Frames (The Valentino Series #1)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
The LAPD wants to take the reels as evidence, jeopardizing the precious old film. If Valentino wants to save his find, he has only one choice: solve the murder within 72 hours with the help of his mentor, the noted film scholar Broadhead, and Fanta, a feisty if slightly flaky young law student.
Between a budding romance with a beautiful forensics investigator and visions of Von Stroheim’s ghost, Valentino’s madcap race to save the flick is as fast and frenetic as a classic screwball comedy. A quirky cast of characters, smart dialogue and a touch of romance make this Estleman's most engaging and accessible novel to date.
Retro: An Amos Walker Novel (Amos Walker Novels)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
"Have you noticed how often the word 'retro' occurs in today's advertising?" a white-shoe lawyer muses in Loren D. Estleman's Retro. "It's used to sell everything from ballpoint pens to wings of hospitals. These days, backward is the new forward." Which clues you in right away to the plot orientation of this short-fused 17th novel (after Poison Blonde) featuring Detroit private eye Amos Walker, a character who's always been nostalgic for the era of mobsters and molls and dialogue gritty enough to chip teeth.
Estleman here reaches all the way back to his first Walker book, 1980's Motor City Blue, in order to resurrect Beryl Garnet, a once-prominent whorehouse operator with a laugh "like Tinkerbell on crank," now in residence at an assisted-living facility. She hires the detective to find her not-too-bright adopted son, Delwayne, and make sure that he's given her ashes after she dies. Trouble is, Delwayne has been on the lam ever since his association with a 1968 plot to blow up the Detroit Federal Building in protest against the Vietnam War. Months later, and with the assistance of a vintage FBI agent and a politely proficient Canadian PI, Walker pins down his quarry in Toronto and hands over the late madam's "cremains." But Delwayne isn't satisfied; he wants our hero's help in solving the 1949 shooting death of his unacknowledged father, Curtis Smallwood, a black heavyweight boxing champ whose affair with a white Hollywood s! tarlet threatened her career. When, soon after this, Delwayne is murdered in a supposedly secure Detroit airport hotel--with the same .38 revolver that killed his father more than five decades before--Walker goes digging for answers. Along the way, he unearths a New York gangster's grandson, a mother with a record-setting case of hate, an overeducated mistress with leaving on her mind, and an electronic bug in his office that takes all the fun out of talking to himself.
Nobody these days outperforms the three-time Shamus-winning Estleman when it comes to penning wisecracking repartee--a reminder of the American detective story's deep roots in pulp fiction. ("Are you afraid of the police?" a would-be client asks, to which Walker responds: "Terrified. They're armed and they drink a lot of coffee.") Yet, while the Amos Walker series upholds many genre traditions, it has also grown beyond them, both as a result of the author's finely honed prose and Walker's willingness to recognize himself as an anachronism. A melancholy appreciation of the Motor City's often unsavory history just adds to the attractions of Estleman's work. --J. Kingston Pierce
As a detective on the mean streets of Detroit, Amos Walker has to make friends in low places. It’s part of the job. So when the incredibly successful madam Beryl Garnet needs somebody to fulfill her last dying wish, she turns to Walker. She hasn’t seen her son in a long, long time, and wants him to have her ashes when she’s gone just to let him know she hasn’t forgotten about him. Walker obliges her.
Walker finds Garnet’s son, Delwayne, a Vietnam War protestor who has been living in Canada since the 1960s, and hands over his mother’s ashes. When Walker returns to Detroit, he is surprised to learn that Delwayne is dead and he, Walker, is the prime suspect.
To clear his name, Walker must find the murderer. In the process he discovers another murder, of a prizefighter from the 1940s…Curtis Smallwood, Delwayne’s father. Walker knows he has his work cut out for him when he discovers that the two murders, fifty-three years apart, were committed with the very same gun. And even more puzzling, at the time of Delwayne’s murder, the gun was in the limbo of airport security, inaccessible, to say the least.
Motor City Blue (The Amos Walker Series #1)
by Loren D. Estleman
from I Books
"If I see my name in tomorrow's paper yours will be in the next edition. Bordered in black."
Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager? who also happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar-a semi-retired mobster who prefers to keep family business out of the newspapers. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eve Amos Walker, who quickly learns his new employer doesn't take "no" for an answer when he offers a job opportunity.
Unfortunately, the only clue to Marla's whereabouts is a pornographic photograph that clearly proves that she's become part of a world that disgusts even her criminal guardian. .
The photo, in turn leads Walker into the seedy world of Detroit's porn shops and blue movies, where Marla's trail becomes even murkier?.and increasingly more dangerous to follow. .
As first cases go, Walker could have certainly asked for one less challenging?...
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The first ever Amos Walker mystery; Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager … who also happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar - a simi-retired mobster who prefers to keep the family business out of the newspapers. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eye Amos Walker. Unfortunately, the only clue to her whereabouts is a pornographic photograph that leads Walker into the seedy world of Detroit's porn shops and blue movies, where Marla's trail becomes even murkier ... and increasingly more dangerous to follow.
Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
Gilia Cristobal is a flashy Latina singer with a complicated past. Her name isn't really Gilia. In her home country she's wanted for a murder she didn't commit, and she needs Walker to find a missing woman--the woman whose name she's using, whom she's been paying monthly so she can stay in the U.S.
But when the real Gilia Cristobal turns up dead, what was merely an odd case becomes downright nasty. His pretty young client is involved in a lot more than just music, and all of it's deadly.
Poison Blonde is an enormously entertaining, fast-paced novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Loren D. Estleman's never been better!
American Detective: An Amos Walker Novel (Amos Walker Novels)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
Walker is led to a meeting with a casino owner, who tells him Bairn owed money to a loan shark. The loan shark tells Walker that he is not the only one after Bairn. Soon Walker finds himself on the run from crooked cops and vile gangsters. Every time Walker thinks he’s solved the case, he finds out he is farther from the truth than when he started. This case will take all of Walker’s cunning, and will prove to be his greatest trial ever!
The Witch Finder (The Amos Walker Series #13)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Mysterious Press
"Stuart Lund came in at six-two and three hundred pounds in gray silk tailoring with a large head of wavy yellow hair, blue eyes like wax drippings, and a black chevron-shaped moustache he hadn't bothered to bleach." That description of a lawyer who summons private detective Amos Walker to a secret meeting with Jay Bell Furlong, a world-famous architect who is supposedly dying in Los Angeles, could have come straight from Raymond Chandler. So could characters with names like Royce Grayling and Lynn Arsenault. That's why Chandler fans should rejoice that Loren D. Estleman's Walker--who first appeared in 1997's Never Street--returns in grand style in The Witchfinder. Walking the wickedly hot streets of a Detroit described as vividly and lovingly as Chandler's Los Angeles, Walker searches for the nasty parties who faked a photo that shows Furlong's much younger lady friend in bed with another man, thereby scuttling the architect's last chance for romance. Walker takes a bullet to the head, sneaks out of the hospital too early, and generally behaves as though he hasn't heard that this classic branch of the mystery tree has been declared dead by so-called experts. Other Estleman outings in paperback include Red Highway, Stamping Ground, and Stress.
Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Mysterious Press
Break out the beer and bar snacks, because Detroit's favorite private detective--Amos Walker--is back after a seven-year hiatus. Loren Estleman personifies the term "professional writer"--he writes everything from historical novels to westerns with the same sure hand. But he's at his best getting under Walker's tough, prickly hide, using him to show what life in Detroit does to its inhabitants. This outing is a pure noir gem--a black and white movie classic in a book which in fact deals with a man obsessed with old gangster films. Previous Walkers available in paperback include City of Widows, Sugartown.
Nicotine Kiss: An Amos Walker Novel (Amos Walker Novels)
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
Now Walker, still gimpy and rehabbing, is trying to find Starzek. All he has to go on is his knowledge of Starzek’s territory—the Lake Huron shore north of Detroit—and a tip from Homeland Security agent Herbert Clemson. Clemson, who is also looking for Starzek, says the missing man might be connected to counterfeiters with ties to terrorists.
But Walker, gimpy, in pain, cold and tired, can’t give up on Starzek. It’s a matter of friendship, and he won’t let down a friend. He just hopes his loyalty doesn’t get him killed.
Angel Eyes (The Amos Walker Series #2)
by Loren Estleman
from I Books
'I'm going to disappear, Mr. Walker. Very suddenly and very soon.' .
Ann Maringer is a go-go dancer with a problem: her life is in danger, and she is certain that her end is coming soon. Her only hope is Amos Walker-a hot-tempered, Detroit based private eye with a caustic wit and a talent for getting into trouble. A guy who 'sticks like nuclear fallout,' according to a former client. .
When Ann disappears, Walker is hot on her trail. But this is no ordinary case, as the private eye soon learns-not when a union boss, a corrupt judge, a vengeful son, and a concerned mistress are just some of the players involved. .
And not when all of them want him dead?...
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Gas City
by Loren D. Estleman
from Forge Books
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