Lady Yesterday (The Amos Walker Series #7) [Hardcover]

Loren D. Estleman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1987

Tracking down a runaway wife is run of the mill. That's yesterday's blues. But finding the trombonist father of black, beautiful, reformed hooker Iris threatens to blow up into the case of a lifetime.

The trail Amos Walker follows through Detroit's smoky music clubs leads him to dens of hard crime and harder drugs -- where Iris and Amos will be lucky to escape with their lives, much less the truth about a past packed with menacing secrets. And that's no jazz.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hard-bitten private eye Amos Walker (last seen in Sugartown stalks the bleak, wintry streets and the smoke-filled nightclubs of Detroit in his latest, swiftly paced mystery, whose characters include tough, wisecracking women and cheap gangsters. When Walker is hired by a Jamaican ex-prostitute, Iris, to find her father, an obscure jazz musician, he has no trouble picking up the trail of the missing trombone player. What he does not bargain for are some harshly explicit warnings from the drug czar of Detroit, Iris's kidnapping, and the forming of an uneasy alliance between himself and the highest levels of organized crime. Walker pursues his case with dogged intensity, bringing to his investigation total cynicism and a casual disregard for scruples. As usual, Estleman's dark, moody narration and his evocation of the seamy, forlorn ambience of Detroit mark this series with a special stamp.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Estleman has received fifteen national writing awards, including three Shamuses from the Private Eye Writers of America, two American Mystery Awards from Mystery Scene Magazine, and two Outstanding Mystery Writer of the Year awards from Popular Fiction Monthly. 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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 281 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (May 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089621804X
• ISBN-13: 978-0896218048
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,093,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner for Amos Walker, April 25, 2001

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lady Yesterday (The Amos Walker Series #7) (Hardcover)

"Lady Yesterday" is the 7th novel in the superb Amos Walker private detective series. Once again, our wise cracking and world weary hero prowls the streets of his native Detroit with moves as fast as his wit. In this outing, Walker's favorite femme fatale, the recovering hooker Iris (first introduced in the series debut, "Motor City Blue"), is back in town and Walker cannot resist doing her a favor by trying to find the father she never knew. Along the way he explores Detroit's fading jazz scene and butts heads with an assortment of lowlifes and mobsters. He also finds to his dismay that his only ally in the police department, his old friend homicide Detective John Alderdyce, is on an extended leave of absence suffering from burnout.

"Lady Yesterday" is another excellent entry into this fine series. Walker novels ready like latter day Phillip Marlowe and his cases always take unexpected twists. This one isn't the best of the series (that would be "Sugartown" or "The Glass Highway") because it relies a little too heavilly on some of the elements of past entries. Nevertheless, it is still a very good read.