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Amos Walker #6
Every Brilliant Eye
To hear him tell it, Amos Walker is an unsuccessful man in an obsolete profession. Still, even P.I.s have a sense of honor, and Walker has always been a man who believes in paying back favors that people have done for him over the years. He owes his old friend Barry Stackpole a big one, for saving his life in a Cambodian shell crater a lifetime ago. Now Stackpole, lately a good, hard-scrounging reporter, has vanished. And finding him is the job Walker's been hired for-not once, but twice: first by Stackpole's newspaper, then by an attractive literary editor hot to track down an even hotter book the missing man's been writing. The investigatory trail becomes littered with a bewildering assortment of fresh dead bodies. Walker nearly joins the clutter when somebody rigs his steering and brakes. And a final revelation explosively narrows the distance between the tropical jungles of Asia and the concrete jungles of Detroit-and between one brand of war and another....
252 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1986
About the author
Loren D. Estleman
317 books282 followersLoren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He writes with a manual typewriter.
Estleman is most famous for his novels about P.I. Amos Walker. Other series characters include Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books.) His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Series:
* Amos Walker Mystery
* Valentino Mystery
* Detroit Crime Mystery
* Peter Macklin Mystery
* Page Murdock Mystery
Estleman is most famous for his novels about P.I. Amos Walker. Other series characters include Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books.) His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Series:
* Amos Walker Mystery
* Valentino Mystery
* Detroit Crime Mystery
* Peter Macklin Mystery
* Page Murdock Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
October 14, 2020
Amos Walker is asked to locate an old buddy, Barry Stackpole, with whom he served with in Vietnam by Stackpole's girlfriend. Then, Stackpole's employer (a Detroit newspaper) is desperate to have him appear in court, but he has disappeared without a trace, perhaps due to his investigative reporting. Even the bewitching book editor Louise Starr, a holdover character from the previous Walker novel Sugartown, wants Stackpole who has promised to deliver a book. Walker is tenacious and mixes it up with all sorts to solve the mystery, aggravating some and cajoling others along the way.
April 6, 2013
My View:
A thoroughly enjoyable read, Estleman is a gifted words smith. The streets of Detroit, the bars, the restaurants, the people of this alien landscape (Detroit is alien to me) come alive in vivid technicolour. The images of war in Cambodia are chilling, controlled, honest and are juxtaposed cleverly against the other war, in down town Detroit. He paints the pictures as he sees it; colour me real.
His hero, Amos Walker is a sardonic, eloquent, gutsy and determined and resourceful private investigator and a solid and loyal friend. Estleman has created a sympathetic character that comes alive on the page and has a life beyond the length of this novel – he is a worthy protagonist in the Amos Walker series, which to date number twenty three books that span a life from 1980-2013, an outstanding feat for a series.
I enjoyed this read. I enjoyed his lush almost poetic descriptions; “there was some sun, blinking, milk-eyed through shifting thin sheets of cloud (p.31) ...The reality is a stretch of broken pavement with the lines scrubbed off and signs on the corners, where there are still signs, rusting around bullet holes...the curbs are lined with long low cars with tailfins and syphilitic decay around the wheel wells.” (p.57) Beautifully written prose that despite the grimness is enchanting to read. I would love to see Estleman write in a genre other than crime or westerns, his words are so poetic. This novel is a fine example of how a crime novel should be written; brilliant prose, strong empathetic hero, realistic rather than gratuitous violence and sex scenes, a strong story line and the lashings of tension. I am a fan.
A thoroughly enjoyable read, Estleman is a gifted words smith. The streets of Detroit, the bars, the restaurants, the people of this alien landscape (Detroit is alien to me) come alive in vivid technicolour. The images of war in Cambodia are chilling, controlled, honest and are juxtaposed cleverly against the other war, in down town Detroit. He paints the pictures as he sees it; colour me real.
His hero, Amos Walker is a sardonic, eloquent, gutsy and determined and resourceful private investigator and a solid and loyal friend. Estleman has created a sympathetic character that comes alive on the page and has a life beyond the length of this novel – he is a worthy protagonist in the Amos Walker series, which to date number twenty three books that span a life from 1980-2013, an outstanding feat for a series.
I enjoyed this read. I enjoyed his lush almost poetic descriptions; “there was some sun, blinking, milk-eyed through shifting thin sheets of cloud (p.31) ...The reality is a stretch of broken pavement with the lines scrubbed off and signs on the corners, where there are still signs, rusting around bullet holes...the curbs are lined with long low cars with tailfins and syphilitic decay around the wheel wells.” (p.57) Beautifully written prose that despite the grimness is enchanting to read. I would love to see Estleman write in a genre other than crime or westerns, his words are so poetic. This novel is a fine example of how a crime novel should be written; brilliant prose, strong empathetic hero, realistic rather than gratuitous violence and sex scenes, a strong story line and the lashings of tension. I am a fan.
July 23, 2014
To paraphrase author John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee series); Estleman's Amos Walker is "one of the few characters who would be comfortable communing with his Ft. Lauderdale knight in shining armor". High praise indeed from one of the "Masters" of the genre.
With the recent demise of most of my favorite mystery authors (Robert B.Parker,Dick Francis,Phillip R. Craig, William Tapply and Stuart M. Kaminsky)I'm extremely gratified to find Loren Estleman who I've somehow missed during my 62 years of existence. I'm in the process of rectifying this oversight with great pleasure.
He writes some fantastic Westerns as well! Look for his Page Murdock series and a superb stadalone entitled "Sudden Country".
With the recent demise of most of my favorite mystery authors (Robert B.Parker,Dick Francis,Phillip R. Craig, William Tapply and Stuart M. Kaminsky)I'm extremely gratified to find Loren Estleman who I've somehow missed during my 62 years of existence. I'm in the process of rectifying this oversight with great pleasure.
He writes some fantastic Westerns as well! Look for his Page Murdock series and a superb stadalone entitled "Sudden Country".
February 5, 2017
An older Amos Walker book, this is one of the best in the series. Estleman's prose crackles with the feel and sound of old Black Mask magazine pages, and drops you right into the middle of Detroit in the mid-80s.
This time, Amos the Shamus finds himself looking for his old war buddy and regular resource Barry Stackpole. Stackpole has always been in danger due to his expose's and hard-hitting columns on government and crime, but this time nobody knows why he's vanished.
Walker takes the hardest missing persons case he's ever done; trying to find a man who has managed to evade and survive over a decade of attempts on him by professional killers. In the process, he uncovers something sinister going back years involving multiple bodies across the city.
This time, Amos the Shamus finds himself looking for his old war buddy and regular resource Barry Stackpole. Stackpole has always been in danger due to his expose's and hard-hitting columns on government and crime, but this time nobody knows why he's vanished.
Walker takes the hardest missing persons case he's ever done; trying to find a man who has managed to evade and survive over a decade of attempts on him by professional killers. In the process, he uncovers something sinister going back years involving multiple bodies across the city.
September 3, 2008
Have been reading some of my old Estleman paperbacks. This is a very good one. The Amos Walker series is highly recommended. Also the (likely more obscure) shorter series about hitman Peter Macklin. Also other Detroit novels like "Edsel", "King of the Corner", etc. I actually prefer Estleman to Elmore Leonard.
May 3, 2018
This is the lone, hard boiled PI on the mean streets with parsed tense dialogue you have been waiting for. The dialogue, what can I say it's brilliant and the story was different enough to make it more than "just more bodies piling up", which they do, but it's not tiresome. A fine ending is all I can say about that too. I am also a sucker for all the (unexplained, so know your stuff) historical references spat out of our hero Amos' mind in telling us the first person story, from the Praetorian Guard offing emperors to the Purple Gang; and Michigan cultural tidbits from reminding you the Lone Ranger was a Detroit show to clear channel WJR from the Fisher building. Get this one if you like good writing.
Bulldog Drummond, Philo Vance, familiar old names you don't hear anymore.
Bulldog Drummond, Philo Vance, familiar old names you don't hear anymore.
November 23, 2025
Book 7 in the Amos Walker detective series taking place in Detroit.
Amos has been hired to find his military friend the newspaper writer who is working on ruining his life over drinking, writing a book and going into hiding after uncovering a link to several old murders in the city.
Walker does his usual detective work reviewing all the clues and finding a link. He is beaten in gut, threatened by phone, followed and wrecks his car.
Past people from previous books are brought back into this story and making a good reminder of why I like the character.
Amos Walker also has integrity and turns down a missing person job by making some calls and mailing the information to the non-client.
Amos has been hired to find his military friend the newspaper writer who is working on ruining his life over drinking, writing a book and going into hiding after uncovering a link to several old murders in the city.
Walker does his usual detective work reviewing all the clues and finding a link. He is beaten in gut, threatened by phone, followed and wrecks his car.
Past people from previous books are brought back into this story and making a good reminder of why I like the character.
Amos Walker also has integrity and turns down a missing person job by making some calls and mailing the information to the non-client.
November 25, 2022
Amos Walker is an enigma, the hardboiled PI from Detroit is unpredictable as he is hard-nosed. I read "Sugartown" which was significantly better in plot, mystery and wit. This one is very good, but I had to reread several passages that were hard to understand. Good but a little The dialogue in this installment actually admits that Walker talks like a character from the 1940s that's been transported to the 1980s. It works but is easily recognizable. Sort of like Phillip Marlowe meets Rick James.
December 21, 2022
Amos Walker is back, the hard boiled private dick takes on a missing person case. What makes this case special, it that Walker is looking for his friend Barry Stackpole who has gone under the radar and must be found to testify before a grand jury. During the search Amos stumbles onto a cold case murder reaching as far back as the war, that both he and Barry fought in. The mean gritty streets of Detroit are traversed as Walker beats the pavement searching.
February 3, 2023
This is the first Walker book that I didn't really enjoy. It had its moments but there didn't really seem to be much of a mystery to solve and I didn't find the supporting cast to be very interesting. Still has great dialogue but just not enough of it. Hard to get into the story and just a little bit boring.
June 14, 2018
brilliant.
July 9, 2019
A very good detective story set in gritty Detroit. But the author has some lyrical passages that are poetic and deep which surprised me.
July 25, 2021
Vey good Amos Walker detective novel. Looking for a newspaperman who has uncovered a police hit squad.
April 12, 2026
Gives an era feel. Hard boiled detective but post vietnam
March 18, 2017
Gritty Detroit.
Cops running a murder for hire racket
Chop Shops.
Lots of murders.
Amos Walker survives.
Cops running a murder for hire racket
Chop Shops.
Lots of murders.
Amos Walker survives.
Read
October 13, 2019Loren D. Estleman is one of those writers who have found success in at least two worlds: westerns and detective mysteries. I have enjoyed his westerns ever since I met him at a writer’s conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. EVERY BRILLIANT EYE, however, is his first mystery I have read.
It is solid mystery, with an interesting character. The protagonist is Amos Walker, who almost seems a throwback to the heroes made popular by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Like them, Amos is quick with a metaphor or a clever quip.
Metaphor: “… the moment hung in time like a miner’s hat on an oaken peg in a saloon abandoned ninety years ago.”
Quip: “What I needed was a vacation. What I had was a drink.”
At first it almost seemed a little over the top, almost like a gimmick. We find out, however, this is not entirely the case, as revealed in this exchange:
“You talk and act just a little like a character in a black-and-white film.”
I broke a pack of Winstons out of a carton in the drawer of the telephone table and held it up. She nodded with a smile.
“It has its advantages,” I said, stripping off the cellophane. “Sometimes it pays to let the people you meet in this business think you’re into some kind of trip. When they think they’ve pegged you your job’s half over.”
“It’s not all an act, though, is it? You’re really that way.”
One thing that is authentic is the setting. The story appeared in 1986, which doesn’t seem that long ago, except that that the world in the book almost seems from the dark ages: daily big city newspapers were actually relevant; Viet Nam was still vivid in our collective unconscious; no cell phones or computers, you needed a dime for the pay phone; smoking was not treated like a crime.
I don’t think Estleman originally intended for this to be such a jarring juxtaposition of past and present. For current readers, however, it does add an additional level of meaning, which adds to already good story.
It is solid mystery, with an interesting character. The protagonist is Amos Walker, who almost seems a throwback to the heroes made popular by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Like them, Amos is quick with a metaphor or a clever quip.
Metaphor: “… the moment hung in time like a miner’s hat on an oaken peg in a saloon abandoned ninety years ago.”
Quip: “What I needed was a vacation. What I had was a drink.”
At first it almost seemed a little over the top, almost like a gimmick. We find out, however, this is not entirely the case, as revealed in this exchange:
“You talk and act just a little like a character in a black-and-white film.”
I broke a pack of Winstons out of a carton in the drawer of the telephone table and held it up. She nodded with a smile.
“It has its advantages,” I said, stripping off the cellophane. “Sometimes it pays to let the people you meet in this business think you’re into some kind of trip. When they think they’ve pegged you your job’s half over.”
“It’s not all an act, though, is it? You’re really that way.”
One thing that is authentic is the setting. The story appeared in 1986, which doesn’t seem that long ago, except that that the world in the book almost seems from the dark ages: daily big city newspapers were actually relevant; Viet Nam was still vivid in our collective unconscious; no cell phones or computers, you needed a dime for the pay phone; smoking was not treated like a crime.
I don’t think Estleman originally intended for this to be such a jarring juxtaposition of past and present. For current readers, however, it does add an additional level of meaning, which adds to already good story.
January 1, 2016
Vintage Amos Walker
Not much to add here. If you've never read (or met) Amos Walker, be ready for a big surprise. If you don't know anything about Detroit or Michigan, be ready to become educated. Estleman is a mater of the private eye story, and does it with class. He also writes western novels, and some historical crimes fiction. In spite of the quality of the writing, the story always flows, and the characters ring true.
Not much to add here. If you've never read (or met) Amos Walker, be ready for a big surprise. If you don't know anything about Detroit or Michigan, be ready to become educated. Estleman is a mater of the private eye story, and does it with class. He also writes western novels, and some historical crimes fiction. In spite of the quality of the writing, the story always flows, and the characters ring true.
March 4, 2013
This man can write! Suspense, terrific writing, characters you’ll be talking about in your sleep – he may well be on a par with Raymond Chandler himself.
Be good to yourself! Jump on this and treat yourself to one terrific read! Hey! You deserve it? Right?
Be good to yourself! Jump on this and treat yourself to one terrific read! Hey! You deserve it? Right?
April 23, 2008
As an old Detroit boy I love Estleman's writings
September 5, 2013
I'm working my way through the Walker series and I found this to be a well written and entertaining entry.
November 17, 2024
Just love Amos, can’t help it
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews