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Amos Walker #15
Sinister Heights
Detroit PI Amos Walker steps into a lethal family feud when the beautiful widow of a powerful industrialist hires him to find her late husband’s illegitimate children
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.
Sinister Heights is the 15th book in the Amos Walker Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
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.
Sinister Heights is the 15th book in the Amos Walker Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
295 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2002
20 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Loren D. Estleman
317 books282 followersLoren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He writes with a manual typewriter.
Estleman is most famous for his novels about P.I. Amos Walker. Other series characters include Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books.) His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Series:
* Amos Walker Mystery
* Valentino Mystery
* Detroit Crime Mystery
* Peter Macklin Mystery
* Page Murdock Mystery
Estleman is most famous for his novels about P.I. Amos Walker. Other series characters include Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books.) His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.
Series:
* Amos Walker Mystery
* Valentino Mystery
* Detroit Crime Mystery
* Peter Macklin Mystery
* Page Murdock Mystery
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 3, 2013
You will enjoy this book a lot more if you are familiar with the Detroit area. I lived in that area for the first thirty years of my life so I qualify in being familiar. This book is filled with street names that I know. Sinister Heights was published in 2002 when Detroit was on the verge of losing its Automotive Capital moniker. Cars are manufactured these days in right-to-work states more than in Michigan.
Loren Estleman could be a standup comedian with his plethora of one-liners. It took me a few pages to get with the flow. I use Post-It notes to mark lines that I might want to use in my review and the notes were flying off the pad.
You probably get the point, if not the joke.
This is my first Amos Walker book; he is sharp and astute and fluent. He is quick on a comeback with a fist or a word. His cleverness makes me smile. Loren Estleman writes him quite a few good lines. A rich widow matches lines with him and sends him out in search of a bastard daughter of her deceased husband.
This is book fifteen of a twenty-two book series that is still growing with book twenty-three due out in 2014. Starting with #15 is probably not the recommended way to begin a new series, but this was evidently the first book available to me from my used book source. I don’t see myself getting through all twenty-something books anytime soon!
Loren Estleman is good for a couple of zinger lines each page. No kidding. Here’s one just to prove it:
Sometimes when you think you are not getting your ninety-nine cents worth from this used book, Estleman will give you a two-fer at no extra charge:
Then it’s not fun anymore. The book gets real serious on page 111 with a deadly car crash.
Just in case you are interested, a 2000 Indian motorcycle puts in an appearance. This is a classic motorcycle with a long history that dates back to 1919. Coincidently Amos Walker has some cycle experience so an Indian as emergency transit works out as he heads to Toledo without a helmet. “Look out for the law. They’ll bust you without a helmet,” the nervous owner warns Amos who retorts as he swings his leg over the seat, “They’ll have to catch me first.”
Indian comes up on several other occasions in the book but I am not sure if that means anything because I have not read the first fourteen books.
At any rate the clever repartee picks up in spite of several more serious moments that involve guns and bodies.
But the one-liners do keep my attention: “She was beheaded,” I said. “It was a damn good-looking head, too.” And then a couple of pages later: “I’m not in the market for a kept man.” “That’s okay, because I don’t keep any better than yogurt.”
Help me, please. I am being tempted to want to read the first fourteen books and I must not fall for that temptation since I already am in the midst of far too many series. One more will never do. Help me on this, please. Amos will be my role-model: he manages to fend off the advances of a very rich, attractive woman. I am sure he doesn’t want me to be drawn into reading the first fourteen books. He would say, “Too many good books; not enough time. Just say no.”
Estleman has his share of action and he kept me interested and entertained with a bit of a surprise ending. He gets some extra star power from me due to his familiar geography and the comfortable quality of writing. Four stars.
Loren Estleman could be a standup comedian with his plethora of one-liners. It took me a few pages to get with the flow. I use Post-It notes to mark lines that I might want to use in my review and the notes were flying off the pad.
The city was considering changing the name of that stretch of Cass to encourage business other than drugs and prostitution.
. . .
A lot of people with computers never open the telephone book.
. . .
A strip mall had been built off one end, selling hearing aids, bladder-control pills, and devices to improve TV reception. Planet Hollywood is not going to move into the neighborhood anytime soon.
. . .
“Do I sound like Brooklyn?”
“The one in Michigan, or the one on The Honeymooners?
. . .
“First, can I offer you a real drink? Leland always said water’s only good for making ice.”
. . .
It was that old shot-and-a-beer action on which Detroit holds the patent.
. . .
“Leland wouldn’t eat lima beans if a judge ordered him to. And he loved lima beans.”
. . .
“You know that joke about that minister who died when his church flooded because he trusted in God instead of the men who came to rescue him in a Jeep, a boat, and then a helicopter?”
. . .
This was not the right answer . . .
. . .
“I try not to visit the Heights two days in a row. It voids my insurance.”
. . .
I dipped into my bag of special detective tools and opened the telephone book.
. . .
“So size does matter.”
. . .
…to spread on roads and highways throughout the northeastern states during the winter, to melt snow and ice and incidentally christen the entire region America’s Rust Belt.
. . .
“Amos Walker,” she read. “Is that your real name?”
“It’s the one I use most of the time.”
. . .
“My father gave me a lab when I was ten. He’s on a farm somewhere, my mother told me. The lab got run over.”
You probably get the point, if not the joke.
This is my first Amos Walker book; he is sharp and astute and fluent. He is quick on a comeback with a fist or a word. His cleverness makes me smile. Loren Estleman writes him quite a few good lines. A rich widow matches lines with him and sends him out in search of a bastard daughter of her deceased husband.
This is book fifteen of a twenty-two book series that is still growing with book twenty-three due out in 2014. Starting with #15 is probably not the recommended way to begin a new series, but this was evidently the first book available to me from my used book source. I don’t see myself getting through all twenty-something books anytime soon!
Loren Estleman is good for a couple of zinger lines each page. No kidding. Here’s one just to prove it:
I went out looking for a place that served underdone Brussels sprouts for lunch. I had a hankering.
Sometimes when you think you are not getting your ninety-nine cents worth from this used book, Estleman will give you a two-fer at no extra charge:
She shook a finger in my face. “You’re a Republican.”
“No, ma’am. I’m Episcopalian.”
As I rumbled the engine to life, Matthew asked his mother, “Are they married?”
“I don’t think so, honey. They just like to fight.”
Then it’s not fun anymore. The book gets real serious on page 111 with a deadly car crash.
Just in case you are interested, a 2000 Indian motorcycle puts in an appearance. This is a classic motorcycle with a long history that dates back to 1919. Coincidently Amos Walker has some cycle experience so an Indian as emergency transit works out as he heads to Toledo without a helmet. “Look out for the law. They’ll bust you without a helmet,” the nervous owner warns Amos who retorts as he swings his leg over the seat, “They’ll have to catch me first.”
Indian comes up on several other occasions in the book but I am not sure if that means anything because I have not read the first fourteen books.
At any rate the clever repartee picks up in spite of several more serious moments that involve guns and bodies.
I’d torn up the road back for forth between two states on three different sets of wheels, been in an accident, had a gun stuck at me, been sassed at by three different kinds of crook and caught one in the breadbasket from a fourth, stumbled over a corpse (first of the year), and managed to loose three people under my protection, at least one permanently, since the last time I’d closed my eyes. Just another day in the life of a self-employed screw-up. I needed twelve hours. I told whoever helped me to the bed to wake me in four.
But the one-liners do keep my attention: “She was beheaded,” I said. “It was a damn good-looking head, too.” And then a couple of pages later: “I’m not in the market for a kept man.” “That’s okay, because I don’t keep any better than yogurt.”
Help me, please. I am being tempted to want to read the first fourteen books and I must not fall for that temptation since I already am in the midst of far too many series. One more will never do. Help me on this, please. Amos will be my role-model: he manages to fend off the advances of a very rich, attractive woman. I am sure he doesn’t want me to be drawn into reading the first fourteen books. He would say, “Too many good books; not enough time. Just say no.”
Estleman has his share of action and he kept me interested and entertained with a bit of a surprise ending. He gets some extra star power from me due to his familiar geography and the comfortable quality of writing. Four stars.
September 1, 2020
I really enjoy this series of books featuring PI Amos Walker, of which this is the 15th.
In this particular tale, a rich young widow altruistically engages Walker to check out other potential heirs to her late husband's estate. But, as usual, things aren't anywhere simple as they might seem - and Walker encounters a range of unsavoury types along the way.
There's lots of semi-hidden humour and less obscure editorialising on the corruption the narrator feels lies at the heart of Detroit which is almost a character itself in this series.
I enjoy how certain characters drop in and drop out of the novels and how Estleman from time to time throws out little nuggets of information about their back story.
(Although in a rather different style to John D McDonald's "Travis McGee" books, I think if you like one you will probably have time for the other. And Estleman is still with us, so the list of HIS titles continues to grow).
In this particular tale, a rich young widow altruistically engages Walker to check out other potential heirs to her late husband's estate. But, as usual, things aren't anywhere simple as they might seem - and Walker encounters a range of unsavoury types along the way.
There's lots of semi-hidden humour and less obscure editorialising on the corruption the narrator feels lies at the heart of Detroit which is almost a character itself in this series.
I enjoy how certain characters drop in and drop out of the novels and how Estleman from time to time throws out little nuggets of information about their back story.
(Although in a rather different style to John D McDonald's "Travis McGee" books, I think if you like one you will probably have time for the other. And Estleman is still with us, so the list of HIS titles continues to grow).
January 24, 2025
I really enjoyed this book and I am now a fan of the Amos Walker Series that Estleman writes. I see that they’re very popular in the online library. It was relatively clean and very suspenseful. Not entirely predictable on all counts. This story involved an inheritance and a family that is unknown as being related to the deceased but not entirely unknown as there was a court case years earlier in which it was found that there was no evidence of being related. There is a child involved and the story heats up when there’s an automobile accident involving Amos the PI and some of this family. At about the halfway mark, it was difficult to put down.
September 3, 2016
I thought the cover looked familiar, but it was not until this morning that I realised I had already read this book, in early 2008. I feel a bit mean giving 'Sinister Heights' only two stars, because Loren Estleman is a nice guy, but if anyone else had written a passage that angered me to such a degree (from page 8: "[...] the City-County Building; which had just been rechristened the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center after the mayor who had stolen everything but its doorknobs.") I would have rated the book with only one star, and would now be figuratively tearing the offending author a new asshole with the most vicious & vitriolic prose I could possibly construct. Without disparaging Mr. Estleman's ability as a writer, which is considerable, I will confine my criticism in this matter to two points:
First of all, Mr. Estleman knows that statement to be untrue. Not only is he far from stupid, but ignorance would likewise provide him no alibi. He earned a degree in journalism from Eastern Michigan University and was formerly a working journalist who covered the crime/police beat for one of the major Detroit newspapers (The Detroit Free Press, if I remember correctly). He can therefore be presumed to have a working knowledge of the political history of Detroit during and after the administration of Mayor Young.
Secondly, Mr. Estleman is certainly aware of the grotesque and disgusting level of racially based bigotry which has been directed against both Mayor Young personally, and also the city of Detroit & its residents generally, during the last forty years. He is also doubtless familiar with the factually unsupported though general belief prevalent among ignorant suburbanites and "out-state" politicians that any Detroit political figure or indeed any resident of the city is by definition a criminal. When this belief is added to the pervasive racism already extant, the result is destructive in the extreme for the city of Detroit and incredibly corrosive to the political process & structures, the economic prospects and indeed the entire socio-political milieu of Southeastern Michigan.
Even if Mr. Estleman were to fall back on the usual distancing device commonly used by authors in this sort of situation, i.e. to impute the offensive phrase to the mind of the character only, rather than the pen of that character's creator, this would still constitute no defense. Retailing inflammatory racist horseshit of this type, particularly in the metropolitan Detroit area, amounts essentially to throwing a can of gasoline on an already smoldering building. In addition, there are more than enough people in the world who, whether due to ignorance or malice (or both), are more than willing to say and believe bad things about Detroit. I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Estleman was not well aware of this, and he should therefore have known better than to join in that seemingly endless chorus of negativity.
In the early to mid-1980s, when I was a very young man, Mr. Estleman served for a time as Editor of the Dexter Leader. My family lived in Dexter (then a small, sleepy rural village West of Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County, Michigan) at that time, and I had the privilege of meeting him several times. I respected and admired him a great deal in those days; one of my most prized possessions is a signed copy of his very first novel, The Oklahoma Punk. I am dismayed and disappointed that he would write something so irresponsible and offensive as the phrase quoted above.
First of all, Mr. Estleman knows that statement to be untrue. Not only is he far from stupid, but ignorance would likewise provide him no alibi. He earned a degree in journalism from Eastern Michigan University and was formerly a working journalist who covered the crime/police beat for one of the major Detroit newspapers (The Detroit Free Press, if I remember correctly). He can therefore be presumed to have a working knowledge of the political history of Detroit during and after the administration of Mayor Young.
Secondly, Mr. Estleman is certainly aware of the grotesque and disgusting level of racially based bigotry which has been directed against both Mayor Young personally, and also the city of Detroit & its residents generally, during the last forty years. He is also doubtless familiar with the factually unsupported though general belief prevalent among ignorant suburbanites and "out-state" politicians that any Detroit political figure or indeed any resident of the city is by definition a criminal. When this belief is added to the pervasive racism already extant, the result is destructive in the extreme for the city of Detroit and incredibly corrosive to the political process & structures, the economic prospects and indeed the entire socio-political milieu of Southeastern Michigan.
Even if Mr. Estleman were to fall back on the usual distancing device commonly used by authors in this sort of situation, i.e. to impute the offensive phrase to the mind of the character only, rather than the pen of that character's creator, this would still constitute no defense. Retailing inflammatory racist horseshit of this type, particularly in the metropolitan Detroit area, amounts essentially to throwing a can of gasoline on an already smoldering building. In addition, there are more than enough people in the world who, whether due to ignorance or malice (or both), are more than willing to say and believe bad things about Detroit. I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Estleman was not well aware of this, and he should therefore have known better than to join in that seemingly endless chorus of negativity.
In the early to mid-1980s, when I was a very young man, Mr. Estleman served for a time as Editor of the Dexter Leader. My family lived in Dexter (then a small, sleepy rural village West of Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County, Michigan) at that time, and I had the privilege of meeting him several times. I respected and admired him a great deal in those days; one of my most prized possessions is a signed copy of his very first novel, The Oklahoma Punk. I am dismayed and disappointed that he would write something so irresponsible and offensive as the phrase quoted above.
November 15, 2015
After a break in my Amos Walker reading--longer than anyone should be comfortable with--Sinister Heights was a great episode in the case files of the first private detective I know of capable of diagraming sentences while getting his head bounced off walls by union lackeys and illegitimate children alike to pick up with.
Walker is old school and has the cheap Scotch and quick, sarcastic comebacks to prove it; but the work that comes by a private detective as the Motor City crawls into the 21st century is dwindling. If it wasn't for the sins and vicious legacies of men like Leland Stutch, who built the automotive industry, he might be out of work altogether.
This may be Estleman's fifteenth Amos Walker book, and while he may be bringing back old characters, kicking off new and old one's alike, his love of Detroit, Walker's sarcasm, and the gritty, no-nonsense rendering of a flawed world and its struggling characters, are as strong as ever.
Walker is old school and has the cheap Scotch and quick, sarcastic comebacks to prove it; but the work that comes by a private detective as the Motor City crawls into the 21st century is dwindling. If it wasn't for the sins and vicious legacies of men like Leland Stutch, who built the automotive industry, he might be out of work altogether.
This may be Estleman's fifteenth Amos Walker book, and while he may be bringing back old characters, kicking off new and old one's alike, his love of Detroit, Walker's sarcasm, and the gritty, no-nonsense rendering of a flawed world and its struggling characters, are as strong as ever.
Read
January 5, 2016I have been rereading the entire "Amos Waker" detrctive series in the past few months. i believe the first was Motor City Blues in the 1970's....after about 6 novels,there was a hiatus until the late 90's. Since then I would say there are about 10 more entries. Estleman also has written a hit man series, and is a prolific writer of Westerns. The Walker books are not formulatic, but our here runs into many familiar themes as he runs his PI business in downtown Detroit. The city is really one of the reoccuring characters in the books. In sinister Heights Walker is hired by a rich industrialist's widow to locate some possible illegitimate heirs to her late Husband's fortune. Things are always more complicated than they first seem....I enjoy the snappy dialogue and character descriptions as welk as the Hero's code at work amongst those who have none.
August 12, 2010
Ah, such fun to wallow in the language and story of an Ellroy. 15th in the Amos Walker, PI, series, I have read perhaps 4 or 5 others. They all hark back to Chandler, Ross MacDonald, and Hammett and compare very favorably: the good looking broads, battering husbands, upper crust society, and everyone with a hidden agenda. However, you might remember the famous line from Amadeus regarding Mozart's music: "too many notes." As I read this, the phrase "too many similes," kept popping into my head.
No need to retell the plot. You can read that anywhere. Just enjoy a master storyteller.
No need to retell the plot. You can read that anywhere. Just enjoy a master storyteller.
October 16, 2015
#15 in the Amos Walker series.
Detroit PI Amos Walker hires himself out to the widow of one of the old robber barons who built Detroit and left it in the hands of civic leaders who are busy tearing it down. Everyone but Walker can see that he's being set up for a double cross when this young temptress asks him to trace her late husband's illegitimate progeny so they can share the wealth. Walker knows that ''we're not talking about toothpick money''; but it takes a couple of killings, some savage beatings and the kidnapping of the industrialist's great-grandson before he gets the message.
Detroit PI Amos Walker hires himself out to the widow of one of the old robber barons who built Detroit and left it in the hands of civic leaders who are busy tearing it down. Everyone but Walker can see that he's being set up for a double cross when this young temptress asks him to trace her late husband's illegitimate progeny so they can share the wealth. Walker knows that ''we're not talking about toothpick money''; but it takes a couple of killings, some savage beatings and the kidnapping of the industrialist's great-grandson before he gets the message.
June 9, 2015
An Amos Walker novel. Too much dialogue and somewhat unbelievable action, plus the jarring death of a likeable recurring character and love interest for Walker, hampers this effort. Not bad, but not his best.
January 23, 2013
More awesome hardboiled PI adventures.
February 11, 2015
I listened to the audio book and I must not have been paying close enough attention because I was thoroughly confused the last 1/3 of the book.
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December 28, 2007An Amos Walker Novel
July 16, 2009
good. Amos Walker tough exterior smart alec p.i.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews