Der Stumme Handlungsreisende

Albert Samson #4

by Michael Z. Lewin

Fallen on hard times, seedy and cynical Indianapolis gumshoe Albert Samson leaps with hardly a look when he's hired by a frantic woman trying to gain access to her brother's locked hospital room

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

415 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Michael Zinn Lewin is an American writer of mystery fiction perhaps best known for his series about Albert Samson, a distinctly low-keyed, non-hardboiled private detective who plies his trade in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lewin himself grew up in Indianapolis, but after graduating from Harvard and living for a few years in New York City, has lived in England for the last 40 years. Much of his fiction continues to be set in Indianapolis, including a secondary series about Leroy Powder, a policeman who frequently appears in the Samson novels, generally in a semi-confrontational manner.

Another series, however, is set in Bath, England, where Lewin now lives. This features the Lunghis who run their detective agency as a family business. So far there are three novels and nine short stories about them.

Lewin has also written a number of stand-alone novels. Some have been set in Indianapolis and others elsewhere. His latest novel, Confessions of a Discontented Deity, is even set partly in Heaven. A satire, it breaks from Lewin's history of genre fiction.

Lewin is the son of Leonard C. Lewin, author of the 1967 bestselling satire The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.

Reviews

[Hugh Heinsohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding work and a model of the form. Smart characters, excellent plot, tight writing.

[Sandi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in the late seventies this PI novel set in Indianapolis had a rather far fetched plot but I enjoyed the characters and reading about the city.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Albert Sampson (character) mystery from 1978. Good, humorous -- a heroin ring inside a drug company. Read this 20 years ago and liked it a lot. Just acquired hard back copy at thrift store and will peruse again and write review.