American Detective

Amos Walker #19

by Loren D. Estleman

Hardboiled detective Amos Walker returns for his nineteenth outing in his most challenging case yet. Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust. Walker goes to Bairn's apartment, only to be ambushed by cops. A murder has taken place, and the victim is Fuller's daughter. Walker and the cops assume that Bairn is the murderer, but Walker has no idea what he is getting into.

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!

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Detective

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2007

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

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amos Walker is hired by a financially embarrassed baseball hall of famer to find his daughter, and prevent her from marrying her loser boyfriend. It seems she comes into her trust fund shortly.

Walker pokes around, and finds links to a gambling ring, and then even more corruption. Sort of a Chandler-esque type thing, but not too self conscious.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in one day--that should pretty much tell you what I thought of it. There's nothing like a good hard-boiled detective story to get get your reading karma going full speed ahead.

These Amos Walker books are set in Detroit, this one not too long after 9/11 (TSA is mentioned; cell phones are not ubiquitous). When Walker is hired by a former Detroit Tigers' pitcher to separate his daughter from her boyfriend it's only the first step toward what will be eight deaths and the uncovering of a variety of smuggling operations. New information comes to light even in the last few pages.

So much fun in discovering a new detective series.

[Max Everhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining. Pages move along. Estleman does the jaded PI thing very well, better than most, but I'm also getting bored with that archetype. Worth reading, even though you've probably all read this type of book before.

[Christopher Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this mystery, Amos Walker is hired to help a retired Detroit Tigers pitcher convince his daughter's deadbeat boyfriend to leave her alone. Walker takes the case, largely because he's a fan, and things spiral downhill rapidly after that.

This novel introduces Charlotte Sing, a recurring character and significant, deadly foe for Walker in a few books. She's a Korean-American crime boss with international connections and that's just one of the problems Amos Walker runs into.

This book is a mix. The writing is generally excellent with amazing twists of phrases and ways of stating things which make the ordinary narration interesting. Yet at the same time, Estleman takes the baseball theme and kind of overdoes it. Every simile and illustration has a baseball theme, to the point of distraction and to me somewhat frustration. A few are stretched to the point of being almost absurd.

The main mystery wasn't too rough to figure out, and at one point there's a professional assassin out for Walker which wasn't hard to spot either, but overall the story is so well told and Walker such a great character it works anyway. All of Estleman's Amos Walker stories are worth reading, but this isn't the best of the series.

[Jason Hillenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little more self conscious than average for a Walker book, but many of Estleman's greatest strengths as a writer are in evidence with American Detective. However, this is a middle tier entry in the series rather than one of its marquee titles.

[Jack Laschenski · Rating 5 out of 5]

A dead daughter, teamsters thugs, a market for human body parts.

And a very beat up detective!

Good read.

[Elly Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, lots of action. Sometimes I had trouble following the way he expressed himself, but I got the gist of it.

[Alexander Inglis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The accomplished Loren D Estleman has published a wide variety of novels but none as popular as his series starring Amos Walker, Detroit-based Private Investigator. Elmore Leonard is quoted saying "Estleman turns Amos Walker loose in a plot and it’s pure private eye all the way. No one does it better." In American Detective, the 19th in the series and published in 2007, Walker takes on the case of a rash, petulant daughter of a faded baseball star and it quickly moves from petty theft to murder to international crime.

Publisher's blurb: Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Amos Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust fund. But then Fuller's daughter is found dead in Bairn's apartment, and what seems like a simple case of greed and murder soon uncovers a twisted web of corruption. Walker discovers that Bairn had made many enemies before he disappeared, and continuing his investigation puts Walker on the wrong side of all of them. Soon Walker find himself on the run from crooked cops and vile gangsters, and at every turn farther from the truth than when he started ...

There is lots of he-man action and wry first person commentary: something like Spenser meets The Indestructible Man; yet the wise-cracking feels shallow and the violence is pushed beyond the endurance of even the toughest of tough guys. I confess not to have warmed up to Walker and, as the situations grew more and more physically unlikely, my interest in finding a solution to the case puzzle waned. Critics have found Estleman, in this Walker outing, hitting new heights; if this is among the best, it leaves me uncurious to sample too deeply what has come before. On balance, American Detective is entertaining but not memorable.

[Joni · Rating 4 out of 5]

CORRECTED LIBRARIAN QUOTE. My first from this author. He really invents great conversations, and the book moves along fast. Sue Grafton likes his work. He is similar to her and Ross Macdonald. Good mysteries, interesting way with words.

There's this great line: "She wore reading glasses...that made her the Mary Ann I remembered, a sexy librarian who looked as if she might be persuaded to take out the bobby pins under the right circumstances. So far I hadn't found them."

I'll read more of him. Too bad very few of his are on audio.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

#13 in the Detroit private investigator mystery series. Walker is a 1950's type hard boiled private eye with a lot of wise cracks. This is good mystery read that starts with a "simple" hiring to make certain arrangements. As the story progresses, the plot line becomes more and more convoluted which doesn't diminish the interest. Also, a very interesting group of supporting characters.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#19 in the Detroit PI Amos Walker series.

Amos Walker is hired by a Detroit Tiger pitching legend to prevent his daughter from marrying a Euro-trash opportunist. The daughter's body is found in her boyfriend's apartment. Walker finds the boyfriend involved with an Asian gambling and smuggling organization and pursues the murderer on his own.

[Bobby Mathews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but not great ...

Too many baseball puns, IMO -- however, I liked the main character well enough to seek out more of the Amos Walker series. A good book may not be a great book, but it's better than no book at all.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not much a fan of the hard-boiled detective. This was a pretty good one for that sort of thing, just not so much my cup of tea.

[John]

mystery

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read from Estleman and I'm somewhat disappointed. The story was very choppy and while some of the dialogue was witty, I was not carried away by anything else.

[Cathy Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estleman's books always start strong, and I love the dialog and settings so much. The finish feels rushed and obvious. Overall, a good, quick read.

[Bill Laine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Estleman can certainly spin the hard-boiled. The story had, for me, one or two too many climaxes.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining book written well enough to cover up that the plot is, and the characters are, basically absurd.

[MaryAlice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good voice. Good characters. Decent story. Nice ending.

[Jane Auringer Danjin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun to read the Amos Walker series - set in Detroit with places remembered and characters lightly patterned after Detroit movers and shakers.

[Al Stoess · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of his better late (2007) books. One of my favorite detective writers.

[Micky Parise · Rating 2 out of 5]

First time reading Loren Estleman, wasn't really that impressed. Story dragged and characters were to cliche. Guess not my cup of tea.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good classic detective fiction, reminds one of Lew Archer, and that's saying a great deal.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amos Walker seems to get himself into big trouble even on the simplest PI jobs. This one is more trouble than usual. Good fast-paced writing.

[Maze Branch Oak Park Public Library · Rating 3 out of 5]

Donna led this discussion on 04/11/17.