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This page lists novels and story collections by Michael Z. Lewin.

Cover images are when possible the first US edition and a recent digital or paperback edition.

Michael Z. Lewin has also written a number of radio and stage plays - these fall outside the scope of this site.

By Michael Z. Lewin:
- novels, story collections
- edited by MZL

Ask the Right Question

Michael Z. Lewin

1971

An Albert Samson novel.

"Meet Albert Samson - a detective in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade, Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer. But Samson's no hard-boiled clone. For one thing, he doesn't even own a gun. For another, he works in Indianapolis, the apparently unglamorous Midwestern city where he grew up. But the city and its problems are not the stuff of stereotypes. And Samson uses his wits and his contacts to solve his clients' problems and make something of a living. Here, in his first fictional outing - nominated for an Edgar - he has the most unusual client in his history, a sixteen-year-old school girl. She wants him to find out where her biological father is. At home with your biological mother? Samson suggests, unable to take the kid seriously. But the girl is certain. Her 'father' cannot be her father: she can prove it. And things soon get seriously complicated."

The Way We Die Now

Michael Z. Lewin

1973

An Albert Samson novel.

"It wasn't bad enough that a ten-year-old kid had beaten him at basketball in the morning. Next Albert Samson was being badgered by a humourless prospective client. Was he, in fact, the cheapest private detective in Indianapolis? Did his daily rate include expenses or did he try to claim those on top? Expenses were indeed extra, but Samson was still a bargain and he got the case. The client's son-in-law had been charged with murder. But she didn't want him exonerated - he had certainly pulled the trigger. What she wanted was evidence she could use to make her daughter see what a dead loss her Vietnam vet husband was. Sure, he'd been a hero over there, but this was Indianapolis, and real life, and now. Real life is simple, right? Not this time, not when Samson discovers that his questions do not lead to satisfactory, or safe, answers."

The Enemies Within

Michael Z. Lewin

1974

An Albert Samson novel.

"An antiques dealer hires Albert Samson to prod a tardy producer about a play he's written. The producer has had it for weeks and now the playwright wants his script back. It's an unlikely project, but Samson hasn't got anything better to do on a snowy December night in Indianapolis. But 'The Kokomo Case Case' turns out not to exist. Which is only the first in a long chain of ambiguous events. The series of half-truths and whole lies leads to the spectre of a murdered child."

Night Cover

Michael Z. Lewin

1976

A Leroy Powder novel.

"Indianapolis police veteran, Lt. Leroy Powder, works nights. Every night. It suits him, not least because it keeps him away from the department's higher-ranks - the ones who are less concerned about doing things right than about advancing their careers. Powder's not popular with those types because he likes things to be done right. He's even ready to show other officers how to become better cops. Not that they always appreciate it. Powder's not a popular guy, but so what? Doing right by the citizens of Indy is what matters. It's one more average night in Indianapolis. Burglaries, assaults, a missing girl. And then someone reports a body, a man murdered with a distinctive MO. But why don't the daytime cops in Homicide work the case right? Well, they can't complain if Powder helps out on his own time, can they? And what's a private eye named Samson got to do with it all?"

The Next Man

Michael Z. Lewin

Warner Books

1976

A novelization of a movie of the same name.

The Silent Salesman

Michael Z. Lewin

1978

An Albert Samson novel.

"Indianapolis private eye Albert Samson is hired to find out why a devoted sister is not being allowed to visit her brother in hospital. A salesman and researcher at a pharmaceutical laboratory, he's been in a coma and in intensive care for seven months after an accident at work. His sister's been told a visit would put him at risk. But how can that be? Samson tries to find out, and he too gets stonewalled. But wouldn't his work be so much simpler if his clients actually told him the truth? Even so, the nest of intrigue expands to questions of murder, and even the FBI."

Outside In

Michael Z. Lewin

1980

"A third-rate mystery writer long wracked by writer's block, Willie Werth becomes engrossed in the investigation of a casual friend's disappearance and murder and soon finds his way back to the typewriter."

Missing Woman

Michael Z. Lewin

1981

An Albert Samson novel.

"A dowdy woman hires private eye Albert Samson to locate her college chum. But is she missing or has she just run away from her husband? A stop-start case takes Samson out of his Indianapolis comfort zone into Southern Indiana where he picks his way through intrigues, lies, and lures and where he tangles with a hostile police force. Everyone has something to hide. Wouldn't it be wonderful if things did turn out to be as advertised, at least now and then. However here he scrapes the deceptions aside and works his way to the bottom of a tantalizing puzzle in a novel that was adapted for television in Japan."

Hard Line

Michael Z. Lewin

1982

A Leroy Powder novel.

"Lt. Leroy Powder has moved to the Missing Persons department after years on nights. What an opportunity to improve departmental procedures and provide a better service to the people of Indianapolis. If only the Indy Police Department would staff the place properly. Instead they send him a wheelchair-bound sergeant. OK, she's a public hero because she took a bullet for her partner and has refused to retire. So she's tough, but she's still on wheels. How does that qualify her to find a missing wife or identify a woman with amnesia? In Hard Line, winner of the 'Falcon' in Japan, Powder makes do. But he doesn't like it. And he doesn't have to be quiet about the way Missing Persons is being short-changed. And, meanwhile, a series of cases becomes more complicated than they first appear to be. As does Powder's relationship with his son."

Out of Season

Michael Z. Lewin

1984

An Albert Samson novel. Published in the UK as Out Of Time.

"Albert Samson, once described as the private eye combining 'the best moral qualities of the Continental Op and Lew Archer', feels life is looking good when he acquires two clients in an afternoon. The first, an eccentric old man living in an expensive apartment and obsessed with his home computer, asks him to investigate a young man suspected of running with a wild crowd. The second is a wealthy banker. His wife has discovered that her birth certificate is a fake which puts her whole history in doubt. Now she wonders if she has any identity at all. Samson's investigations lead him, via dusty archives, a sentimental night club owner, the police and the press, to the 1930s and 40s and an old murder. It also leads him to suspect that a recent 'natural' death may be a cold-blooded killing."

Late Payments

Michael Z. Lewin

1986

A Leroy Powder novel.

"Lt. Leroy Powder is in charge of the Indianapolis Police's Missing Persons department. The job's what matters in Powder's life - doing it well, doing it right. He struggles when he finds that other officers don't care about their work the same way he does. Don't they want to become better cops? Still, Powder's reign in Missing Persons has seen the department expand and win praise. Which brings in more and more cases - even before his wheelchair-bound sergeant brings in a wheelchair-bound friend who has a conspiracy theory. Could someone really be killing hundreds of disabled people of Indiana? And if it's happening, why won't the cops upstairs take it seriously? It ought to be their problem. It's not like it's a missing persons' case. Not like the missing father of a twelve-year-old boy, or even that of the girl whose parents think she's being kept by a cult against her will. With rapid-fire dialogue, dry humour and plot twists that turn one step ahead of the reader, Late Payments proves again that Leroy Powder is one of the least endearing and most enjoyable police heroes around."

And Baby Will Fall

Michael Z. Lewin

1988

An Adele Buffington novel.

"Social worker Adele Buffington's work problems, ranging from office politics to an adoption racket, are complicated by the attentions of ambitious Indianapolis detective Homer Profitt, who also complicates Adele's romance with private eye Albert Samson."

Called by a Panther

Michael Z. Lewin

1991

An Albert Samson novel.

"Can this go-for-it detective really be the Albert Samson we used to know? Advertising his wares on television? Having too many clients? If the workload is too intense, no problem: hire help for the less-pressing jobs. In this novel, a 'Marlowe' winner in Germany, which cases have the strongest claim on Samson's attentions? Maybe it's the extraordinary fact that terrorism has come to Indianapolis. Yes, Indianapolis. A band of environmental extremists has hit the headlines by planting a bomb a week. Not that Samson's been hired to find them - that's a job for the cops. But the city's panic has even affected Samson's normally level-headed police friend. For a moment - just a moment - the guy actually thinks Samson has something to do with the bomb-planters. But that's ridiculous. Isn't it?"

Underdog

Michael Z. Lewin

1993

"Jan Moro, a small-time hustler whose fate is tied up with Billy Cigar, a big-time murderer, falls afoul of Cigar and then gets on the bad side of the police, leading him to become a sleuth trying desperately to stay alive."

Telling Tails

Michael Z. Lewin

1994

Nine very short stories narrated by a stray dog, Rover, in Indianapolis. The stories were later incuded in the expanded collection Rover's Tales.

Family Business

Michael Z. Lewin

1995

A Lunghi Family novel.

"A family of British detectives has its hands full with an insistent woman informing them of her husband's suspicious acts, a persistent surveillance equipment salesman, a stranger claiming to be part of the family business, and a vicious murder."

Rover's Tales

Michael Z. Lewin

1998

Nine of these stories were originally published in Telling Tails in 1994.

"Rover is a stray dog who narrates thirty-six very short stories in ROVER'S TALES. They describe how he tries to improve the lot of the dogs he meets as he wanders a city one summer. The city is Indianapolis, but he doesn't know it. Rover's narrations establish that he is a dog with a mission to help other members of canine kind when they’re in trouble. More often than not, the trouble is caused by human beings. For the life of him, Rover doesn’t get why people do some of the things they do."

Family Planning

Michael Z. Lewin

1999

A Lunghi Family novel.

"The Lunghi family's detective agency has gotten a new case, but it may prove difficult to solve, since the whole family seems to be distracted by something besides detective work."

Cutting Loose

Michael Z. Lewin

1999

"Jackie, a girl who dresses like a boy in order to play professional baseball during the late nineteenth century, tracks the murderer of her best friend Nance to London, where she encounters the killer of her father."

The Reluctant Detective

Michael Z. Lewin

2001

"The 21 crime tales in The Reluctant Detective and Other Stories range from the Edgar-nominated title story, to 2 investigations by "Danny" Quayle, to the 6 cases of the Lunghi detective agency and also include stories about Indiana police Lieutenant Leroy Powder (who is saddled with having to take a Japanese visitor on a night patrol), a hit man pretending to be interviewed by Dolly Parton, a detective named Rover who happens to be a dog literally."

Eye Opener

Michael Z. Lewin

2004

An Albert Samson novel.

"Albert Samson is ecstatic when he finally gets his private investigator's license back. Within days he has a couple of cases - one being the best-paying job he's ever had. He's working for lawyers defending a man accused of being the rapist and serial killer who has terrified Indianapolis women for years. It turns out that the job he was hired for is quite different from what it first appeared to be. Samson must keep all his wits about him to get to the bottom of each case, all the while looking out for his family and friends, each of whom may become the next target for a killer."

Oh Joe

Michael Z. Lewin

2008

"Joe Prince drives a truck, loves his girlfriend, Kelly, and their infant son, Little Joe. But that isn’t enough to keep him from straying... As a form of self-imposed house arrest, he agrees to house-sit shady old pal George Wayne’s permanently anchored houseboat in the middle of a large Indianapolis reservoir... A day or so later Joe finds himself under arrest for Wayne’s murder."

Family Way

Michael Z. Lewin

2011

A Lunghi Family novel.

"The Lunghi family, who run a detective agency, deal with romantic predicaments, a copycat thief, a neighbor's death, and feelings of being left out during Walcot Street's annual Nation Day celebration."

Family Trio

Michael Z. Lewin

2011

Lunghi Family short stories. Published only as an e-book.

"FAMILY TRIO contains three individual stories about the Lunghi family of private detectives in Bath. Previously published in Ellery Queen's and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines, the stories have been significantly rewritten for inclusion here. The stories are Gun Point, The Jane Case, and And Maybe More."

Confessions of a Discontented Deity

Michael Z. Lewin

2013

Published only as an e-book.

"Ever wondered what God is like? Well if you think about it… He created man in His own image, so if you look at men and work backwards you’ll get the picture. God is clearly self-obsessed and geeky. He wants to get laid, avoid hassle and be allowed to play with His toys. Granted God’s toys are the ones He creates bits of the Universe with but you get the idea. Of course things for Him needn’t always be like this. Men can change – some of them – and so can God. And in this novel God recounts a recent period when He discovered that He was no longer satisfied with His life. The change took Him completely by surprise. He follows the incidents and thinking that enabled Him to understand what His discontent was all about. And where He should go from here, for Himself and for man and womankind."

1st Culprit: A Crime Writers' Association Annual

Editor: Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin

1993

An anthology of mystery stories. The contents are:

• The mouse in the corner (Ruth Rendell)
• As my wimsey takes me (Terence Faherty)
• Programmed for murder (James Melville)
• The Christmas crimes at 'Cinderella': A puzzle in four parts: Part one: Christmas Eve (Simon Brett)
• Faery tale (Celia Dale)
• Steady as she goes (Catherine Aird)
• Soldiers, from the wars returning (Robert Barnard)
• Goodbye Jenny (Penelope Wallace)
• The Christmas at 'Cinderella': Part two: Boxing day (Simon Brett)
• Boots (Antonia Fraser)
• A distant affray (Roger Ormerod)
• Trip trap (Ian Rankin)
• Freud at thirty paces (Sara Paretsky)
• Positive vetting (Stephen Murray)
• Afterwards (Alida Baxter)
• Danny pulls his weight (Michael Z. Lewin)
• Oh, who hath done this deed? (Susan Moody)
• The Christmas crimes at 'Cinderella': Part three: 27 December (Simon Brett)
• Cuckoo in the wood (Lesley Grant-Anderson)
• Mrs Craggs hears the nightingale (HRF Keating)
• In those days (Liza Cody)
• Sister Brona and the pornographic diary (Alex Auswaks)
• Gifts from the bridegroom (Margaret Yorke)
• The Christmas crimes at 'Cinderella': Part four: December 28 (Simon Brett)
• Stonestar (Reginald Hill)
• The last Sara (Susan Kelly)
• The rape of Kingdom Hill (Dick Francis)

2nd Culprit: A Crime Writers' Association Annual

Editor: Liza Cody and Michael Z. Lewin

1994

An anthology of mystery stories. The contents are:

• Better to forget (Susan Moody)
• The frustration dream (Ellis Peters)
• The Duke (Eric Wright)
• The curious computer (Peter Lovesey)
• The last resort (Margaret Yorke)
• Exquisitely gowned - revising my first novel fifty years on (Eric Ambler)
• Jemima Shore and the frightened girl (Antonia Fraser)
• True Thomas (Reginald Hill)
• Betrayal (Nancy Livingston)
• Boss (Michael Z. Lewin)
• Cryptic crime acrostic (Sarah Caudwell & Michael Z. Lewin)
• The image of innocence (Madelaine Duke)
• First lead gasser (Tony Hillerman)
• Sister Brona and the sacred altar cloths (Alex Auswaks)
• Turning point (Anthea Fraser)
• Professor Kaa's doorway (Peter O'Donnell)
• The last kiss (Susan Kelly)
• The mood cuckoo (Jonathan Gash)
• Dishonourable members (Carole Rawcliffe)
• Slight of hand (Catherine Aird)
• Incident at Millionaires' Row (H.R.F. Keating)
• Working with Suzie (Jean McConnell)
• A vacance en campagne (Tim Heald)
• Well shot (Ian Rankin)
• Where's Stacey? (Liza Cody)
• Keep taking the tabloids (Robert Barnard)
• A little missionary work (Sue Grafton)

3rd Culprit: A Crime Writers' Association Annual

Editor: Liza Cody, Michael Z. Lewin and Peter Lovesey

1995

An anthology of mystery stories. The contents are:

• A Needle For The Devil (Ruth Rendell)
• The Hampstead Vegetable Heist (Mat Coward)
• Mr. Idd (H.R.F. Keating)
• The Birdman Of Bow Street (Joan Lock)
• Someone Got To Eddie (Ian Rankin)
• Too Many Crooks (Donald E. Westlake)
• The Writing On The Wall (Val Mcdermid)
• Social Work (William G. Tapply)
• Six In The Morning (Maxim Jakubowski)
• The Hand That Feeds Me (Michael Z. Lewin)
• The Butcher Of St. Pierre (Susan Kelly)
• The Great Tetsuji (Sara Paretsky)
• Cryptic Crime Acrostic (Sarah Caudwell & Michael Z. Lewin)
• The Train (Stephen Murray)
• Fancy (Bill James)
• The Crumple Zone (John Malcolm)
• Good Investments (Celia Dale)
• Chased Delights, Or, The Missing Minutes (Keith Heller)
• The Christmas Present (Bob Lock)
• Something Happened At The Time (Madelaine Duke)
• Night Flight (James Melville)
• Give Us A Clue (Joan Lock)
• Second Best Man (David Williams)
• Trumpets For Max Jericho (Robert Brack)
• Cold And Deep (Frances Fyfield)