WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A HIT MAN MEETS HIS NEW MOTHER-IN-LAW? Multiple Shamus Award winner Loren D. Estleman is "a superb stylist as well as a deft storyteller [who] paints his people and his city with acerbic wit and wry affection" (San Diego Union-Tribune). 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. Macklin, driven by his professional curiosity and his desire to protect his family, can't help but get involved. As Macklin investigates Grinnell's dark affairs, he inevitably gets tangled up with Grinnell's enemies, including the Ohio mob... and the law. All parties converge in a deadly shootout, with the lives of Macklin's loved ones and the fate of his marriage precariously hanging in the balance.
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. Original.
Ten stories written between 1977 and 1986 by an award winning young writer whose work exemplifies the best of his genre--and transcends it. Includes an introduction and a bibliography of Estleman's work. Acidic paper. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Detroit PI Amos Walker searches for a priceless medieval illuminated manuscript—and for evidence that can put his former partner’s killer behind bars 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. The Hours of the Virgin is the 13th book in the Amos Walker Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
DIVAn ex-con hires Detroit PI Amos Walker to find the people who put him behind bars/divDIV/divDIVCountless 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./divDIV /divDIVTwenty 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
DIVA faded film star asks Detroit PI Amos Walker to get her out of a relationship with a deadly mobster/divDIV/divDIVWhen Amos Walker was a teen, he had a poster of Gail Hope on his wall. A 60s bombshell in the beach-blanket tradition, she has fallen hard since her glory days as one of the dying studio system’s final starlets. But when she calls on Amos Walker she remains as lovely as ever: an elegant beauty with a $750,000 problem./divDIV /divDIVSince her career evaporated, she has played the part of moll to one of Detroit’s big-name gangsters, a powerful man stalked by death. Tired of a life looking over her shoulder, Hope pawns everything she owns in an attempt to buy her way out. She entrusts Walker with a suitcase heavy with cash, and asks him to play delivery boy—a simple assignment that doesn’t take long to turn deadly./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
Edgar Award Finalist: In the throes of Prohibition-era Detroit, one reporter follows the gripping and violent life of a man who helped keep the booze flowing. 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. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.
DIVA young black cop goes head-to-head with Detroit’s elite undercover squad when one of its officers is accused of a racially fraught murder/div DIVFor 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./divDIV /divDIVThe 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./divDIV/div
The first book in the long-running Amos Walker Mysteries introduces the hard-boiled Detroit detective as he searches for an aging mobster’s missing adopted daughter 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. Fans of Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard’s crime fiction will find Estleman’s lean prose, retro style, and tough-guy hero irresistible. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.
Enter Valentino, a mild-mannered UCLA film archivist. In the surreal world of Hollywood filmdom, truth is often stranger than celluloid fiction. 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. A quirky cast of characters, smart dialogue and a touch of romance make Frames Estleman's most engaging and accessible novel to date. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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—through soon-to-be ghost towns and major cities; cattle ranches and mountain cabins; brothels and fishing boats; jailhouses and movie sets. 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? Loren D. Estleman's The Long High Noon takes the reader on a thrilling adventure, touring the Old West from the days of the trains and cattle to roads and film sets.
In Loren D. Estleman's Journey of the Dead, 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. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
DIVDIVA collection of stories featuring a UCLA film archivist who searches for lost footage—and finds trouble instead/divDIV Though he shares his name with the most famous heartthrob of the silent era, Valentino is not part of film history. Rather, he is a scholar of it, working at UCLA to help find and preserve rare films. But not all movies are lost because of careless storage. Some were hidden deliberately, and there are those who will kill to ensure they stay that way. In these short stories, Valentino’s searches for missing motion pictures become dangerous investigations, and he is forced to decide what’s more important—preserving film history, or preserving his own neck./divDIV Comprised of timeless short stories that have appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Loren D. Estleman’s Valentino: Film Detective shows why Estleman is considered a master not just of film history, but of the enduring art of murder, which golden-age Hollywood did so much to perfect. /divDIV/div/div
DIVMasquerading as a soldier, a serial killer savages wartime Detroit; it’s up to one detective and his ragtag team to stop him/div DIVAs 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./divDIV /divDIVOn 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
DIVA chance encounter with an old flame sends Detroit PI Amos Walker on a hunt for her long-lost father/divDIV/divDIVIris 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./divDIV /divDIVThe 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
DIVA missing boy forces Detroit PI Amos Walker to investigate a long-cold case/divDIV/divDIVIt is hardly unusual for an elderly woman to ask Amos Walker to search for her grandchild. As a private detective in one of the country’s roughest cities, tracking missing persons is the way he makes most of his money. But Martha Evancek’s grandson Michael has been missing for nearly twenty years, having disappeared in the aftermath of a murder./divDIV /divDIVWhen Michael’s father was laid off from the Chrysler plant, he quarreled with his wife and then reached for his shotgun, killing her, his daughter, and finally himself. An eleven-year-old Michael was left to find the bodies, and he vanished soon after. Now, for the old woman’s sake, Amos Walker takes up a cold scent. He expects to find nothing, but he’s in for an unpleasant surprise./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
“For readers who can’t get enough of Elmore Leonard and Ross Thomas, try Estleman. He’s that good” (People). 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 DetroitNews, 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. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.
Joseph Michael Ballista—"Joey Ballistic" to his mob buddies—knows most of the ways to make an illegal buck, or a "left-handed dollar." That's why he's in trouble again. But his crafty lawyer, Lucille Lettermore—"Lefty Lucy" to just about every prosecutor she's ever humiliated in court—is determined to free him by getting all his previous convictions set aside, starting with one for attempted murder. When she hires Detroit private detective Amos Walker to look into the old crime, she immediately has a problem: the intended victim was investigative reporter Barry Stackpole, Walker's only real friend. Walker's not thrilled to help get his buddy's would-be killer off the hook. But money's money. It won't be easy. For starters, though Joey's ex-wives grudgingly talk with Walker, he knows they're not really leveling with him. And two new murders tied to the case aren't likely to make them 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. It'll be a dirty job for Walker in The Left-Handed Dollar, Loren D. Estleman's twentieth Amos Walker mystery. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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.
A New York Times Notable Book: A cop is shot and a Detroit PI is determined to find the culprit in this mystery by a multiple Shamus Award winner. 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. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.
Seven legendary authors recount the life of Lyle Speaks, from his hardscrabble boyhood in Texas to his later years as an aging cattle rancher in Montana, years in which his colorful past may yet come back to haunt him.
DIVA search for a vanished husband proves one of Amos Walker’s strangest cases yet/divDIV/divDIVWhat 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./divDIV /divDIVNow 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
This anthology collects all thirty-two previously published Amos Walker stories, a previously unpublished story written for the collection, and an introduction by Mr. Estleman.
Indigo is a brand new Valentino novel from Harlan Coben's hero, Loren D. Estleman! Film detective Valentino is summoned to the estate of Ignacio Bozel to collect a prized donation to the university’s movie library: Bleak Street, a film from the classic noir period, thought lost for more than sixty years. Bleak Street was never released. Its star, Van Oliver, a gifted and charismatic actor with alleged ties to the mob, disappeared while the project was in post-production, presumably murdered by gangland rivals: another one of Hollywood’s unsolved mysteries. Studio bosses elected to shelve the film rather than risk box-office failure. UCLA’s PR Department is excited about the acquisition, but only if Valentino can find a way to sell it in the mainstream media by way of a sensational discovery to coincide with its release: “We want to know what happened to Oliver.” A simple quest for a few hundred yards of celluloid opens a portal into a place darker than night. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Alone, the second wacky comedic murder romp for Hollywood film detective Valentino, from award-winning author Loren D. Estleman 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. Valentino's in a quandary. He'd love to see that letter, but he can't. He's gotten his girlfriend—who works for the police—in trouble, so his love life is, pardon the expression, shot to hell. Worse yet, the building inspector has kicked him out of his unfinished living space in the Oracle, so he takes his life in his hands and moves in with his eccentric mentor, the elderly, insomniac Professor Broadhead. No love, no sleep, no letter—life isn't fair! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
City Walls, the next Amos Walker novel from a Grand Master. “Loren D. Estleman is my hero.”—Harlan Coben The search for a fugitive embezzler leads Amos Walker to Cleveland, where he is hired by Emmett Yale, a leading figure in the electric car industry, to investigate the murder of his stepson. Yale believes that his stepson's hitman is connected to Clare Strickling, a former employee, and his attempts to silence whispers that he has bought illegal insider-trading information. Walker shadows Strickling to a private airfield as he attempts to flee the country--only to then witness his murder. The twisted web of lies and deceit surrounding both deaths forces Walker to question the motivations of everyone he encounters, from Major Jack Flagg, an elderly barnstormer, Palm Volker, the attractive aviatrix who runs the airfield, Candido, a surly maintenance worker employed by Palm, and Gabe Parrish, a retired boxer. Naturally, everyone has secrets to keep--but the truths lurking beneath the surface this time may make this Walker's final case. THE AMOS WALKER SERIES: Poison Blonde / Retro / Nicotine Kiss / American Detective / The Left-handed Dollar / Infernal Angels / Burning Midnight / Don't Look for Me / You Know Who Killed Me / The Sundown Speech / The Lioness is the Hunter / Black and White Ball / When Old Midnight Comes Along / Cutthroat Dogs / Monkey in the Middle THE PAGE MURDOCK SERIES: The High Rocks / Stamping Ground / Murdock's Law / City of Widows / White Desert / Port Hazard / The Book of Murdock / Cape Hell / Wild Justice THE PETER MACKLIN SERIES: Something Borrowed, Something Black / Little Black Dress THE VALENTINO MYSTERIES: Frames / Alone / Alive! / Shoot / Brazen / Indigo Other books by Loren D. Estleman: Aces & Eights The Ballad of Black Bart Black Powder, White Smoke The Book of Murdock The Branch and the Scaffold and Billy Gashade The Confessions of Al Capone The Eagle and the Viper Gas City Jitterbug Journey of the Dead and The Undertaker's Wife The Long High Noon and The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion The Master Executioner Paperback Jack Ragtime Cowboys The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association Roy & Lillie: A Love Story Thunder City At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Trying to go straight, former contract killer Peter Macklin carries out a hit in the Lone Star state, in this page-turning hard-boiled thriller 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. This spellbinding thriller from three-time-Shamus Award–winning author Loren D. Estleman takes hit man Peter Macklin out of his Motor City comfort zone and into the hot spots of San Antonio and Los Angeles. Something Borrowed, Something Black is the 4th book in the Peter Macklin Thrillers, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
DIVIn the tense summer before Detroit’s 1967 race riots, a former cop faces off against some of the city’s most dangerous forces/div DIVRage 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./divDIV /divDIVA 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./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection./div
In Loren D. Estleman's The High Rocks, U.S. Deputy Marshal Page Murdock attempts to bring in the legendary seven-foot trapper Bear Anderson, who has been conducting a one-man massacre of the Flatheads in an effort to avenge the murder of his family. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A priest’s death leads a Detroit gumshoe into a case of church corruption in this mordantly funny hard-boiled crime novel Ralph Poteet is forty pounds overweight, out of gin, and he hasn’t seen his gun in weeks. As far as private detectives go, he’s not much to look at. But he’s the only one in the building, and that’s enough for Lyla Dane. A call girl who’s far better at her job than Ralph is at his, she calls him in the middle of the night because she has a dead monsignor in her bed. After dealing with Lyla’s deceased client, Ralph tries his hand at blackmail, offering to keep mum about the priest’s embarrassing demise in exchange for a payoff from the diocese. But when somebody tries to kill Ralph and Lyla, Detroit’s most unsavory PI is swept into an unholy swarm of deadly secrets that resonates all the way to Washington, DC, and the Vatican. Three-time Shamus Award–winning author Loren D. Estleman delivers a witty, ribald send-up of the hard-boiled detective genre in this action-packed crime novel.
A Detroit mob war draws Peter Macklin back into his old life as a Mafia assassin in award-winning author Loren D. Estleman’s riveting hard-boiled thriller 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. This suspenseful thriller from the three-time Shamus Award–winning author of the Amos Walker Mysteries rumbles with hard-boiled action and razor-sharp dialogue. Any Man’s Death is the 3rd book in the Peter Macklin Thrillers, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
During the Great Depression, a ruthless killer breaks out of prison to reclaim his status as Public Enemy Number One in this chilling, action-packed novel 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? Inspired by the author’s love of 1930s gangster movies, Loren D. Estleman’s debut thriller surges with the narrative energy and crackling dialogue that would become hallmarks of his numerous acclaimed and award-winning hard-boiled crime novels.
Set against the sprawling landscape of the Wild West, this riveting adventure by Spur Award-winning author Loren D. Estleman follows a man on a journey to set his legacy, and the men dedicated to bringing his story to life. From his youth as a revolutionist to his time as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, aging lawman Iron St. John has become a larger-than-life figure—and in the process, the man has disappeared behind the myth. During his brief, unsuccessful political career, St. John published his memoirs—a sanitized version of his adventures to appeal to the masses. A generation later, the clouded truth of this giant of the Old West has been all but lost. Now, Buck Jones, a pioneering film star, is vying for a cinematic story that will launch his career to incredible heights. He approaches Emmet Rawlings, a retired Pinkerton detective, to set the record of St. John’s life straight once and for all. Twenty years ago, Rawlings accompanied St. John on his final manhunt, and in desperate need for the funding a successful book promises, he dives deep into St. John’s past—and his own buried memories—to tell the truth about this part-time hero. As the story of St. John unfolds, the romance of the period is stripped away to reveal a reality long-forgotten in this unvarnished, heart-racing depiction of the American West by acclaimed author Loren D. Estleman. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Much like author Loren D. Estleman, 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. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
A classic Western from three-time Golden Spur Award winner Loren D. EstlemanLegendary peacekeeper Irons St. John agrees to run down the wild Buckner gang--and rounds up a rowdy posse of low-down lawbreakers to ride along. St. John and his crew are at their boisterous best on this manhunt--and they're heading toward the wildest showdown the West has ever seen..."Loren Estleman rivals the finest American novelists with his gritty vision and keen ear." --Washington Post Book World
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