Sinister Heights (The Amos Walker Series #16) - Hardcover

Estleman, Loren D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892967382 ISBN 13: 9780892967384

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 2002

Synopsis

After the death of centenarian Leland Stutch, creator of an automobile dynasty, his young widow hires Amos Walker to find Leland's mistresses and illegitimate children in order to share the wealth, but Walker's investigation has unexpected repercussions.

About this title

About the Author

Estleman has received numerous awards, including the Private Eye Writers of America's Shamus Award and the American Mystery Award for Best P.I. Novel. Loren D. Estleman lives in Whitmore Lake, Michigan.

Reviews

In Estleman's 15th lively novel to feature Detroit PI Amos Walker (after 2000's A Smile on the Face of a Tiger), Walker is hired by the young widow of a recently deceased multi-millionaire centenarian who wishes to mitigate the sexist offenses of her former love-'em-and-leave-'em spouse by sharing some of her millions with his victims. Even some of Estleman's own characters find this hard to believe. Not impossible, mind you. Just hard to believe. For the first third of the novel, veteran noir fans will understand that Amos is being set up for a double-cross, which comes in the form of a lethally souped-up pickup truck barreling down on him on the highway. One of the women he was asked to find is killed, another hospitalized and her child abducted. What's going on? And who's behind it? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions and the means by which Amos discovers them are as implausible as the rest of the story, and the violence involved in bringing the guilty to justice is ludicrous. On the positive side, when he isn't beating somebody up or being beaten, Amos is a most congenial host, given to witty banter with the rest of the cast; and there's Estleman's dazzling Detroit, its past, present and future. Estleman has written a lot of books, and Amos is sure to have a lot of fans who'll find his Rambo-like antics perfectly plausible. Whether they'll like this as well as the previous books in the series, they'll find it neither humorless nor dull.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Amos Walker's cases don't often take him to Iroquois Heights, one of Detroit's wealthiest suburbs. He certainly doesn't fit in, as the cops who roust him for a missing license plate light make very clear. What brings Walker to the right side of town is a client, Rayellen Stutch, widow of one of Detroit's wealthiest and most powerful men. Mrs. Stutch is not overwhelmed with grief; she's young, very attractive, and now very wealthy, but she's worried that the heirs--a daughter and a granddaughter--of a woman with whom Leland once had an affair may be planning to sue for a chunk of the estate. Rayellen wants Walker to find the heirs so she can settle with them out of court. But a simple case is never simple when there are hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Walker traces the daughter, but when he reaches out to the granddaughter and her child, he finds himself in the particular hell that only money and twisted ambition can create. Through 15 entries, the Walker series remains classic hard-boiled fare for those who like their private eyes to be Old School all the way. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892967382
• ISBN 13: 9780892967384
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304