Synopses & Reviews
Loren Estleman is the quintessential noir detective writer, and Amos Walker is his quintessential noir detective. Walker has made a lot of friends--and a few enemies--in his years as a detective in Detroit, but he has never had to deal with quite the trouble he finds when he agrees to grant the death-bed wish of Beryl Garnet. Beryl was a madam, but she had a son a long while ago, and asks Walker to make sure that her son gets her ashes when she's gone.
He finds her son, who has been in Canada since the 1960s, evading the law since he was a Vietnam War protester. A simple favor, melancholy, but benign. Except that before he can get settled back in Detroit Garnet's son is dead, with him as the prime suspect.
He has little choice but to find out who might have done the deed and tried to pin the blame on him. . . and in the process he discovers another murder, of a boxer from the 1940s, Curtis Smallwood, who happens to have been the man's father. If that wasn't bad enough, his task is made much more complicated by the fact that the two murders, fifty-three years apart, were committed with the very same gun. And in a place where it was impossible for a gun to be.
Review
“Loren D. Estleman makes his strongest stand for the pure, unvarnished glory of the classic American private eye in Retro.”
--The New York Times Book Review
“Nobody does the hard-boiled private eye novel better than Loren D. Estleman.”
--San Diego Union Tribune on Retro
"Loren D. Estleman is a master. He is one of my heroes. If you love the classic private eye novel and haven't met Amos Walker, man, you are in for a treat."
--Harlan Coben
Review
"Reading a new Amos Walker adventure is like settling down and listening to an old, reliably entertaining friend."--
Publishers Weekly "Loren D. Estleman makes his strongest stand for the pure, unvarnished glory of the classic American private eye in
Retro."
— The New York Times
Review
“Loren D. Estleman makes his strongest stand for the pure, unvarnished glory of the classic American private eye in Retro.”
--The New York Times Book Review
“Nobody does the hard-boiled private eye novel better than Loren D. Estleman.”
--San Diego Union Tribune on Retro
"Loren D. Estleman is a master. He is one of my heroes. If you love the classic private eye novel and haven't met Amos Walker, man, you are in for a treat."
--Harlan Coben
Review
"Loren D. Estleman makes his strongest stand for the pure, unvarnished glory of the classic American private eye in Retro." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Nobody does the hard-boiled private eye novel better than Loren D. Estleman." San Diego Union Tribune
Synopsis
Quintessential noir detective Amos Walker becomes the prime suspect after a client winds up murdered--by the same gun that murdered the client's father 53 years ago. To save himself, Walker must solve both murders.
Synopsis
When Amos Walker grants the last wish of a Detroit madam, he finds himself enmeshed in the mystery of the murders-53 years apart--of a father and son . . . with the same gun, in a place where it should be impossible for a gun to be! Before he can track down the murderer he's accused of the son's murderer, fingered by the mob, and on the spot with the FBI.
A wonderfully suspenseful, exciting noir detective thriller by one of the masters of the genre.
Synopsis
Synopsis
As a detective on the mean streets of Detroit, Amos Walker has to make friends in low places. Its 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 hasnt seen her son in a long, long time, and wants him to have her ashes when shes gone just to let him know she hasnt forgotten about him. Walker obliges her.
Walker finds Garnets son, Delwayne, a Vietnam War protestor who has been living in Canada since the 1960s, and hands over his mothers 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, Delwaynes 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 Delwaynes murder, the gun was in the limbo of airport security, inaccessible, to say the least.
About the Author
Loren D. Estleman was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a BA degree in English Literature and Journalism in 1974. In 2002, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters for his contribution to American literature.
He is the author of more than fifty novels in the categories of mystery, historical western, and mainstream, and has received four Western Writers of American Golden Spur Awards, three Western Heritage Awards, and three Shamus Awards. He has been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Britain's Silver Dagger, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, the mammoth Encyclopedia of Detective Fiction named him the most critically acclaimed writer of U.S. detective