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Loren D. Estleman

This page lists novels, short story collections, and non-fiction books by Loren D. Estleman.

The page also includes books edited by Estleman.

Note that the cover image are for the first edition and for a recent paperback or digital edition.



This page is divided into four sections.

By Loren D. Estleman
- novels and story collections
- omnibus editions
- non-fiction

Edited by Loren D. Estleman
- anthologies

 

Loren D. Estleman: Novels and short story collections

The Oklahoma Punk

Loren D. Estleman

Major Books

1976

Originally published as The Oklahoma Punk. All later US editions have the title The Red Highway.

"Before Dillinger, before Bonnie and Clyde, there was Virgil Ballard, the most ruthless killer the United States has ever seen. Ballard gets his start in the early 1920s, hijacking liquor trucks and selling the bootlegged hooch. He has a youthful face and the eyes of a killer, and it isn’t long before he baptizes himself in another man’s blood. The state gives him a life sentence, but no jail can hold Ballard. When he busts out of prison, he knows he has a date with death—but how many coppers can he take out along the way?"
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The Hider

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1978

"Seeking adventure in the Old West, eighteen-year-old Jeff Curry joins an elderly hider on the trail of the last of the buffalo, a quest that becomes a manhunt when the two men come to the aid of an Indian framed for murder."
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The High Rocks

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1979

A Page Murdock novel.

"U.S. Deputy Page Murdock rides into the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana in the dead of winter to bring in Bear Anderson, known as 'Mountain That Walks' to the local Indians. Murdock, having grown up with Anderson, figures he owes it to the man to try to bring him in alive and give him a chance at a fair trial. But Murdock may have all he can handle in getting himself back down alive."
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Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula: Or The Adventures Of The Sanguinary Count

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1978

The writing credits on the front cover are: John H. Watson, M.D., as edited by Loren D. Estleman.

There have been a number of editions of this book since 1978 including Penguin (1979), I Books (2000) and Titan Books (2012).

"A tale for Holmes and Dracula fans alike. It is 1890 and a crewless ship is found floating off the English coast, its cargo 50 boxes of earth. The murdered captain is lashed to the wheel and Holmes, aided as ever by Dr Watson, finds himself on the trail of none other than the arch-vampire himself."

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1979

The writing credits on the front cover are: John H. Watson, M.D., as edited by Loren D. Estleman.

There have been a number of editions of this book since 1978 including Viking Press (1980), I Books (2001) and Titan Books (2010).

"Sherlock Holmes has already encountered the evil young hedonist Edward Hyde, and knew he was strangely connected with Henry Jekyll, the respectable young doctor. It was not until Queen Victoria herself requested it, however, that Holmes was officially on the case of the savage murder of Sir Danver's Crew. Here, then is the account of that devilish crime as recorded by Dr. Watson."

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Motor City Blue

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1980

An Amos Walker novel.

"Private eye Amos Walker is a Vietnam veteran who was thrown out of the Police Academy for punching a fellow cadet. He’s a hard man in a ruined city, scratching out a living looking for lost things. Walker’s latest case comes by way of ex-mobster Ben Morningstar, who’s been living out his retirement in Phoenix while raising Maria, the daughter of a long-ago murdered friend. Only now, Maria is missing and the gangster needs Walker’s help. But the trail has gone cold—the only clue is a faded pornographic snapshot. Never one to give up, Walker witnesses the kidnapping of a former Vietnam friend and solves the murder of a young black labor leader while slugging his way to a solution."
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Stamping Ground

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1980

A Page Murdock novel.

"Deputy U.S. Marshall Page Murdock isn't happy when Judge Blackthorne decides to send him on an assignment to north Dakota. He passed through the territory once before and is not eager to return to a land of sudden blizzards and spring floods. And to make matters worse he has been handed the nearly impossible job of apprehending the renegade Cheyenne leader Ghost Shirt, who is responsible for several massacres in the area."
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Angel Eyes

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1981

An Amos Walker novel.

"Amos Walker has seen a lot. But he’s never encountered anything quite like his newest assignment. Ann Maringer, an aging stripper hard at work at one of the city’s many low-grade joints, hires him to find a missing person: herself. She expects to disappear any day now, she says, and she wants to be found. He goes to her apartment the next day, hoping for more information, but Ann was true to her word and has disappeared completely, leaving behind nothing but a carton of Bel-Airs and a dead man on the floor. Unshaken by the body or the circumstances, Walker sets out to find his client. After all, she paid in advance."
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Aces and Eights

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1981

"No one paid any mind to Jack McCall as he unloaded a .44 caliber slug into Wild Bill Hickok's brain at point-blank range. Deadwood's legendary gunslinging marshal was dead, holding a poker hand of aces and eights, a dead man's hand. The question the law wanted to know: was McCall a hired killer or did he kill Hickok to avenge his brother's death?"
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The Wolfer

Loren D. Estleman

Pocket Books

1981

" Feared throughout the West, wolfer Asa North is as ferocious and ruthless as the wolves he hunts. But he may have finally met his match in Black Jack, the cunning, blood-thirsty beast whose pack has ravaged innumerable herds of sheep and cattle."
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The Midnight Man

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1982

An Amos Walker novel.

"A routine case puts Amos Walker on the highway to Ann Arbor, but the trip turns deadly just a few miles outside of Detroit. Tailing a trucker suspected of faking hijackings, Walker does his best to keep a safe distance, but is recognized anyway. The trucker runs him off the road, and it’s only the tight handling of an American-made Cutlass that keeps Walker from becoming roadkill. A good-natured policeman helps him out, and the detective continues on his way. But the next day, a bullet near the spine sends Walker’s new friend into intensive care, and Walker sets out to find the scum who shot the cop."
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Murdock's Law

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1982

A Page Murdock novel.

"Special U.S. Deputy Page Murdock rides into Breen, Montana, on the trail of a menacing and elusive outlaw. But before he can scout the saloons for his man, he is made town marshal in a territory heating up for the ugliest range war this side of hell. The big ranchers want a gunslinger marshal, and the small ranchers have their own hired gun. But the badge on Murdock's chest means law, and he'll enforce it the best way he knows...with a gun."
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The Glass Highway

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1983

An Amos Walker novel.

"On screen, Sandy Broderick is everything a newscaster is supposed to be. He has a deep voice, a ten-thousand-watt smile, and the God-given ability to banter with weathermen until his ears fall off. But when the cameras turn off, he has a private problem: His twenty-year old son, Bud, has disappeared. Amos Walker is going to find him. The boy and his junkie girlfriend are both gone, and Broderick is terrified - not for his son, but for his career. The station is about to do an exposé on drugs in Detroit, and the newscaster doesn’t want his boy’s addict girlfriend to get in the way of his Pulitzer. This new client may be sleazy, but Walker handles scum for a living, and it’s time to go to work."
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Mister St. John

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1983

"Irons St. John thought he had put his wild days in the saddle behind him. But when the Pinkertons offer him a sizable sum to run down the Buckners, he agrees to play peacekeeper one more time-and he rounds up a possee of low-down lawbreakers to assist him. Their employers don't approve of their rough and rowdy methods, but St. John and his crew are at their boisterous best on this manhunt, and they're riding toward the wildest showdown the West has ever seen."
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Kill Zone

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1984

A Peter Macklin novel.

"Siegfried, a terrorist group made up of a killer, a bassist, an ex-marine, a demolitions expert, a Black Panther, a national guardsman, and a couple of spoiled teenagers, is about to become Detroit’s worst nightmare. The motley gang boards a river cruise boat armed with M16s and enough explosives to burn the city down. They have eight hundred hostages, and if they don’t get what they want, Siegfried will kill every soul aboard. Rescue is impossible. No cop could get on the boat. The only man with the skills for the job is Peter Macklin, a professional killer with ties to the local mob. Hired by the FBI bureau chief to sneak aboard the ship and destroy Siegfried from the inside out, Macklin will find killers in front of him—and another on his tail."
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The Stranglers

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1984

A Page Murdock novel.

"The first victim was cut down from a limb outside Fort Benton. The second, bound and strung up in Bear's Paw. Now, Deputy Page Murdock has discovered two more men swinging from a hanging tree among the aspens along the Missouri River. They aren't drifters. They aren't bandits. They're the law. And like every man with a badge, they're wanted — by a renegade posse who live by their own cold-blooded rules. The Montana Territory is their new killing ground. And Murdock has just crossed the border."
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This Old Bill

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1984

"This novel, based on the life of Buffalo Bill Cody, is as epic and exciting as the story of the West itself. Cowboy, Pony Express rider, Indian fighter, and scout for General Custer, this legendary American beat the paths that made way for the railroad in America's rugged frontier. But now, in his final hours, old Bill Cody faces the last great challenge, of his life, as the legendary glory flares -- then fades into a new era."
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Sugartown

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1985

An Amos Walker novel.

"Spring has come to Detroit's Sugartown enclave, and Amos Walker would like to feel kindly toward the human race. Unfortunately, his first case of the new season immediately leads him into trouble among the Polish settlers of neighboring Hamtramck, when old Martha Evancek hires him to look for her missing grandson. But even before Walker gets a chance to investigate, he's presented with a second case: an eminent Russian novelist who fears that someone is out to kill him. Walker knows the two cases are connected, but finding that link might cost him his life."
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Roses Are Dead

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1985

A Peter Macklin novel.

"For years, Donna ignored the guns in her husband’s safe, his long hours, and all the cash he couldn’t possibly have made as an “efficiency expert.” But finally she was forced to admit that Peter Macklin is a killer for hire. Donna wants a divorce, and she wants to take her husband for all he’s worth. But she won’t get a penny if he’s dead. Macklin, who recently cut ties with the mob, is leaving his divorce attorney’s office when he’s attacked. Quick thinking saves his life, but the Detroit mob has turned on him, and they’ll keep sending assassins until Macklin is put in the ground. He’ll have to kill like never before—or this hit man won’t live to make his first alimony payment."
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Gun Man

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1985

"After killing for the first time in his life, Eugene must run for his life. Calling himself John Miller, he joins the legendary Missouri militia. As the casualties mount, stories of his fearsome exploits spread throughout the West, and his gun-slinging skills become much in demand--on both sides of the law."
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Every Brilliant Eye

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1986

An Amos Walker novel.

"Barry Stackpole was tough once. Amos Walker met him in a Cambodian shell crater when Walker was serving his country and Stackpole was on the payroll of the Detroit News, and they formed the kind of bond that war often creates. At war’s end, they returned to the Motor City, where Stackpole took to reporting crimes and Walker to solving them. A violent run-in with a big time mobster left Stackpole a leg and two fingers short, and he became an alcoholic. He has made several attempts to get his life straight since, but never quite managed. Now he’s fallen off the wagon again, harder than ever before, and his girlfriend begs Walker to find him before he drinks himself to death. But in Detroit, death can find a man in many ways."
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Any Man's Death

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1986

A Peter Macklin novel.

"The Reverend Thomas Aquinas Sunsmith is halfway through his sermon when killers open fire. He is preaching against the evils of gambling, which a cartel of mobsters is trying to legalize in Detroit. The hail of gunfire misses the reverend, but a choir member is cut down - the first victim in the battle for the soul of the Motor City. The Detroit mob has erupted into civil war, and professional killer Peter Macklin is caught in the middle. A former mob employee, he has since tried to stay away from the savagery of organized crime, but now they’re offering him a job too tempting to refuse. The mob will kill whomever it takes to bring gambling to Detroit, and Macklin is about to discover their secret weapon: a seventeen-year-old prodigy assassin, who happens to be Macklin’s own son."
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Lady Yesterday

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1987

An Amos Walker novel.

"Iris was a great beauty when Amos Walker first saw her—a Jamaican goddess striding stark naked through an unworthy whorehouse. When he bumps into her at a high-class steakhouse just outside of Detroit, she still looks good. She’s come back from the Caribbean to seek out her father. Raised by her mother, Iris grew up thinking the man was dead, but has just learned the old trombone player may still be alive. Walker offers to dig for him: a welcome-home present for an old flame. The search leads him straight to the dark heart of the Detroit jazz scene, a seedy world where Walker is right at home, and into the crosshairs of some of the cruelest men in a very mean town."
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Bloody Season

Loren D. Estleman

Bantam Dell

1987

"The gunfight at O.K. Corral is the ultimate Western adventure--and Estleman's novel is the definitive account."
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Downriver

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1988

An Amos Walker novel.

"Countless tragedies occurred in the three days of the 1967 Detroit riots, and one of them belonged to Richard DeVries. A twenty-two-year-old black man about to get his chance to play for the Pistons, he was spotted tossing a Molotov cocktail at an abandoned building and arrested on the spot. The police added armed robbery to the arson charge, and sent DeVries up the river for knocking over an armored car that he had never seen before. Twenty years later he’s set free, and the first man he calls on is Amos Walker. With twenty years of savings he buys a month of Walker’s time, asking him for help finding the men who robbed the armored car. DeVries has already paid for stealing that $200,000, and now it’s time to collect it."
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General Murders

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1988

Amos Walker short stories.

"With his usual knife-sharp prose in cutting form, Estleman proves that he can carve a short story as cleanly as the full-length Walker tales."
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Silent Thunder

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1989

An Amos Walker novel.

"The tabloids were full of it. Constance Thayer, after a night of clubbing, drinks and drugs, had taken an automatic pistol from the collection of her industrialist husband Doyle Thayer Jr. and emptied it into his back, as he lay naked and unconscious in their Iroquois Heights home. The news of Constance Thayer's X-rated past breathed new life into the scandal for another month. Walker's job was to gather enough dirt on the late Mr. Thayer to make his widow look clean by comparison. What he found was a monstrous magnate, a dubious corpse and a gang of country-style gunrunners."
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The Best Western Stories of

Loren D. Estleman

Editor: Bill Pronzini and Martin H. Greenberg

Swallow Press

1989

The contents are:

  • The Bandit
  • The Tree On Execution Hill
  • The Angel Of Santa Sofia
  • Rossiter's Stand
  • The Pilgrim
  • The Pioneer Strain
  • Young Mister St. John
  • A Web Of Books
  • Mago's Bride
  • Bad Blood
  • Kate
  • Hell On The Draw
  • Beds And Bullets
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Peeper

Loren D. Estleman

Bantam

1989

"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."
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Sweet Women Lie

Loren D. Estleman

Houghton Mifflin

1990

An Amos Walker novel.

"Walker's problem begins with a simple proposition from a former Hollywood beach bunny concerning a quarter of a million dollars. From there it moves into a bittersweet reunion with his past: his ex-wife suddenly turns up to trap him in an embrace of danger. Events move swiftly from money to murder, as Walker struggles in an ever-tightening tangle of sweet lies and fatal truths. It's a case of love and treason...of spies and cyanide...of kill, be killed, or run like hell. It's a game played on the landscape of the past and present...a game someone is playing like there's no tomorrow - for Walker."
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Whiskey River

Loren D. Estleman

Bantam

1990

A Detroit series novel.

"Like nowhere else in America, Detroit flourished during Prohibition. The constant flow of liquor from across the Canadian border made Lake Erie a war zone, and lined the pockets of the men who ran the Purple Gang, the Unione Siciliana, and the Little Jewish Navy. As the mob bosses got rich, they mingled with the upper crust like never before. But Prohibition was more than just a boon for gangsters. For newspapermen, it was a dream come true. It’s 1928, and the Detroit Times’ Connie Minor knows every thug, moll, and triggerman south of Eight Mile. He’s drinking rotgut whiskey in a speakeasy on Vernor when he meets Jack Dance for the first time, and watches as the preening young hothead joins Joey Machine’s mob. Over the next few years, the two mobsters will fight a battle for the soul of Detroit’s underground, and Connie Minor will be there to cover every shot."
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Motown

Loren D. Estleman

Bantam

1991

A Detroit series novel.

"Rage simmers beneath the tranquil surface of 1960s Detroit. As the auto industry enjoys its last moments of prosperity, widespread discrimination infuriates the city’s black middle class. One of the most destructive riots of the twentieth century is around the corner, and Rick Amery is going to be right in the middle. A longtime cop forced out of the department on trumped-up graft charges, Amery shares Detroit’s obsession with muscle cars. It was the temptation of a white ’64 Thunderbird that cost him his badge, and it is for the sake of General Motors that he takes his first job as a private investigator, digging up dirt on a consumer advocate who calls GM cars death traps. Amery must work quickly, for no hot rod on Earth is fast enough to outrun the trouble that’s gaining on the Motor City."
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Sudden Country

Loren D. Estleman

Doubleday

1991

"13-year-old David Grayle's mother owns a boardinghouse. A strange visitor, Jotham Flynn, fresh out of jail, has come to tell his story to Judge Blod, a writer of dime novels and a boarder at the Grayle home. As it turns out, Flynn has a treasure map that leads to a fortune in gold stolen from the Union Army back in '63 by Quantrill's Raiders, a band of outlaws. Flynn is murdered by a passel of persons unknown, the map falls into David's hands and Judge Blod, David and David's schoolteacher, ex-Union officer Henry Knox, decide to mount an expedition to the Dakota Badlands to recover the gold."
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King of the Corner

Loren D. Estleman

Bantam

1992

A Detroit series novel.

"Even prison couldn’t stop former big-league pitcher Doc Miller from playing baseball. Jailed after a teenage girl overdosed on cocaine at one of his house parties, the former Detroit Tigers ace became a star at the Michigan State Prison, bringing home the institution’s first Midwestern Penal System championship. Now out on parole, his days of ballpark heroics are over for good. Miller’s brother gets him a job selling tractor parts for John Deere, work Doc finds even duller than life in the joint. While moonlighting as a cab driver, he meets a bail bondsman who offers work as a bounty hunter. On their first job together, they find their target savagely murdered. His name was Ambrose X. Dryce, formerly Wilson McCoy, a Black Panther turned drug lord. Sucked back into the criminal underworld, Doc will need to make his best plays to stay alive without violating his parole."
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People Who Kill: A Short Story Collection

Loren D. Estleman

Mystery Scene Press

1993

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Edsel

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1995

A Detroit series novel.

"It’s only been two decades since Connie Minor was on top, but it feels like centuries. Once a journalist, Minor spent Prohibition with his finger on gangland’s pulse, a confidant of every rumrunner, boss, and triggerman in Detroit. But as the gangsters fell, Minor went with them, replaced by a generation of reporters more interested in the Nazi Party than the inner workings of the Purple Gang. Now it’s the 1950s, and after years writing mindless ad copy, Minor fears that his brain may be permanently atrophied—that is, until an exciting new job drops on his desk. Minor is hired to sell Ford’s most original creation, the Edsel, meant to take America by storm. But the job quickly reintroduces him to some ugly old Detroit faces. When he uncovers a conspiracy against both a union leader and the new car, his reporter’s instincts kick in. It’s been years since Minor gabbed with mobsters, but it’s never too late for an old newspaperman to get whacked."
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City of Widows

Loren D. Estleman

Tor / Forge

1995

A Page Murdock novel.

"Page Murdock has been sent to the tough New Mexico of 1881 to track down a man and bring him to justice. But more than a trail of revenge, Murdock finds himself on a desperate odyssey. For in the Southwest a friend can turn out to be one's cruelest enemy, an enemy one's finest friend. And the woman Murdock loves will be as voluptuous as Venus and wicked as sin."
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Stress

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1996

A Detroit series novel.

"For Paul Kubicek and the city of Detroit, 1972 ends in a haze of blood. A police officer in need of extra work, Kubicek spends New Year’s Eve moonlighting as a security guard at an upscale Grosse Pointe party. Just before midnight, in the sea of white faces, he sees three black men, a shotgun, and a pistol. Shooting more accurately than he ever has on the firing range, he takes out the would-be burglars in less than a minute. Only after they are all dead does he realize one man was unarmed. The police department asks Charlie Battle, one of its few African American officers, to head up the investigation into Kubicek’s shooting. As racial tensions threaten to tear Detroit apart, Battle tries to break through the department’s code of silence, fighting for truth in a city where lies are a way of life."
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Never Street

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1997

An Amos Walker novel.

"What could be more innocent than watching old movies? For Neil Catalin, a wealthy man with a happy home, old-fashioned pictures were a hobby that became an obsession. But he wasn’t watching The Wizard of Oz. Crime movies were his passion, the sort where life is cheap and death is free, and Catalin sank himself into them as an escape from the stresses of suburbia, when soaring debt threatened to overwhelm the life he had created. Now he has disappeared, and his wife believes the clue may be in his collection of gruesome classics. She calls on Amos Walker, who ventures into a black-and-white past in his hunt for the missing man. The journey is far from escapism, because this is Detroit, where the guns don’t fire blanks."
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Billy Gashade: An American Epic

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1997

"Billy Gashade is a wandering musician crossing the young United States in the late 1800s, and introducing us to its most colorful characters along the way. Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, Chief Crazy Horse, Oscar Wilde, and many many more cross paths with Billy in this sweeping epic of American History from Loren D. Estleman."
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The Witch Finder

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1998

An Amos Walker novel.

"The world is waiting for Jay Bell Furlong to die. The grand old man of American architecture is on deathwatch in a Los Angeles hospital, and it won’t be long before his obituary hits the front page. Only Amos Walker knows that the impending death is a bit farther off than that. In fact, Furlong has just become Walker’s client. The architect is still near death, yes, but far from the hospital. Before he goes, he has an item of revenge he wants seen to, and Walker is to be his instrument. Eight years prior, a salacious photo caused Furlong to cut loose his young lover, a photo he has now learned is a fake. He hires Walker to find out who poisoned his happiness, so that he can repay the favor before it’s too late."
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Journey of the Dead

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1998

"When Pat Garrett killed his poker buddy, Billy the Kid, he had no idea what a terrible emotional price he would pay. Haunted by memories of Billy, Garrett wanders the New Mexico desert in a fruitless pursuit of peace. Deep in the same desert, an ancient Spanish alchemist searches for the fabled philosopher's stone. Resolutely alone in his quest he devotes his long life to hunting the secrets of the old gods. As these two men seek answers to questions that have confounded mankind for centuries, their stories encompass the panorama of American history. This journey from wild frontier into the twentieth century is an unforgettable experience."
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Jitterbug

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1998

A Detroit series novel.

"As the United States enters World War II, Detroit converts its factories to an “arsenal of democracy,” fueling the American war machine. The city’s sons leave to join the fight, but one man does not follow. Declared too unstable for combat, he steals an Air Force corporal’s uniform. Using the uniform to inspire trust, he talks ration stamp-hoarders into letting him into their homes, where he slits their throats with a bayonet. The newspapers call him Kilroy. On his tail is police Lieutenant Maximilian Zagreb, whose task it is to keep order in a city whose police department has been stripped of everyone but pensioners and army-rejects. Chasing Kilroy will force him far outside the bounds of legal police procedure, but Zag doesn’t mind cracking skulls to get results. In wartime, a little bloodshed is inevitable."
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The Hours of the Virgin

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

1999

An Amos Walker novel.

"Hired by a curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts to serve as his bodyguard during a transaction involving a stolen illuminated manuscript, Amos Walker enters a darkened skin-flick theater where the exchange is supposed to take place. When the deal goes south, he’s lucky to leave with his life . . . and a new lead to pursue in collaring the man who murdered his partner 20 years ago. In a case that features a wheelchair-bound pornographer and rare book collector, an ultra-slick art expert, a trophy wife, and a white-collar criminal, Walker faces one of the greatest challenges of his career as a present-day crime draws him back to one of the darkest episodes of his past."
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Thunder City

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1999

A Detroit series novel.

"At the turn of the twentieth century, Detroit is still decades away from becoming the “Motor City.” The budding manufacturing town is little more than a confederation of tightly knit ethnic enclaves, ruled over by men like Abner Crownover III, horse-coach baron, and James Dolan, a portly politician who runs the city government from behind the scenes. They had thought their grip on this young city was secure, but internal combustion is about to destroy their empire. An industrial wizard named Henry Ford has come to Detroit with a dream of making a fortune from horseless carriages. Twice bankrupted, he has lost the faith of every investor in town, save for Crownover’s son Harlan. When Dolan and his father refuse to finance Harlan’s new business venture, Harlan turns to the Mafia for the money. In the battle for its future, Detroit’s streets will run with blood."
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The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

1999

"In 1913, young Dmitri Pulski works for his father's ice cream company in the Sierra Nevadas when he journeys south to investigate an order for ten tons of ice by something called the Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association. Almost immediately, Dmitri, an aspiring writer finds himself writing movie scenarios. But things get skewed when The Rocky is threatened with foreclosure-they're grinding out their movies just outside of each of the monopolistic Eastern Trust, which claims exclusive right to make moving pictures under Thomas Edison's patent."
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A Smile on the Face of the Tiger

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

2000

An Amos Walker novel.

"Amos Walker is on the case of the aging pulp fiction writer Eugene Booth who has run out on a publishing deal that was supposed to revive his one-lucrative career. Plunging into booth's seedy world, Walker's chase eventually brings him to a lakeside bungalow in Michigan where he finds Booth pounding out his first novel in a decade with the aid of a 50-year-old Smith Corona and a bottle of Bourbon. The writer reveals to Walker that the events recounted in his long-ago bestseller, Paradise Valley, are a lie, and that the truth will be told in his new book. But when Walker returns to see Booth again, he finds the novelist hanging in the bathroom...and the pages he has written missing. Now it is up to Amos Walker to find the truth behind the supposed suicide of a belatedly honest man and to fulfil the victim's last wish - to share that truth with the rest of the world."
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White Desert

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2000

A Page Murdock novel.

"Page Murdock is a cynical, tough U.S. marshal - the last man you would want on your tail. In white Desert, Montana-based Murdock pursues a vicious gang into the snowbound Canadian north. To get his men Murdock must outwit and outmaneuver some aggressive, unpredictable Metis, but even before he approaches the quarry, the marshal runs into a colony of escaped slaves, and a band of Sioux, followers of Crazy Horse who fled to his Grandmother's Land for safety; and neither group is entirely happy to see him."
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The Master Executioner

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2001

"Ordinary people do not understand Oscar Stone. Everything he does, he does impeccably. He is a profound student of his art, completely versed in its traditions over the centuries. He is a student of ropes and their properties, a master of the latest scientific knowledge about the human neck, a careful calculator of weights and drops, and an exacting observer of results. For more than a quarter of a century he has worked to create a reputation as a man peerless in his craft: the master executioner. Yet he is utterly alone: His devotion to his work costs him his marriage. Suddenly, one day, a piece of his past catches him unawares, and Oscar comes to a moment of devastating truth and for the first time knows himself."
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Sinister Heights

Loren D. Estleman

Mysterious Press

2002

An Amos Walker novel.

"Leland Stutch was building automobiles before Henry Ford ever dreamed up the Model T. He dominated Detroit for most of the 20th century as the auto industry soared and then began its long, slow descent. When Stutch’s widow contacts Amos Walker, the private eye expects to meet a doddering old lady. Instead he encounters Rayellen, a 30-something beauty with washboard abs and 1 of the most unusual propositions he’s ever heard. Unconcerned with matrimonial vows, the most powerful man in Detroit left mistresses—and love children—all over Michigan. To stave off any future paternity suits, Rayellen hires Walker to locate Stutch’s illegitimate offspring and pay them off—a seemingly simple task that draws the detective into a dysfunctional family’s war zone and a violent case of kidnapping and murder."
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Something Borrowed, Something Black

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2002

A Peter Macklin novel.

"Johns Davis has just left the Alamo when he feels the garrote wrap around his neck. The bookie slams his foot on the gas, sending the car into oncoming traffic. It bounces off a van, hops the curb, and crashes into a hotel, knocking Davis unconscious and breaking the neck of his would-be assassin. Davis can breathe again, but just for a moment. When the mob wants you dead, they’ll always send another killer. The only man for the job is Peter Macklin, a veteran killer who’s trying to put his old life behind him. He’s just married Laurie, a beautiful, innocent young woman who believes her husband is a salesman. They’re on their honeymoon in Los Angeles when he gets the call, and it’s a gig he can’t refuse. Macklin is going to Texas for a battle so tough it will make the Alamo look like a fair fight."
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Black Powder, White Smoke

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2002

"In New Orleans, the black man, Honey Boutrille, saves a prostitute's life by killing her attacker. In San Francisco, the white man, Twice Emmerson, kills a Chinaman because he likes killing. These two men go on the lam. The protagonists are different as black and white—Honey rough but honorable, Emmerson chaotic and violent. They attract not only the dogs of the law but the avid interest of those who would exploit them. A journalist tracks Honey, eager to turn his life story into a cautionary parable that will chill white readers. A showman seeks Emmerson, cynically eager to sign him to a contract for the stage and create a competitor to Buffalo Bill. Honey and Emmerson rage through an authentic West drawn with a fierce and gleeful truthfulness, leaving trails of bodies, pursued ever more relentlessly, and moving always toward a central and inescapable meeting place, Denver, Colorado."
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Poison Blonde

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2003

An Amos Walker novel.

"Who is Gilia Cristobal? She's simply one of the hottest of hot Latina singers. Nothing in her life, however, is simple. In her native land she was involved with people the government didn't like, and she barely escaped with her life to start fresh in the United States. In her wake she left behind accusations about a former lover, about violence, and about blackmail. Now she's in Detroit to make music and wants Amos Walker to protect her from those who have threatened her life. She also wants him to investigate someone from the darkest chapter of her former life. When Walker realizes that Gilia's main man, recently out of prison, doesn't regret the time he nearly killed Walker, what first seemed like an easy payday starts looking more and more like a losing proposition. Latin heat, indeed."
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Retro

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2004

An Amos Walker novel.

"Walker has made a lot of friends - and more than a few enemies - in his years as a detective in Detroit, but he finds more trouble than he expected when he agrees to grant the deathbed wish of Beryl Garnet, a successful madam, for her son to get her ashes when she's gone. Walker successfully locates her son in Canada, where he has been evading the law since protesting the Vietnam War in the 1960s, but no sooner has Walker settled back in Detroit that the news comes that Garnet's son is dead. Now Walker is the prime suspect. He has little choice but to find out who might have done the deed and tried to pin the blame on him...and in the process he discovers another murder, the one of 1940s boxer Curtis Smallwood, who happens to have been the dead man's father. Complicating matters, the two murders, fifty-three years apart, were committed with the very same gun. The same gun, in a place impossible for a gun to be."
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Little Black Dress

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2004

A Peter Macklin novel.

"Peter Macklin was a hit man for a long time but he has taken steps to distance himself from his tattooed past, like quitting the mob, moving away from Detroit, and marrying the gorgeous, intelligent Laurie. But retirement isn't easy for an ex-hit man. Now the man accustomed to killing people in cold blood must adjust to a sadistic ritual of early marriage... he must spend time with his eccentric mother-in-law. This event takes an unexpected turn when Macklin discovers mom-in-law's boyfriend Benjamin Grinnell is a spotter for a gang of armed robbers. Unfortunately, Grinnell made a big mistake: he failed to spot a shotgun-toting shop-owner, whom the gang had to turn into red mist. Now Grinnell's life is threatened, and Grinnell's jeopardy endangers his sweetie... and Laurie."
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Port Hazard

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2004

A Page Murdock novel.

"Page Murdock doesn’t know why someone wants him dead, but he knows where the hired killers are coming from. Thus begins Murdoch’s descent into a hell more decadent, corrupt, and dangerous than even he has ever seen—San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. With an unwilling backup man, Murdock takes up temporary residence among the whores, gamblers, dope addicts, and cutthroats of the continent’s foulest district. No man here is trustworthy. But perhaps the men who seem respectable are the most insidious of all."
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The Undertaker's Wife

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2005

"The undertaker's wife waits; she weaves; she builds. The undertaker practices his art, the Dismal Trade, with consummate skill. He has raised it to an art through the high craft of the Connable Method. Through it, he has managed to transform the ugliness of death into a thing of dignity and beauty. He is devoted to dignifying the dead. She is devoted to making her marriage whole, in spite of the tragedy that surrounds it and, most especially, in spite of the tragedy that in one terrible afternoon strikes at its center. Today the undertaker is called to disguise the suicide of a famous financier. It is high drama, for only his art can save America's financial markets. Her task on this day is secret, an act of understanding and dedication. In the end, it is the undertaker's wife who, through love, is able to transcend death."
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Nicotine Kiss

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2006

An Amos Walker novel.

"Amos Walker, the quintessential hardboiled detective, is mortal after all. Jeff Starzek, an old friend who smuggles cigarettes for a living, saved Amos Walker's life, bringing him to a hospital after Walker took a bullet to the leg. A month later, Walker, still convalescing, gets a panicked phone call from Starzek's sister. Jeff is missing and the leads are few. One lead is Homeland Security agent H. Clemson. The Fed also seeks Starzek, whom he believes may be working for a counterfeiting operation with ties to terrorists. Though Walker doubts Starzek is a terrorist, he finds blank treasury paper at an evangelical church belonging to Starzek's brother. Then Starzek's brother disappears too. Back to square one, Walker follows his best hunch, driving Starzek's usual cigarette route along the Lake Huron shore, and finally gets a solid lead on the paper hangers. But before Walker can break the case, someone tries to shoot him-and he's accused of murder. In the end, Walker will need all of his fortitude to stay alive long enough to figure out who's doing what to whom, in time to save his friend's life."
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The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2006

"Johnny Vermillion's theatre troupe brings masterpieces to the Wild West. The four actors are versatile enough to wear many costumes and play many roles. A few props, a little makeup, a costume and - voila - applause on the rugged frontier.Johnny also arranges a special attraction for each town. While his actors bustle in and out of costumes, on and off the stage in many roles, one plays the villain in the bank. Then the actors take their curtain calls and railroad away.Who? Us? Rob a bank? But you saw all of us on stage. When could we have done that?A Pinkerton man becomes the troupe's severest critic: He notices the news reports of stage performances one day and bank robberies the next. He follows the troupe, packing his suspicions. Finally, he sets a clever trap."
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American Detective

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2007

An Amos Walker novel.

"Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man Fuller believes is after her two million dollar trust. Walker breaks into 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 further from the truth than when he started."
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Gas City: A Novel

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2008

"A power struggle - between a police chief who has looked the other way for too long, a Mafia boss who holds the city's vices in his powerful grasp, and media reporters looking for a big story - turns what has been a minor dispute into a desperate struggle for survival. Setting this drama, Gas City, in a blue-collar metropolis dominated by an oil company, Estleman, with an unerring eye for telling detail and an ear for dialogue that reveals the secret desires of his characters, crafts a fascinating, deadly tapestry of love, ambition, revenge, and redemption, a stunning portrait of the human condition."
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Frames

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2008

A Valentino novel.

"When Valentino buys a decrepit movie palace and uncovers a skeleton in the secret Prohibition basement, he's not really surprised. But he's staggered by a second discovery: long-lost, priceless, reels of film: Erich von Stroheim’s infamous Greed. The LAPD wants to take the reels as evidence, jeopardizing the precious old film. If Valentino wants to save his find, he has only one choice: solve the murder within 72 hours with the help of his mentor, the noted film scholar Broadhead, and Fanta, a feisty if slightly flaky young law student. Between a budding romance with a beautiful forensics investigator and visions of Von Stroheim’s ghost, Valentino’s madcap race to save the flick is as fast and frenetic as a classic screwball comedy."
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Alone

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2009

A Valentino novel.

"Valentino wants to keep The Oracle, his beloved run-down movie palace, from being condemned before it even reopens, but murder keeps intruding into his otherwise quiet life. At a gala party held in memory of screen legend Greta Garbo, he’s having fun until the host, a hotshot developer named Matthew Rankin, tells Valentino about a certain letter from Garbo to his late wife. She and Garbo had been…close. Such a letter is of great interest to a film archivist like Valentino, but the the plot thickens when Rankin tells Val that his assistant, Akers, is using this letter to blackmail him. Val is appalled by the thought of blackmail…but that letter sounds juicier all the time. Returning to Rankin’s mansion after the party, Val finds Rankin sitting at his desk with a pistol in his hand, looking at Akers’s dead body on the floor."
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The Branch and the Scaffold: A Novel of Judge Parker

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2009

"When Judge Isaac Parker first arrived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the town had thirty saloons and one bank. Inheriting a corrupt court and a lawless territory, he immediately put the residents on notice by publicly hanging six convicted felons at one time. For the next two decades, his stern and implacable justice brought law and order to the West...and made him plenty of enemies. As the sole law on the untamed frontier, Parker tried civil and criminal cases throughout the Western District of Arkansas and the Indian Nations. His severe judgments scandalized Washington and took an onerous toll on his private life, but the 'Hanging Judge of the Border' never flinched from his duty. The Branch And The Scaffold is a fascinating depiction of Judge Parker's life and times."
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The Left-handed Dollar

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2010

An Amos Walker novel.

"Joseph Michael Ballista knows most of the ways to make an illegal buck, or 'a lefthanded dollar.' That’s why he’s in trouble again. But his crafty lawyer, Lucille Lettermore is determined to free him by getting all his previous convictions set aside, beginning with one for attempted murder. She hires Detroit private detective Amos Walker to investigate the old crime. Walker’s first problem? The intended victim was investigative reporter Barry Stackpole, Walker’s only true friend. Walker’s not thrilled to help get his buddy’s would-be killer off the hook. But money’s money, so he takes the case, though it won’t be easy. For starters, the creep’s ex-wives grudgingly talk to Walker, but he knows they’re not leveling with him. And two new murders tied to the case aren’t likely to make them any chattier. Walker, friendless and desperate for answers, follows a string of leads old and new straight into a war of nerves and bullets in Detroit’s seedy, crime-ridden underbelly."
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Amos Walker: The Complete Story Collection

Loren D. Estleman

Tyrus Books

2010

Amos Walker short stories.

"Thirty years ago Loren D. Estleman introduced the world to his Detroit detective Amos Walker. In celebration of this anniversary, Estleman has collected every previously published Walker short story in this massive volume, including a brand-new story never before published."
The stories are:
  • Greektown
  • Robbers' Roost
  • Fast Burn
  • Dead Soldier
  • Eight Mile & Dequindre
  • I'm In The Book
  • Bodyguards Shoot Second
  • Prettiest Dead Girl In Detroit
  • Blond And Blue
  • Bloody July
  • Anniversary Waltz
  • Needle
  • Cigarette Stop
  • Deadly Force
  • People Who Kill
  • Pickups And Shotguns
  • Crooked Way
  • Redneck
  • Dogs
  • Safe House
  • Kill The Cat
  • Slipstream
  • Lady On Ice
  • Snow Angels
  • Major Crimes
  • Square One
  • Man Who Loved Noir
  • Sunday
  • Necessary Evil
  • Trust Me
  • Woodward Plan
  • Rumble Strip
  • Sometimes A Hyena
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The Book of Murdock

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2010

A Page Murdock novel.

"Posing as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth, Murdock dons a clerical collar to worm his way into the good graces and confidences of the wary residents of Owen, Texas. Seems a gang of ruthless bandits is terrorizing the Texas panhandle, and all evidence points to the dusty cattle town as their base of operations. Murdock aims to unmask the gang, provided he can pass himself off as a preacher long enough to stay alive. Imitating a minister troubles his conscience, almost driving him to the Good Book for comfort, and his prickly assignment grows even more complicated when he crosses paths with a shady lady from his past. With one hand on the Bible and the other on his revolver, Murdock navigates shoot-outs and Sunday sermons. He might not be well-versed in the Gospels, but one thing he knows for certain: avenging angels don’t get halos."
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Roy & Lillie: A Love Story

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2010

"For many years Judge Roy Bean, the cantankerous self-styled arbiter of rough frontier justice, wrote fan letters to the beautiful actress Lillie Langtry across the sea; occasionally, she wrote back. He even renamed the town in which he lived Langtry in her honor. And they would have met, if Bean had not died shortly before Lillie. After years of this strange but poignant correspondence, Lillie finally kept her promise to visit her distant admirer."
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Infernal Angels

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2011

An Amos Walker novel.

"Private detective Amos Walker has long been reluctant to embrace technology; it was not until recently that Walker got his first cell phone. Now, in Infernal Angels, Walker is hired to do a twenty-first–century job—recovering stolen HDTV converter boxes. Before long, the case turns old-school: All the suspects and the man who lost the boxes are murdered, and Walker ends up working with both the local police and the feds of Detroit. The converter boxes were being used to smuggle high-grade heroin that's been killing off junkies left and right, and it's up to Walker to track down the missing dope and the person behind the trail of dead bodies. Old friends and even older enemies will resurface before this story is done, and Walker will have to take a few beatings if he wants to bring the drug smugglers to justice. This old dog still has a few new tricks, and there hasn't been a case yet that Walker couldn't crack."
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Valentino: Film Detective

Loren D. Estleman

Crippen & Landru

2011

Valentino short stories.

"Valentino has a perfect job for a film buff: he is a film detective who locates lost movies so that they can be preserved for future generations. And often he has to become an amateur sleuth as well. To locate a fragment of a film long considered to have vanished, Valentino has to jet to remote locations or to find ancient Hollywood producers and bit players. But there can be danger as well: people sometimes are willing to kill to insure that a film stays lost."
The contents are:
  • Preface: Hostage To Hollywood
  • Dark Lady Down
  • The Frankenstein Footage
  • Director's Cut
  • The Man in the White Hat
  • Picture Palace
  • The Day Hollywood Stood Still
  • Greed
  • Bombshell
  • Shooting Big Ed
  • Garbo Writes
  • The Profane Angel
  • Wild Walls
  • Preminger's Gold
  • The List
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Burning Midnight

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2012

An Amos Walker novel.

"Amos Walker knows Detroit, from the highest to the lowest, and that includes the gangs of Mexicantown. When a friend asks Walker to get his son's brother-in-law out of one of two feuding gangs, Walker gets in trouble fast. First, dead bodies start to pile up; then come suspicious fires and the bottle bombs. Walker is caught in the middle of a gang war. Whether or not a middle-aged gringo like him can cool things off between the Maldados and the Zapatistas, he's got to try; he did promise his friend. Once he gets involved, he realizes there's something else going on; the specter of an international conspiracy threatens to make this local trouble blow sky-high. And if he ends up dead or in jail for murders he didn't commit, he might have to put that promise on hold. It's tough being Amos Walker."
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The Perils of Sherlock Holmes: Short Stories

Loren D. Estleman

Tyrus Books

2012

A collection of stories and essays. One story is published here for the first time.

"In this adventurous collection of Sherlock Holmes mysteries readers will find themselves right by the legendary detective's side as he investigates a whole new series of crimes. Each of these captivating tales is authorized by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate, and while readers will recognise some of them, other stories like The Serpent's Egg are wonderful pieces they'll discover for the very first time. This entertaining book also includes three previously published essays; Channeling Holmes, On The Significance Of Boswells, and Was Sherlock Holmes The Shadow? (A Trifle) that delve deeper into the daring world of Sherlock Holmes and the imaginative mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."

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The Confessions of Al Capone

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2013

"1944: Al Capone is living with his family in Florida and suffering from advanced syphilis. J. Edgar Hoover orders FBI agent Peter Vasco to pose as a priest and get close to the infamous American gangster, so he can obtain information that might help the Bureau nab members of Capone's Chicago Outfit. Vasco and Capone bond over card games, lunches, and even a trip to Wisconsin, and Capone spills secrets that expose in vivid detail this monster who was the most iconic figure in twentieth-century crime. What emerges is a fascinating, compelling portrait of Capone--a man who would stop at nothing to take what he wanted, but who also fed the poor of Chicago; who rose to the top of Chicago on a tide of bootleg beer and booze but took the time to ensure that innocent victims of mob violence got proper medical care. This is Al Capone as he's never been seen before, a ruthless crime lord who trafficked in death and corruption...as well as a man of refined tastes who loved his family."
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Alive!

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2013

A Valentino novel.

"But before Karloff's memorable portrayal, another famous 1930s Hollywood icon, Bela Lugosi, tested for the part of Frankenstein monster. The screen test footage was lost for decades, until Valentino, that never-say-die film archivist, gets a hot tip about the whereabouts of the incriminating (for really bad, heavily accented acting) footage. But it comes with a price far greater than the money he'll have to pay. Someone would kill to get that reel of film, and that makes Valentino a mortal obstacle who would rather not die for art. People have already been murdered for the film, and Val doesn’t want to push his luck…but boy, that reel is too good to let go."
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Don't Look for Me

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2014

An Amos Walker novel.

"The missing woman has left a handwritten note that said, "Don't look for me." Any P.I. would take that as a challenge, especially when he found out that she'd left the same message once before, when having an illicit affair. The trail leads Walker to an herbal remedies store, where the beautiful young clerk knows nothing about the dead body in the basement…or about any illegal activity that might be connected to the corpse. But he can't tarry long, for the Mafia could be involved or maybe there's a connection to the porno film studio where the missing woman's former maid now works. But when two Mossad agents accost Walker - and then are brutally killed - he realizes he's discovered a plot far darker run by someone more deadly than either the Detroit Mafia or a two-bit porn pusher."
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You Know Who Killed Me

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2014

An Amos Walker novel.

"Just released from a rehab clinic, the Detroit private detective has to marshal his energies to help solve a murder in Iroquois Heights, his least favorite town. The area is flooded with billboards rented by the widow of Donald Gates, an ordinary suburbanite found shot to death in his basement on New Year's Eve: "YOU KNOW WHO KILLED ME!" they read, above the number of the sheriff's tip line. Complicating matters is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer, offered by an anonymous donor through the dead man's place of worship. Initially hired by the sheriff's department to run down anonymous tips, Walker investigates further."
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Ragtime Cowboys

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2014

"Los Angeles, 1921: Ex-Pinkerton Charlie Siringo is living in quiet retirement when Wyatt Earp knocks on his door and asks him to track down his missing horse. What begins as horse thievery turns into a deeper mystery as Siringo and another ex-Pinkerton, the young Dashiell Hammett, follow clues that take them from the streets of Los Angeles to Jack London's farm, until they discover a conspiracy masterminded by the notorious and powerful Joseph P. Kennedy. From the first page to the closing chapter, these ragtime cowboys chase the truth in Loren D. Estleman's compelling tale of the Old West and early Hollywood."
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The Sundown Speech

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2015

An Amos Walker novel.

"Amos Walker is hired by Helen and Dante Gunner, a bohemian Ann Arbor couple, to find Jerry Marcus, a film director who has disappeared with their investment money. It's one of Walker's easiest jobs to date. In just a few short hours, Walker locates Marcus in his bedroom...murdered, his body shoved into a cupboard, a bullet through his head. This case is opened and shut quickly, but Walker can't quite let it go. When Dante is arrested for the murder Walker finds himself again in Helen's employ, this time trying to prove that Dante didn't do it."
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The Long High Noon

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2015

"Locked in a deadly feud, cowboys Randy Locke and Frank Farmer have spent decades attempting to annihilate each other any time they are within shooting distance. So far, the men are even. One of Frank's bullets has given Randy a permanent limp. Vain Frank wears a prosthetic ear, his own lost to Randy's assault. If either of them remembers the original reason for the feud, it seems moot now. Their quest for revenge has led them on a merry chase through the Old West. Even their marriages have fallen victim to the feud. The story of their long-term hatred well known throughout the country, Frank and Randy are approached (separately, of course) by Abraham Cripplehorn with a proposition. With the popular Buffalo Bill's Wild West show a raging success, why not publicize their next duel and sell tickets to the event? Winner take all, in more ways than one. Frank and Randy make a date for death...but will they be able to wait for the show? And could it be that their decades-long thirst for revenge is the only thing they are living for?"
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Detroit Is Our Beat: Tales of the Four Horsemen

Loren D. Estleman

Tyrus Books

2015

"While most of the police department is fighting overseas, the four men of the Racket Squad struggle to keep a lid on a powderkeg stuffed with draft-dodging troublemakers, Black Market gangsters, enemy saboteurs, and a mixed bag of racial and ethnic groups working uneasily side by side in defense plants run by the automobile industry. With blackjacks, brass knuckles, tommy guns, and their bare fists, Lieutenant Max Zagreb, Sergeant Starvo Canal, and detectives McReary and Burke - known collectively as the Four Horsemen - battle their way through ten gritty stories in the hardest-boiled town during the twentieth century's hardest-boiled decade
.

The stories in the collection are:

  • The Latin Beat
  • Sob Sister
  • Soft Lights And Sabotage
  • Get Sinatra
  • Death Without Parole
  • Big Band
  • The Elevator Man
  • Sitting Ducks
  • Tin Cop
  • Kill Fee
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Shoot

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2016

A Valentino novel.

"Valentino, a mild-manner film archivist at UCLA and sometime film detective, is at the closing party for the Red Montana and Dixie Day museum when he is approached by no less than his hero and man-of-the-hour Red Montana, western film and television star. Red tells Valentino that he is being blackmailed over the existence of a blue film that his wife, now known throughout the world as the wholesome Dixie Day and the other half of the Montana/Day power couple, made early in her career. With Dixie on her deathbed, Red is desperate to save her the embarrassment of the promised scandal, and offers Valentino a deal-find the movie, and he can have Red's lost film, Sixgun Sonata, that Red has been hiding away in his archives. Don't accept, and the priceless reel will go up in flames."
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Brazen

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2016

A Valentino novel.

"UCLA film archivist and sometime film detective Valentino doesn’t take friend and former actress Beata Limerick very seriously when she tells him that she quit acting because of the curse on blond actresses. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Thelma Todd, Sharon Tate… they all had more fun, but none of them made it out of the business alive, and according to Limerick, she wasn’t taking any chances. But when Valentino finds Beata’s body staged the way Monroe was found, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend playing on repeat; he knows Limerick's death was no accident. Police detective Ray Padilla doesn’t quite suspect Valentino is the killer, but he can’t let him off that easy. After all, the film archivist seems to be involved in more than his share of intrigue and death, which makes him a prime suspect. But Valentino is also a walking encyclopedia of Hollywood knowledge. When another washed-up actress is killed, the crime scene a copy of Thelma Todd’s last moments, Padilla enlists Valentino’s help in catching a serial killer of doomed blondes before he can strike again."
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Cape Hell

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2016

A Page Murdock novel.

"U. S. Deputy Page Murdock is ordered by Federal Judge Harlan A. Blackthorne to Cape Hell, Mexico, to verify a report that former Confederate Captain Oscar Childress is raising an army to take over Mexico City - and then intends to turn north to rekindle the Civil War. Childress, it seems, has the weapons, wealth, and moral compass to do it. Unable to talk himself out of the mission, Murdock heads south on a steam train named El Espanto - The Ghost. With only Hector Cansado, an engineer who can't be trusted and Joseph, a Native American fireman with a few secrets of his own, Murdock hurtles through the murderous desert of a foreign land toward a man bent on wholesale massacre . . . unless Murdock can stop him."
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The Lioness Is the Hunter

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2017

An Amos Walker novel.

"Detroit entrepreneur Carl Fannon hires Walker to trace Emil Haas, his partner, whose sudden disappearance has jeopardized their firm’s plans to purchase the historic Sentinel Building. Almost immediately, the missing man shows up and asks the detective to meet him in the empty Sentinel to discuss a top-secret concern. Walker complies, only to find not Haas, but Fannon’s suffocated corpse locked in a basement vault. When Gwendolyn Haas, the partner’s adult daughter, enters the picture, the client number rises to three, including one missing and one murdered. But the worst is yet to come: Emil Haas’s “concern” is that Fannon’s been buying up depressed real estate on behalf of Charlotte Sing, the international fugitive Walker knows only too well as Madam Sing. Madam Sing is believed to have been executed in Asia for capital crimes without number, but instead may be engaged in rebuilding her fortune to relaunch her assault on civilization."
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Black and White Ball

Loren D. Estleman

Forge

2018

An Amos Walker and Peter Macklin novel.

"Detroit hit man Peter Macklin forces private eye Amos Walker to furnish protection for Laurie, Macklin's estranged wife, while Macklin tracks down the party who has threatened to kill her. The man Walker's client suspects cannot be ignored; as his own grown son, Roger Macklin has inherited all the instincts, and acquired all the training, necessary to carry out his threat. Told partly by Walker in first-person and partly by Macklin in third, Black and White Ball places the detective squarely between two remorseless killers, with death waiting whether he succeeds or fails."
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Loren D. Estleman: Omnibus editions

The High Rocks and Stamping Ground

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2015

A Page Murdock omnibus that brings together the two novels The High Rocks and Stamping Ground.

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Murdock's Law and City of Widows

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2016

A Page Murdock omnibus that brings together the two novels Murdock's Law and City of Widows.

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White Desert and Port Hazard

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2016

A Page Murdock omnibus that brings together the two novels White Desert and Port Hazard.

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Journey of the Dead and The Undertaker's Wife

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2016

An omnibus that brings together the two novels Journey of the Dead and The Undertaker's Wife.

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The Long High Noon and The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2016

An omnibus that brings together the two novels The Long High Noon and The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion.

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Cape Hell and The Book of Murdock

Loren D. Estleman

Forge Books

2017

A Page Murdock omnibus that brings together the two novels Cape Hell and The Book of Murdock.

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Loren D. Estleman: Non-fiction

The Wister Trace: Classic Novels Of The American Frontier

Loren D. Estleman

Jameson Books

1987

"Essays discuss important novels of the American West, including The Virginian, Shane, The Big Sky, True Grit, and Little Big Man."
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Writing the Popular Novel: A Comprehensive Guide to Crafting Fiction That Sells

Loren D. Estleman

Writer's Digest Books

2004

"What does it take to craft a best-seller - one that tops the charts week after week and leaves everyone talking? In this groundbreaking guide, successful author Loren D. Estleman shares the process. Readers will learn: The four essential traits best-selling authors possess; The specific challenges in a variety of genres and how to overcome them for writing success; The benefits of exploring more than one genre for a fulfilling career - and more; Upbeat, engaging, and personal, Writing the Popular Novel provides readers with the instruction they need to craft the books that become best-sellers."
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In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero

Editor: Otto Penzler

Smart Pop

2012

Includes a chapter by Loren D. Estleman called Parker And Spenser: A Collaboration.

"When Robert B. Parker passed in early 2010, the world lost two great men: Parker himself, iconic American crime writer whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, and his best-known creation, Spenser. Parker's Spenser series not only influenced the work of countless of today's writers, but is also credited with reviving and forever changing the genre. In Pursuit of Spenser offers a look at Parker and to Spenser through the eyes of the writers he influenced."
The contents are:
  • Introduction (Otto Penzler)
  • Songs Spenser Taught Me (Ace Atkins)
  • Voice Of The City (Dennis Lehane)
  • They Like The Way It Sounds (Lawrence Block)
  • Spenser's Code Of Humor (Parnell Hall)
  • Parker And Spenser: A Collaboration (Loren D. Estleman)
  • Bob, Boston And Me: A Remembrance (Jeremiah Healy)
  • A Man For All Seasonings (Brendan Dubois)
  • Spenser And The Art Of The Family Table (Lyndsay Faye)
  • Looking For Hawk (Gary Phillips)
  • Who Is Silverman, What Is She? (S.J. Rozan)
  • A Look At Spenser: For Hire (Max Allan Collins And Matthew Clemens)
  • Go East, Young Man: Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone, And Spenser (Reed Farrel Coleman)
  • Parker Saddles Up: The Westerns Of Robert B. Parker (Ed Gorman)
  • Spenser: A Profile (Robert B. Parker)
  • A Bibliography Of The Works Of Robert B. Parker
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The Wister Trace: Assaying Classic Wester Fiction

Loren D. Estleman

University of Oklahoma Press

2014

This is an updated second edition of the book first published in 1987.

"A master practitioner’s view of his craft, this classic survey of the fiction of the American West is part literary history, part criticism, and entertaining throughout. The first edition of The Wister Trace was published in 1987, when Larry McMurtry had just reinvented himself as a writer of Westerns and Cormac McCarthy’s career had not yet taken off. Loren D. Estleman’s long-overdue update connects these new masters with older writers, assesses the genre’s past, present, and future, and takes account of the renaissance of western movies, as well. Estleman’s title indicates the importance he assigns Owen Wister’s 1902 classic, The Virginian. Wister was not the first writer of Westerns, but he defined the genre, contrasting chivalry with the lawlessness of the border and introducing such lines as “When you call me that, smile!” Estleman tips his hat to Wister’s predecessors, among them Ned Buntline, the inventor of the dime novel, and Buffalo Bill. His assessments of Wister’s successors—Zane Grey, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Louis L’Amour, to name but three—soon make clear the impossibility of differentiating great western writing from great American writing. Especially important in this new edition is the attention to women writers. The author devotes a chapter each to Dorothy Johnson—author of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”—and Annie Proulx, whose Wyoming stories include “Brokeback Mountain.” In his discussion of movies, Estleman includes a list of film adaptations that will guide readers to movies, and moviegoers to books. An appendix draws readers’ attention to authors not covered elsewhere in the volume—some of them old masters like Bret Harte and Jack London, but many of them fascinating outliers ranging from Clifford Irving to Joe R. Lansdale."
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Anthologies edited or co-edited by Loren D. Estleman

P.I. Files

Editor: Loren D. Estleman and Martin H. Greenberg

Ivy Books

1990

The contents are:

  • Fedoras and Flourishes: The State of the Private-Eye Art (Loren D. Estleman)
  • By the Dawn Early Light (Lawrence Block)
  • On the Prod (L.J. Washburn)
  • Death of an Iron Maiden (Wayne D. Dundee)
  • Skin Deep (Sara Paretsky)
  • Sherlock (Al Sarrantonio)
  • The Crooked Way (Loren D. Estleman)
  • She Didn't Come Home (Sue Grafton)
  • Turn Away (Edward Gorman)
  • A Shot in the Arm (Richard Deming)
  • Eighty Million Dead (Michael Collins)
  • The Heat is Killing Me! (Fletcher Flora)
  • Ride the Lightning (John Lutz)
  • Down This Mean Street (Robert Twohy)
  • The Forever Trip (Rob Kantner)
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Sons of Moriarty and More Stories of Sherlock Holmes

Editor: Loren D. Estleman

Tyrus Books

2013

A collection of stories by a number of authors edited by Loren D. Estleman. It includes a previously unpublished novella by Estleman: Sons Of Moriarty: A Sherlock Holmes Novella.

The stories in the collection are:

  • The Infernal Machine (John Lutz)
  • The Adventure Of The Double-Bogey Man (Robert L. Fish)
  • The Case Of The Bloodless Sock (Anne Perry)
  • Sherlocks (Al Sarrantonio)
  • The Field Bazaar (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
  • The Deptford Horror (Adrian Conan Doyle)
  • Before The Adventure (Lenore Carroll)
  • Sons Of Moriarty: A Sherlock Holmes Novella (Loren D. Estleman)
"Award-winning author Loren D. Estleman has curated a collection of Sherlock Holmes stories from some of the finest authors in Sons of Moriarty and More Stories of Sherlock Holmes. This is the first time that these stories appear together in one anthology, including "Sons of Moriarty," a Sherlock Holmes novella, appearing here for the first time."

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The Adventure of the Plated Spoon and Other Tales of Sherlock Holmes

Editor: Loren D. Estleman

Tyrus Books

2014

A collection of "classic reprints and four original stories" by a number of authors edited by Loren D. Estleman. It includes a previously unpublished short story by Estleman: The Adventure of the Plated Spoon.

The stories in the collection are:

  • The Adventure of the Two Collaborators (J. M. Barrie)
  • The Surgeon's Kit (Ellery Queen)
  • The Adventure of the Dying Ship (Edward D. Hoch)
  • The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu (excerpt) (Sax Rohmer)
  • How Watson Learned the Trick (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
  • Two Shabby Figures (excerpt from The Beekeeper's Apprentice (Laurie R. King)
  • The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet (Vincent Starrett)
  • The Adventure of the Red Widow (Adrian Conan Doyle)
  • The Mysterious Case of the Urn of ASH; or, What Would Sherlock Do? (Deborah Morgan)
  • The Adventure of the Deadly Interlude (James O'Keefe)
  • The Adventure of the Rounded Ocelot (Larry D. Sweazy)
  • The Adventure of the Plated Spoon (Loren D. Estleman)
The last four of these are published here for the first time.

"Loren D. Estleman has written and curated a collection of nearly a dozen Sherlock Holmes stories guaranteed to entertain fans of the Baker Street sleuth. Estleman's last two collections, The Perils Of Sherlock Holmes and Sons of Moriarty - also authorized by the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - were met with rave reviews."

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Last updated July 2018