Peeper

by Loren D. Estleman

A priest's death leads a Detroit gumshoe into a case of church corruption in this mordantly funny hard-boiled crime novelRalph Poteet is forty pounds overweight, out of gin, and he hasn't seen his gun in weeks. As far as private detectives go, he's not much to look at. But he's the only one in the building, and that's enough for Lyla Dane. A call girl who's far better at her job than Ralph is at his, she calls him in the middle of the night because she has a dead monsignor in her bed.After dealing with Lyla's deceased client, Ralph tries his hand at blackmail, offering to keep mum about the priest's embarrassing demise in exchange for a payoff from the diocese. But when somebody tries to kill Ralph and Lyla, Detroit's most unsavory PI is swept into an unholy swarm of deadly secrets that resonates all the way to Washington, DC, and the Vatican.Three-time Shamus Award-winning author Loren D. Estleman delivers a witty, ribald send-up of the hard-boiled detective genre in this action-packed crime novel.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

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

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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

[David C Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Beth Birnbaum · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A number of LOL lines.

[Dave Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Sarah Newton · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book! Review to follow shortly.