Sweet Women Lie

Amos Walker #10

by Loren D. Estleman

Entangled in a scandal involving a Hollywood woman and a quarter of a million dollars, Amos Walker experiences a bittersweet reunion with his ex-wife and becomes trapped in a game of lies and murder. Reprint. NYT.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Loren 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

Reviews

[Skip · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded down. A very convoluted plot involving a washed-up actress named Gail Hope, a teenager Amos Walker's poster girl. The only good part of this book was getting to know a little about Walker's ex-wife, who is involved with a CIA agent, who is being hunted himself. I hope #11 is better than this.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet! Women lie?

Estleman and his Detroit detective Amos Walker is my favorite hard-boiler of all time. He's almost always dead-on laconic, and the settings in dirty and decaying Detroit are perfect for the less-said-the-better writing style that lets Estleman put over a detailed mystery in 180 small paperback pages.

Sweet Women Lie is no life changer, just a good way to spend a couple of hours with an old friend. Walker gets involved in a mystery involving the CIA (an unusual twist for Estleman), his ex-wife,and a fading beach-movie actress who was tied into both.

But the plot isn't the thing anyway. Read it for the noir.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always liked Loren D. Estleman. I like the Detroitness of them. Every time I read an Amos Walker or other of his books its like seeing an old friend.

[Wayne Zurl · Rating 4 out of 5]

SWEET WOMEN LIE by Loren D. Estleman…..

In this 1990 installment of an Amos Walker mystery, Walker takes on a case for an aging 1960’s movie queen and encounters a pair of CIA agents, his nasty ex-wife and a naïve private eye, all in their own way make him jump through hoops to solve a murder, keep from getting killed himself and expose a case of treason.

One of the more straight forward plots for Amos to work with, but still with a nice twist at the end and 181 pages of good old-fashioned PI Noir.

[M. Sprouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
The Amos Walker series is modern hard-boiled at its best, though I can't remember people talking like that in 1990. I gave the last Amos Walker book I read, Silent Thunder 5 stars and this one is close, but I'll split the difference. The plot in this story is complicated or at least it seems that way because much of the pertinent information is at the beginning of the story and at the end.

The middle of the book gives us a beautiful view of Walker's ex-wife and his character. Still the writing and the noir of the book outshines the plot and makes this an excellent read for those who like authors like Ross MacDonald, Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loren Esteleman is a reliable hardboiled crime writer. Sweet Women Lie doesn't disappoint with many double crosses, interesting plot and characters. At 193 pages, it's a quick read, I wanted the characters fleshed out a bit more and I'm still trying to sort out the motivations of a couple characters. I like the descriptions of 1990 Detroit with the People Mover and Trappers Alley. Some other locations don't seem very probable for Detroit but they make they story interesting. Overall it provided a fun few nights of reading.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better Amos Walker novels. Estleman works in the nuances of the prematurely aged Detroit of the 1980s like an accomplished master of noir. Great dialog, interesting and surprising plot. I think I'll read another.

[Robert James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry is not in the same league with earlier entries. Not a lot of action and barely any of that trademark Estleman dialogue. Estleman tries to infuse some spies into Walker's world and it's not successful.

[Harry Addington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty private eye story set in Detroit. Series gets better and better.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Amos book. Being from Detroit I love to read about the city during that era. Detroit is a great city and I will be reading more of these books.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I really did, since its set in Detroit. But I did not like the writing style -- it felt like forced hard-boiled. The plot was pretty convoluted and far-fetched. Sadly, I won't be seeking out the rest of the Amos Walker series.

[Linda Hampton · Rating 2 out of 5]

very different

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5-More old-school, hard-boiled Detroit detective fiction from the prolific Loren Estleman. Not a bad read, but the plot didn't seem as sharp as some of the earlier entries in the series.