Retro

Amos Walker #17

by Loren D. Estleman

Loren Estleman is the quintessential noir detective writer, and Amos Walker is his quintessential noir detective. Walker has made a lot of friends--and a few enemies--in his years as a detective in Detroit, but he has never had to deal with quite the trouble he finds when he agrees to grant the death-bed wish of Beryl Garnet. Beryl was a madam, but she had a son a long while ago, and asks Walker to make sure that her son gets her ashes when she's gone.

He finds her son, who has been in Canada since the 1960s, evading the law since he was a Vietnam War protester. A simple favor, melancholy, but benign. Except that before he can get settled back in Detroit Garnet's son is dead, with him as 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, of a boxer from the 1940s, Curtis Smallwood, who happens to have been the man's father. If that wasn't bad enough, his task is made much more complicated by the fact that the two murders, fifty-three years apart, were committed with the very same gun. And in a place where it was impossible for a gun to be.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Detective

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He writes with a manual typewriter.

Estleman is most famous for his novels about P.I. Amos Walker. Other series characters include Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books.) His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.

Series:
* Amos Walker Mystery
* Valentino Mystery
* Detroit Crime Mystery
* Peter Macklin Mystery
* Page Murdock Mystery

Reviews

[James A. Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Old Fashioned Detective Story in Contemporary Detroit

Amos Walker is just keeping the lights on so a job finding the adopted son of a retired bordello owner doesn’t seem too risky. Before he can do this simple task the ex 1960’s war protest bomber with blood on his hands is killed when he returns from Canada to meet with Walker. Stir in a small time mobster with a red hot girlfriend, a sorta friendly cop who’ll save your skin if it’s convenient, an unsolved murder from 1949 and a heroic retired FBI agent with a wicked grudge and Amos Walker is up to his neck in good old fashioned trouble. This is another gripping read in a grand tradition.

[Jason Hillenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the finer later day Walker novels. Estleman's descriptive powers are formidable and his talent for establishing three dimensional characters has few peers in the genre of crime fiction. It's an obviously difficult feat to keep a decades old series character fresh for longtime readers, but Estleman accomplishes it with Walker and never seems content to coast.

[Jack Laschenski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Detroit today story.

Black vs White.

Crooked cop.

[William Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick read, nothing special

[Wayne Zurl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Retro is the 17th Amos Walker novel. I like continuity, but I don’t read them in order.

Retro refers to the storyline nicely. A 1950 murder of a prizefighter ties in with the death of a former 1960s radical who fled the US for Canada in ’68 and gets murdered when he sets foot in Detroit again in 2004. But a plot is a plot, and while this one is interesting and well conceived, it’s simple and straightforward—nothing to make John LeCarre twitter.

Retro also refers to the style Estleman used to tell the story. It’s pure 1940s—classic hard-boiled detective pulp, a world of palookas and dames, of gumshoes and gunsels, topped off with a shot cheap whiskey from the office bottle, doll-face—and don’t you forget it. He must have studied Chandler for a month before writing the first line. If you’ve ever tried to duplicate that noir style, you’ll know it’s not easy. But he did it well, and should be proud of himself. Good hard-boiled dialogue is about as easy as writing lines for a paranoid-schizophrenic.

So, if you’ve exhausted your collection of Philip Marlowe and are looking for a good old-fashioned private eye story, give Retro a try. I score it a 4.5 for the high degree of difficulty.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Spoiler alert]
I've read a lot of Estleman. My favorites are all Detroit-based: the first three Macklin novels and the Amos Walker series. I sort of burned out on Estleman and hadn't read anything by him in years. Picked this up on a whim. It's pretty good. Not top-shelf Estleman, as some of Walker's repartee is a tad forced and the plot is a trifle far-fetched. But well worth reading for fans of the Walker series, as (spoiler) a longtime staple of the series is the source of the major plot twist. Couple of caveats: the overall tone is rather melancholy, and people who aren't familiar with prior books in the series may not fully get some of the relationships...

[David Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone Walker meets seems to be surprised that he's still in business and there's reason for that. Amos Walker is getting pretty old for a tough-guy private detective, considering that Retro is set in the post-9/11 era and he's still a Vietnam veteran, and this is reflected in the fact that the case spans an era from the 50s to the modern day, as he starts out by seeking out what must be nearly the last fugitive 60s anti-war radicals. Solid workman-like private detective novel.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#17 in the Amos Walker series. Walker is a hard boiled Detroit PI.

PI Amos Walker is hired by dying madam Beryl Garnet to deliver her ashes to her foster son, Delwayne, who has been hiding out in Canada for 34 years. After Walker makes the delivery, Delwayne flies to Detroit to hire him to find who killed his father 53 years earlier. Before they meet, Delwayne is dead by the same gun that killed his father and Walker is a prime suspect.

[Todd Stockslager · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 225 pages of this latest Estleman blow past in his perfectly taut and tuned action and dialogue, then falls apart in the last 60 pages with too much explication and an effort to wind up too many lose threads in an extended climax.

Still worth reading, just a bit disappointing at the end.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gritty PI stuff, set in Detroit. Good if you like this sort of thing. Amos Walker traces a long-lost foster son for a retired madam and finds himself knee-deep in old murders, gangsters, molls, and 60s radicals.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent mystery and excellent writing style. I downgraded it to a 3 because it was overly wordy at some points. His descriptions are great, but not when it comes at the expense of moving the plot forward

Very similar to Robert Randisi, but so far I like Randisi better.

[Steve]

i'm going to try #3.
we'll see.
adios!

[Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book, it what you would expect in a good detective novel.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

First time reading a book from this series and this genre. It was ok. People describe it as gritty, but it came off a little corny to me.