Peeper

by Loren D. Estelman

When private eye Ralph Poteet is summoned to a brothel where a monsignor lies dead in a hooker's bed, a simple opportunity for profit turns into a dangerous game involving Vatican and American politics

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

Reviews

[Eric_W]

I've read a lot of Estleman, and I wish he had written a lot more like this one. There were many laugh-out-loud scenes. Ralph is about the most uncouth and drunken P.I. one would ever care to meet, but even he could never have imagined the streak of bad luck he ran into this time.

"I made the mistake of anwering the phone. Since then I been doped, chased, busted, fucked, stuck guns at, almost burned, and throwed to the dogs. I’m out of a job. I’m wanted for murder, so I can’t go home. I got an appointment with a killer. I don’t even own a pair of shoes. My life’s always been shit, but lately there’s blood in it. What makes you think I’m in trouble?”

Just a great read.

[Abibliofob]

I was raised on noir and hard boiled detective stories and Loren D Estleman is one of the few authors still writing this stuff. Peeper or in this case Spanarn since I read the Swedish translation is just that. It is fast paced and hilarious and dark. I laughed out loud at some of the antics and had a hard time putting the book down. This book is apparently the first ever of his translated into Swedish in 1990, the original came out in 1989. I just love this kind of stories and it's another one set in Detroit. There is something with that town.

A few quotes in Swedish from the book:

Först angående gammal mjölk.
"Han hade alltid förundrats över att en tids jäsning kunde göra sådana underverk med olika sädesslag, men sällan med någonting annat."

På restaurang.
Han fick sin pannbiff på en stor tallrik tillsammans med ett elegantarrangemang av broccoli, persilja och några svåridentifierbara bleka kulliknande grönsaker. "Börjar stället få ont om råvaror?" Frågade han servitören. "Jag skulle kunna köra en långtradare mellan morötterna och vitlöken."

[Kat Scratch Fever]

I paid a quarter for this book and I want my money back. What a complete piece of garbage. A weird regurgitation of stereotypes, misogyny, homophobia and ignorance. And did you know he was from MICHIGAN??? As if forcing state landmarks down our throat would make this book more palatable. I hope I never read anything by this author again. Just total trash. I would give it 0 stars.

[Carolyn Rose]

Plenty of action here, but I found it hard to like the protagonist enough to really care what happened to him.

[David C Ward]

Estleman is one of the best genre writers around and prolific with it but this isn’t one of his best efforts. A slob of a PI stumbles into an into an incoherent plot involving the Church and the Justice Department. Poteet doesn’t wear well as a character and it’s all too over the top - tries much too hard. There’s a good joke about the Dain curse (Dashiell Hammett) though.

[Roger King]

Alter Ego

Ralph Poteet is Amos Walker’s alter ego, who Amos would be if he downticked from scotch to vodka to Mad Dog; if he lost his business and subsisted by grifting; if he lost his filter and told the cops what he really thinks, as well as just about everyone else. Just by unlucky proximity, he gets involved in a mad cap transfer of bodies around Detroit, complete with a femme fatale. As his old detective skills sweat to the surface, he survives the caper, not solve it. Estleman pushes every crime noir button in this one, and then some. This is a very funny parody of Amos Walker, the “Boy Scout”. Bulldog Drummond would like this one.

[Jim Collins]

What can I say, Ralph Poteet ain't no Amos Walker, but what a ride this book was! Estleman can do no wrong in my estimation, even when he writes about a slovenly, misanthropic, misogynistic, thieving, lying character such as Poteet. He spends most of the book completely misguided and incorrect in almost every assumption he makes, but he is quick with a barbed and inappropriate comeback, which is part of what makes this book as entertaining as hell.
Recommended, but not for the panty-waisted.

[Sandra]

Depending on your tolerance for a slovenly, dishonest detective who will cause you to laugh out loud or stop in disgust, this book is a four or a one. If you have never read anything by Estelman, don't stop here. His Amos Walker series is very good as are many of his other books. This one is crass, absurd, and, yes, funny. My husband insisted that I read it. Ok. I did laugh, but I definitely wouldn't was to cross paths with the main character.

[Beth Birnbaum]

I love Loren D. Estleman. Peeper, or Ralph, is one of the worst characters he's ever written, the guy is dirty and obnoxious and selfish and has pretty much thrown out any ethics.

So it's distressing to me that I love him!

And the book. Don't know how I missed this one, but was so happy to find it.

Read it for fun, but not for morality lessons.

[Tom]

One heck of a ride

One of the author's best works in my opinion, along with a gentle send up of the stereotypical down and out, unemployed PI who seems to have nothing but bad luck...and yet manages to pull everything together in the end....with some help. It's s little spicy, kinda reminds me of Mike Hammer. But this is a great read.

[Gregory Weisler]

A humorous story about a hard-boiled loser PI. The book was very entertaining, got me laughing out loud a few times. Recently discovered Estleman through one of his Westerns, and now I'm reading his Detroit centered books.

[Adrian Brown]

From my uncle. Not sure how to rate this one. It was a book about nasty people doing nasty things, nobody good in the bunch. On the other hand, it had a good plot, good pacing and good writing. I don't recommend it but it wasn't a bad book.

[Brian]

A number of LOL lines.

[Dave Wallace]

3.5 stars, the anti-Amos, still good characters and writing but the story left me less than fully engaged at times.

[Sarah Newton]

Yet another potboiler! from one of my all time favorite writers. The main character grew on me. Some of the situations are unlikely but then whose to say. I liked it! A fun read!

[Ken B]

I previously have read Loren D. Estleman's Sherlock Holmes work and was intrigued when I found what appeared to be a noir (hardboiled?) story.

I approached it thinking I was reading something like Sam Spade style noir but it soon became apparent that it would be more like Jack Nicholson in "Chinatown" neo-noir.

The protagonist is a private investigator for whom nothing goes right. Even when things go right, they end up horribly fouled. He finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation for which he soon becomes a suspect.

The book is heavy on doses of witty banter and a really great plot line that was hard to figure until the closing pages.

Very well written.

5 STARS

[Chad]

This is the first Loren Estleman book to disappoint. It wasn't a "bad book," but it wasn't a good one either. I think the main character was meant to be an Amos Walker foil and if so, then boy howdy, indeed he was. So much so, that for as much as I like Walker, I loathed this guy... That was the author's objective I think, but he did it too well.

[Steven Belanger]

Amusingly acerbic and depressing. Often laugh-out-loud funny, though you'll be ashamed of yourself afterward. Good writing and good mystery. One of the first of the true loser anti-heroes of the genre, someone you actually like, not one of Cain's sociopaths. Made me want to read more from writers like Elmore Leonard and Crumley, which led me to Robert B. Parker.

[Mike]

Good book! Review to follow shortly.