The Hours of the Virgin (Amos Walker) [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Loren D. Estleman (Author), John Kenneth (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999 | Series: Amos Walker (Book 13)

The Motor City is no place for virgins. Or, for gentlemen, either. This is a city steeped in booms and busts, the sprawling creation of a tinkerer who built a motorized buggy in a shed, the product of waves of immigrant factory workers, the desperate poor, and politicians practiced in the art of corruption. In a little tiny office in the heart of this city, Amos Walker holds on to his dignity, his memories, and his way of doing business. Then he gets a case that brings all three together in a collision that would do the Ford Freeway proud.

A slick art expert hires Walker to bodyguard a blackmail transaction involving a priceless work: a long-missing piece of fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript called The Hours of the Virgin. The exchange is set for a downtown porn theater. And it all might have gone according to plan if a beautiful woman with mismatched eyes hadn't sat down next to Walker in the dark, while someone tried to kill him from behind...

Once again, Estleman unleashes the hippest mystery prose in the business, as he turns a garish big-city crime tale into another work of art and another luminous chapter in the saga of Amos Walker, Detroit private eye.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Amos Walker, Detroit PI, revisits the past in the 13th entry in an estimable hard-boiled series (The Witchfinder, etc.). In the echoing, nearly empty galleries of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Walker agrees to accompany a curator on a private mission to recover a recently stolen medieval illuminated manuscript, the Hours of the title. But in the rundown skin-flick theater where the transaction is to take place, Walker is distracted by a young woman and then shot at. The curator, his package, the woman and shooter disappear. The woman turns out to be the young wife ("she was pushing twenty but not hard enough to dent it") of the theater owner, a notorious and wealthy porn kingAand rare book collectorAconfined to a wheelchair. Also involved in the shooting is Earl North, the man who killed Walker's beloved first boss, Dale Leopold, 20 years before, a crime for which North went free. Vivid memories of Leopold combine with the debilitating effects of the flu and midwinter in Motor City to keep Walker on a bitter edge until, the flu broken and a connection between crimes old and new made, readers are led to the fitting conclusion. Like all Estleman offerings, this one comes with extraordinarily observant narration, intelligent dialogue, memorable charactersAand style to spare. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Estleman's redoubtable private eye Amos Walker returns in this tale of a lost medieval illuminated manuscript that he is hired to recover. Very much in the Sam Spade-Philip Marlowe mold, Amos walks the mean streets of Detroit, snarling and sneering but occasionally revealing his heart of gold. As is true of many of Estleman's books (Edsel), the plot is a bit convoluted and somewhat implausible, but he leaves no loose ends, and the description of Amos's closure in the death of his partner 20 years before is downright touching. The novel is replete with odd and curious similes, which when heard tend to send the listener off into a bemused line of thought. And given the hard-boiled nature of all the characters, the missing commodity might more reasonably have been a kilo of heroin or the loot from some jewel heist; a genteel artifact like a manuscript seems unlikely to have engaged these folks. The stellar performance of John Kenneth makes one wonder if the range of voices can be too goodAthe listener has to adapt constantly to wildly differing and wonderfully realized accents and inflections, and the relentless tough-guy reading of Amos sometimes sacrifices the sense of the words. But it's a good yarn, appropriately read, sure to be popular with Estleman fans and others who enjoy this genre.AHarriet Edwards, East Meadow P.L., NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Unabridged Library Edition; Unabridged edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567406637
• ISBN-13: 978-1567406634
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,369,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Books on Cassette > Authors, A-Z > ( E )

More About the Author

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. Alone (Dec 2009, Forge Books) is the second in a new series about L.A. film detective Valentino, and features Greta Garbo.

To kick off the new decade, Estleman's The Book of Murdock (eighth in the U.S. Deputy Marshal Page Murdock series) will appear in March and, to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of Private Detective Amos Walker, The Left-Handed Dollar will publish in December. It's the 20th novel in the award-winning series.

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.

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. For more information, please visit his website: www.lorenestleman.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good P.I. Story, July 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Hours of the Virgin (The Amos Walker Series #14) (Hardcover)

Harold Boyette, an antique book expert for the Detroit Institute of Arts, hires private investigator Amos Walker to recover a stolen segment of the invaluable Plymouth Book of Hours. Harold demands secrecy from Amos because he fears that he won't regain the stolen item if the loss becomes public. Amos agrees to remain silent though he knew about the robbery from hearing about it on the streets. On Christmas Eve, Harold left the valuable pages inside a locked cabinet. By the next morning, someone stole the nine-page document. The criminal returned one page accompanied by a ransom demand for one-hundred thousand dollars with the swap to occur in a local porno theater.

In the theater, Harold waits for the appointment in the front row while Amos sits a few rows behind him. All hell breaks loose around Amos. By the time things calm down, Harold and the cash are missing. The case already was personal due to the identify of the prime suspect, but now Amos' honor requires he continue with inquiries that will lead him into the ugly side of professional world of art.

Though his thirteenth tale, Amos Walker remains one of the more intelligent and vigorous private detective series on the market today. Amos continues to excel as a throwback to the hard boiled detectives of the Golden Age, who valued honor above all else. The support cast augments the entertaining story line of THE HOURS OF THE VIRGIN by bringing Detroit alive through their eccentric personalities. The story line never eases off the accelerator as Loren D. Estleman continues to pay homage to the Motor City with this pleasurable novel that will bring new fans seeking his old novels.

Harriet Klausner

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another EXCELLENT mystery by the master, January 9, 2001

By 

Elizabeth B. Daykin "eabone" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hours of the Virgin (The Amos Walker Series #14) (Mass Market Paperback)

As usual, Mr. Estelman does not disapoint. I turned to this book after a real stinker and I was well rewarded. Mr. Estlemen is a great mystery writer for a number of reasons. He's a master with the hardboiled writing. He's prolific (at least one mystery per year). He's good. The last mystery I had read, by another author, I figured out in chapter three. This one held me to the end and it also made me laugh. I think this is an excellent read for mysteryphiles and non-mysteryphiles alike. His writing is pure poetry.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Estleman's one of crime fiction's best writers, September 2, 2000

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hours of the Virgin (The Amos Walker Series #14) (Mass Market Paperback)

One wonders what the city fathers of Detroit think about Loren D. Estleman. His vision of the city, as seen through the jaundiced eye of Amos Walker, private investigator, is nearly uniformly morose, a city on the greased skids to palookaville, a one-hit wonder whose 15 minutes has been over for an hour and a half.

But like the city, the Motor City investigator keeps on trucking in the 13th novel of this highly praised series. Walker agrees to help a curator at the Detroit Institute of Arts to help recover a recently stolen medieval illuminated manuscript. But the meeting at a rundown porn theater is interrupted when Walker is distractedby a young woman, then shot at. When the smoke clears, the woman, the manuscript and the curator have all disappeared.

While tracking down the leads, Walker is also following a trail into his past. Twenty years ago, Dale Leopard, his boss and mentor, was found dead while on a case, and Earl North, the man who beat the charge, has reappeared, seeking the manuscript. Is there a connection between the murder and the Hours? Did North really kill Leopard?

Estleman writes like an aria; his prose sings with metaphors and observations that strike just the right note. He's been around long enough so that comparing him to Dashielle Hammett and Raymond Chandler isn't an original thought, but it's true and it'll have to do. He gives Detroit its unique identity of a crumbling and crooked but proud city trying to find itself.