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Amos Walker #17
Retro
As a detective on the mean streets of Detroit, Amos Walker has to make friends in low places. It’s 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 hasn’t seen her son in a long, long time, and wants him to have her ashes when she’s gone just to let him know she hasn’t forgotten about him. Walker obliges her.
Walker finds Garnet’s son, Delwayne, a Vietnam War protestor who has been living in Canada since the 1960s, and hands over his mother’s 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, Delwayne’s 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 Delwayne’s murder, the gun was in the limbo of airport security, inaccessible, to say the least.
Walker finds Garnet’s son, Delwayne, a Vietnam War protestor who has been living in Canada since the 1960s, and hands over his mother’s 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, Delwayne’s 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 Delwayne’s murder, the gun was in the limbo of airport security, inaccessible, to say the least.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
13 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Loren D. Estleman
314 books279 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 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 17, 2023
An Old Fashioned Detective Story in Contemporary Detroit
Amos Walker is just keeping the lights on so a job finding the adopted son of a retired bordello owner doesn’t seem too risky. Before he can do this simple task the ex 1960’s war protest bomber with blood on his hands is killed when he returns from Canada to meet with Walker. Stir in a small time mobster with a red hot girlfriend, a sorta friendly cop who’ll save your skin if it’s convenient, an unsolved murder from 1949 and a heroic retired FBI agent with a wicked grudge and Amos Walker is up to his neck in good old fashioned trouble. This is another gripping read in a grand tradition.
Amos Walker is just keeping the lights on so a job finding the adopted son of a retired bordello owner doesn’t seem too risky. Before he can do this simple task the ex 1960’s war protest bomber with blood on his hands is killed when he returns from Canada to meet with Walker. Stir in a small time mobster with a red hot girlfriend, a sorta friendly cop who’ll save your skin if it’s convenient, an unsolved murder from 1949 and a heroic retired FBI agent with a wicked grudge and Amos Walker is up to his neck in good old fashioned trouble. This is another gripping read in a grand tradition.
July 5, 2018
One of the finer later day Walker novels. Estleman's descriptive powers are formidable and his talent for establishing three dimensional characters has few peers in the genre of crime fiction. It's an obviously difficult feat to keep a decades old series character fresh for longtime readers, but Estleman accomplishes it with Walker and never seems content to coast.
April 3, 2019
Good Detroit today story.
Black vs White.
Crooked cop.
Black vs White.
Crooked cop.
September 5, 2021
quick read, nothing special
November 23, 2012
Retro is the 17th Amos Walker novel. I like continuity, but I don’t read them in order.
Retro refers to the storyline nicely. A 1950 murder of a prizefighter ties in with the death of a former 1960s radical who fled the US for Canada in ’68 and gets murdered when he sets foot in Detroit again in 2004. But a plot is a plot, and while this one is interesting and well conceived, it’s simple and straightforward—nothing to make John LeCarre twitter.
Retro also refers to the style Estleman used to tell the story. It’s pure 1940s—classic hard-boiled detective pulp, a world of palookas and dames, of gumshoes and gunsels, topped off with a shot cheap whiskey from the office bottle, doll-face—and don’t you forget it. He must have studied Chandler for a month before writing the first line. If you’ve ever tried to duplicate that noir style, you’ll know it’s not easy. But he did it well, and should be proud of himself. Good hard-boiled dialogue is about as easy as writing lines for a paranoid-schizophrenic.
So, if you’ve exhausted your collection of Philip Marlowe and are looking for a good old-fashioned private eye story, give Retro a try. I score it a 4.5 for the high degree of difficulty.
Retro refers to the storyline nicely. A 1950 murder of a prizefighter ties in with the death of a former 1960s radical who fled the US for Canada in ’68 and gets murdered when he sets foot in Detroit again in 2004. But a plot is a plot, and while this one is interesting and well conceived, it’s simple and straightforward—nothing to make John LeCarre twitter.
Retro also refers to the style Estleman used to tell the story. It’s pure 1940s—classic hard-boiled detective pulp, a world of palookas and dames, of gumshoes and gunsels, topped off with a shot cheap whiskey from the office bottle, doll-face—and don’t you forget it. He must have studied Chandler for a month before writing the first line. If you’ve ever tried to duplicate that noir style, you’ll know it’s not easy. But he did it well, and should be proud of himself. Good hard-boiled dialogue is about as easy as writing lines for a paranoid-schizophrenic.
So, if you’ve exhausted your collection of Philip Marlowe and are looking for a good old-fashioned private eye story, give Retro a try. I score it a 4.5 for the high degree of difficulty.
August 25, 2011
[Spoiler alert]
I've read a lot of Estleman. My favorites are all Detroit-based: the first three Macklin novels and the Amos Walker series. I sort of burned out on Estleman and hadn't read anything by him in years. Picked this up on a whim. It's pretty good. Not top-shelf Estleman, as some of Walker's repartee is a tad forced and the plot is a trifle far-fetched. But well worth reading for fans of the Walker series, as (spoiler) a longtime staple of the series is the source of the major plot twist. Couple of caveats: the overall tone is rather melancholy, and people who aren't familiar with prior books in the series may not fully get some of the relationships...
I've read a lot of Estleman. My favorites are all Detroit-based: the first three Macklin novels and the Amos Walker series. I sort of burned out on Estleman and hadn't read anything by him in years. Picked this up on a whim. It's pretty good. Not top-shelf Estleman, as some of Walker's repartee is a tad forced and the plot is a trifle far-fetched. But well worth reading for fans of the Walker series, as (spoiler) a longtime staple of the series is the source of the major plot twist. Couple of caveats: the overall tone is rather melancholy, and people who aren't familiar with prior books in the series may not fully get some of the relationships...
June 11, 2013
Everyone Walker meets seems to be surprised that he's still in business and there's reason for that. Amos Walker is getting pretty old for a tough-guy private detective, considering that Retro is set in the post-9/11 era and he's still a Vietnam veteran, and this is reflected in the fact that the case spans an era from the 50s to the modern day, as he starts out by seeking out what must be nearly the last fugitive 60s anti-war radicals. Solid workman-like private detective novel.
August 16, 2015
#17 in the Amos Walker series. Walker is a hard boiled Detroit PI.
PI Amos Walker is hired by dying madam Beryl Garnet to deliver her ashes to her foster son, Delwayne, who has been hiding out in Canada for 34 years. After Walker makes the delivery, Delwayne flies to Detroit to hire him to find who killed his father 53 years earlier. Before they meet, Delwayne is dead by the same gun that killed his father and Walker is a prime suspect.
PI Amos Walker is hired by dying madam Beryl Garnet to deliver her ashes to her foster son, Delwayne, who has been hiding out in Canada for 34 years. After Walker makes the delivery, Delwayne flies to Detroit to hire him to find who killed his father 53 years earlier. Before they meet, Delwayne is dead by the same gun that killed his father and Walker is a prime suspect.
June 9, 2015
The first 225 pages of this latest Estleman blow past in his perfectly taut and tuned action and dialogue, then falls apart in the last 60 pages with too much explication and an effort to wind up too many lose threads in an extended climax.
Still worth reading, just a bit disappointing at the end.
Still worth reading, just a bit disappointing at the end.
October 4, 2011
Gritty PI stuff, set in Detroit. Good if you like this sort of thing. Amos Walker traces a long-lost foster son for a retired madam and finds himself knee-deep in old murders, gangsters, molls, and 60s radicals.
August 3, 2015
Excellent mystery and excellent writing style. I downgraded it to a 3 because it was overly wordy at some points. His descriptions are great, but not when it comes at the expense of moving the plot forward
Very similar to Robert Randisi, but so far I like Randisi better.
Very similar to Robert Randisi, but so far I like Randisi better.
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March 14, 2009i'm going to try #3.
we'll see.
adios!
we'll see.
adios!
December 11, 2010
Love this book, it what you would expect in a good detective novel.
April 9, 2014
First time reading a book from this series and this genre. It was ok. People describe it as gritty, but it came off a little corny to me.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews