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5.5 x 8.5
Hardcover | Limited
September 2010
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For the first time, Loren D. Estleman's popular Detroit detective, Amos Walker, will be collected in a complete volume. Over 600 pages, this omnibus will include every Walker story written, and include a new story written expressly for the collection.
PRAISE FOR
AMOS WALKER: THE COMPLETE STORY COLLECTION
“All the elements that have made Estleman one of the best hard-boiled writers of all time--just a notch below Chandler and Hammett--are present in these 32 short stories. Remarkably, he has kept his Detroit-based Amos Walker series (Motor City Blue) fresh after three decades and 20 novels, and any fan of the genre who has yet to encounter the ex-cop turned PI will get a great introduction through this collection. What's most impressive is Estleman's ability to blend sharp-edged language, cynical characters, betrayals, twists, and a memorable narrative voice within the short story format. He also manages to inject dark humor into his work that keeps the violence, corruption, and double-crosses from becoming too grim ("I don't have so many friends I can afford to drop one just because he tried to kill me"). Longtime fans will welcome the author's informative introduction."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Hard-boiled Detroit private investigator Amos Walker debuted 30 years ago in the novel Motor City Blue (1980). The series has earned Estleman four Shamus awards, and two entries in the series were New York Times Notable Books selections. The 32 stories in the collection range from standard missing-person cases, to a bizarre investigation that hinges on a tattoo, to a few in which Walker ventures outside his black-and-white hometown to the greener but sometimes more deadly Michigan countryside. In the latter category is “Cigarette Stop” in which deadly trouble follows Walker after he makes a simple stop for a pack of smokes. Walker investigates a possible suicide in “Major Crimes” for an insurance company looking to avoid a large life insurance payout. Even Walker’s cynicism is tested when everyone involved in the case—including the insurance company—is complicit in the victim’s death. Walker has a built-in audience of devoted fans; new readers who check out this sampler will be pleased to know they have 30 years of fine novels waiting for them."
—Booklist
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Since the appearance of his first novel in 1976, Loren D. Estleman has written more than 65 books and hundreds of short stories and articles. Among those books: Writing the Popular Novel, from Writer's Digest Books; the second in a new series featuring Estleman's Los Angeles film detective, Valentino (Alone, featuring Greta Garbo, December 2009); American Detective (the nineteenth Amos Walker novel, April 2007); The Adventures of Johnny Vermillion (a rollicking comic western, May 2006); the Spur award-winning The Undertaker's Wife (2005); and a novel about hanging judge Isaac Parker, The Branch and the Scaffold (April 2009). Forthcoming are: The Book of Murdock (eighth in the Page Murdock series; January 2010), and The Left-Handed Dollar (20th in the Amos Walker series). There are several short stories in the hopper, and proposals for future novels in both the mystery and historical western genres. He recently finished writing a historical crime novel, which is his largest project to date, and is currently working on another Valentino novel.
All of this on a manual typewriter, no less.
Estleman has received fan letters from such notables as John D. MacDonald, The Amazing Kreskin, Mel Tormé, and Steve Forbes. He has acquired a loyal cult readership across the United States and in Europe, and his work has appeared in 23 languages.
An authority on both criminal history and the American West, Estleman has been called the most critically acclaimed author of his generation. He has been nominated for the National Book Award, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award.
He has received seventeen national writing awards: four Shamuses from the Private Eye Writers of America, five Spurs from the Western Writers of America, two American Mystery Awards from Mystery Scene Magazine, two Outstanding Mystery Writer of the Year awards from Popular Fiction Monthly, two Stirrup Awards for outstanding articles in the Western Writers of America magazine, The Roundup, and three Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1987, the Michigan Foundation of the Arts presented him with its award for literature. In 1997, the Michigan Library Association named him the recipient of the Michigan Author's Award. In 2007, Nicotine Kiss was named a Notable Book by the Library of Michigan.
In 1993, Estleman was Guest of Honor at the Southwest Mystery Convention in Austin, Texas. He was Honored Guest at Eyecon '99 (Private Eye Writers of America Convention), held in St. Louis in July of that year. In June 2001, he was Guest of Honor (the first American chosen) at the Bloody Words Convention in Toronto, Canada.
He has been a judge for many literary honors, including the prestigious Hopwood Award given by the University of Michigan. He has written book reviews for many newspapers, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, and in 1988 he covered the filming of Lonesome Dove for TV Guide.
He's worked hard to get where he is, beginning in the unheated upstairs of the 1867 Michigan farmhouse where he was raised. His fondest childhood memory is that of curling up in his robe with a mug of hot chocolate in front of the television to enjoy such grand western series as Maverick and Gunsmoke.
When he was fifteen years old, he sent out his first short story for publication. Over the next eight years, he collected 160 rejections. He attributes his tenacity to ego, and he's earned that, too. He and his brown-bag lunch commuted to Eastern Michigan University to cut expenses after his father was disabled and his mother went to work to support the family.
Estleman often says he's not a fast writer. He is, however, consistent, spending an average of six hours a day at his typewriter. He polishes as he goes, consuming a prodigious amount of cheap typing paper; a process he refers to as "writing for the wastebasket."
His favorite writers -- and those who have inspired his work -- include Jack London, Edgar Allan Poe, W. Somerset Maugham, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, and Edith Wharton.
A sought-after speaker and a veteran journalist of police-beat news, Estleman graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Journalism. On April 27, 2002, EMU presented him with an honorary doctorate in letters. He left the job market in 1980 to write full time. He lives in Michigan and is married to writer Deborah Morgan.
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