? Simply, the answer is "no". My friend will be disappointed but each to his own poison.



4. This is Loren Estleman's 50th book, and the 17th in the Amos Walker series. Walker's one of the more durable private eyes in the genre currently, with the series starting what must be 20+ years ago. He's a Detroit private detective, sardonic and sarcastic to the point of cliche, and with a first person narrative style that's very very noir. You have to have acquired a taste for this sort of thing, but if you have already been vaccinated, then it can be very fun.
   
   In this outing, Amos is hired by a Latina singing sensation who's visiting the motor city to record a music video. Some time ago someone started to blackmail her. After almost a year of accepting payments, the blackmailer didn't show up to collect her most recent three sets of payments. Since she told the singer that if anything happened to her, the information she was being paid to keep quiet would be released to the press, naturally the singer is worried that something *has* happened to her, and wants Amos to find her, and attempt to retrieve the information if at all possible.
   
   This is a typical Amos Walker detective story. It's not Estleman's best, but his less-than-best is pretty good and entertaining. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in private eye novels.



5. I was surprised that I had never come across Estleman's work before, given his long list of previous works and my affinity for detective novels. This one wasn't bad, but was brought down by some nagging items I had a hard time getting over.
   
   To start with, Estleman writes internal dialouge like a bad Bogart impression. Everything is a metaphor, or has an adjective attached to it. Some of it is very creative and colorful, but after a while it just gets to be too much to read through. I felt like I was wading through the novel, not reading it.
   
   The second problem I had was the plot: A famous latin pop star (pretty much Christina Aguilera) is about to have her shady past exposed and wants Amos Walker to prevent that. It really just seems kind of weak. Famous people do not go to jail for the type of things that are in her past (avoiding spoilers). This was not a hug problem, but it did kind of irritate me.
   
   Mostly the book was good. Pacing, action and dialouge were all well done. I think it just did fit well with me. OVerall, this is definatly worth a try to see if you like Estleman's style.

No comments about Thunder City.