Amos Walker is hired by the wealthy Childs' family to locate their missing son and notify the parents so they can have cops get him off the streets. Walker finds the kid too late. He and three other kids (all college students)are dead by the time he arrives. The rest of the story concerns Walker finding out what really happened.
I have found many of the stories in this series to be uneven. Some of the writers are not fiction writers but journalists and their stories are rarely satisfying. Some also lean so heavily on the city they are set in, they don't tell much of a story. In this case, it is a story that is too familiar. Something you might see on the Rockford Files. Still you can see Estelman's skill. Detroit is not the same city it was in 2007. But as he notes in the story, Detroit has a way of reverting to a particular place. Hope that isn't true this time.
18 comments:
I need to read more of Estleman's work, Patti. I've heard of his stories, but haven't tried them yet. Thanks for the nudge.
Estleman definitely has a sense of history, as well...and not solely because he's written so much western and other historical fiction (most of the latter historical crime fiction, at least what I've seen and read some of). It would be close to unthinkable to have a DETROIT NOIR without him (did they manage to get something from Elmore Leonard?). And, of course, ROCKFORD FILES episodes have the advantage of whatever charm and gravitas the cast can bring to the sometimes (usually?) too-familar story (well-turned, though, compared to something like the exasperating THE ENDGAME, which can't get through an episode without several large clunks).
"Ross Macdonald" v. John D. MacDonald. It's taken me too long to keep the a our of Gregory McDonald, even though I was reading his series novels first...
Oddly enough, I have a John D. Mac vignette coming up in my entry for today, along with a Robert Bloch novella and a few other items of potential interest.
I have heard Estleman speak at book fairs and he claims there are not enough outlets for his turnout of stories. Of course, this was a few years ago. I wonder if writing less might have made him a more memorable writer. A Dennis Lehane instead of a James Patterson.
I'd suggest you're being too hard on him, calling him a Patterson...a Gregory McDonald, more arguably.
I am only using Patterson as an example of a writer who produces more rather than best.
I have not read Greoory McDonald in forty years. Did he have a high output?
I've read quite a few of Estleman's short stories and he always does a nice job with setting. I remember one in Hamtramck particularly.
Still reading the odd Robert Aickman collection - what are some of these stories about? - COMPULSORY GAMES. Also John Lutz's crime and noirish stories in UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD. There is one Alo Nudger (his first series character) story, but most are non series.
McDonald did, over a relatively short period of time, and, for example, the Fletch novels ranged from pretty impressive (CONFESS, FLETCH) to rather pedestrian (CARIOCA FLETCH, FLETCH AND THE WIDOW BRADLEY)...whereas even before he started farming them out wholesale, I'm not aware of a worthwhile Patterson novel...I tend to bracket him with the likes of Jeffery Deaver, Anne Rice, Dan Brown, V.C. Andrews and others who've never in my experience published anything (or vanishingly little) worth actually reading.
Indeed, Aickman was rarely willing to spell Anything out for the reader. I repeat...Lutz and Aickman are not quite on opposite poles, but they'll do till a more divergent pair of good writers comes along comes along.
I have bought a good number of the Noir titles, when I can find them at a reduced price, either at the book sale or on the kindle. I don't think I have read all the stories in any of the books. I read a few in Mississippi Noir, one by Megan (which was very good). A few in New Orleans Noir and a few in Manhattan Noir. Mostly I had a good experience with the stories.
I should read more by Estleman. I think I have only read one book by him, the first Amos Walker novel.
I have only read a couple but they were fine. There is a nice book called AMOS WALKER'S DETROIT, which has photographs of various places he's mentioned. I used to have it....
Todd, that's why I am enjoying the juxtaposition of two such different writers with such utterly different styles.
Patti, have you tried his series about Valentino, Film Detective? There is a Crippen & Landru collection under that name. FRAMES was the first novel in the series, which i about film preservation (silents, other "lost" movies). He is also restoring an old theater to live in, as I recall.
That is, the character is restoring the theater, not Estleman.
Steve Lewis's short story today: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=79049
Thanks, Todd.
No, Jeff, I have only read the Walker books and not in a long time.
And, at long last, mine:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2022/03/short-story-wednesday-bluebook-august.html
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