"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Estleman here reaches all the way back to his first Walker book, 1980's Motor City Blue, in order to resurrect Beryl Garnet, a once-prominent whorehouse operator with a laugh "like Tinkerbell on crank," now in residence at an assisted-living facility. She hires the detective to find her not-too-bright adopted son, Delwayne, and make sure that he's given her ashes after she dies. Trouble is, Delwayne has been on the lam ever since his association with a 1968 plot to blow up the Detroit Federal Building in protest against the Vietnam War. Months later, and with the assistance of a vintage FBI agent and a politely proficient Canadian PI, Walker pins down his quarry in Toronto and hands over the late madam's "cremains." But Delwayne isn't satisfied; he wants our hero's help in solving the 1949 shooting death of his unacknowledged father, Curtis Smallwood, a black heavyweight boxing champ whose affair with a white Hollywood s! tarlet threatened her career. When, soon after this, Delwayne is murdered in a supposedly secure Detroit airport hotel--with the same .38 revolver that killed his father more than five decades before--Walker goes digging for answers. Along the way, he unearths a New York gangster's grandson, a mother with a record-setting case of hate, an overeducated mistress with leaving on her mind, and an electronic bug in his office that takes all the fun out of talking to himself.
Nobody these days outperforms the three-time Shamus-winning Estleman when it comes to penning wisecracking repartee--a reminder of the American detective story's deep roots in pulp fiction. ("Are you afraid of the police?" a would-be client asks, to which Walker responds: "Terrified. They’re armed and they drink a lot of coffee.") Yet, while the Amos Walker series upholds many genre traditions, it has also grown beyond them, both as a result of the author's finely honed prose and Walker's willingness to recognize himself as an anachronism. A melancholy appreciation of the Motor City's often unsavory history just adds to the attractions of Estleman's work. --J. Kingston Pierce
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 3.00
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0765343738
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0765343738
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # FrontCover0765343738
Book Description Mass Market Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks129674
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Buy for Great customer experience. Seller Inventory # GoldenDragon0765343738
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0765343738
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0765343738
Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 0.25. Seller Inventory # Q-0765343738