Motor City Blues [Paperback]

Loren D. Estleman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books; First Edition edition (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0523417063
• ISBN-13: 978-0523417066
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,562,750 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

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent P.I. Series Debut, February 18, 2001

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Motor City Blue (The Amos Walker Series #1) (Paperback)

Loren D. Estleman has talent to burn and it shows in his first novel featuring private detective Amos Walker (originally published in 1980). Like any good P.I., Walker doesn't work the streets of his native Detroit, he INHABITS them. Also like any good P.I., Walker drinks a little too much despite his cynicism, cares a little too much and his personal life leaves a lot to be desired. The plot is more complex than is the norm with such stories, and perhaps it pushes credibility a bit towards the end. Nevertheless, Estleman has both talent and style to burn. He is among the best at using metaphors to describe the action.

Fans of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder, George Pellaconos's Nick Stefanos and Johnathan Valin's Harry Stoner will love Amos Walker.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The afterward explains a lot!, May 13, 2006

By 

Dave Schwinghammer "Dave Schwinghammer" (Little Falls, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Motor City Blue (The Amos Walker Series #1) (Paperback)

If MOTOR CITY BLUE sounds like an old movie, there's a good reason. Author Loren D. Estleman explains in an afterward that as a kid he was a fan of film noir. When he set out to make a living as an author, he wanted to imitate the writers whose books were made into movies: Dashiel Hammet, Raymond Chandler, Micey Spillane et. al. He picked the 1975 Chandler vehicle FAREWELL, MY LOVELY as an inspiration for MOTOR CITY BLUE.

Estleman's hero, Amos Walker, could pass for Phillip Marlowe or Travis McGee. He's a big lug who wears a snap-brim fedora, smokes too much, keeps a bottle of whiskey in his office drawer, and drives a Cutlass with a Cadillac engine. Like McGee, he gets beats beat up a lot; at one point two thugs pistol whip him. He also has a police connection on the force, detective John Alderdyce, the only true black man he's ever known.

The plot isn't much. Walker is hired to find the ward of ancient mafioso, Ben Morningstar. Estleman tries very hard to bend the stereotypes concerning organized crime, but in the end he choses an ex-hockey player as a bodyguard for Morningstar who looks more like a thug than a conventional hood.

There are too many characters in MOTOR CITY BLUE, more characters than in a Russian novel, Estleman says in his afterward. You would think you'd be able to remember the main ones at the end of the novel. I consistently found myself paging back a few pages to try to figure out who some of these people were.

Like Elmore Leonard, Estleman chose Detroit as a setting. I recognized a lot of place names like Grosse Point and Rouge Road, but that didn't help bring Detroit to life for me; the setting might as well have been Battle Creek for all the difference it makes in the plot.

Estleman spends so much time trying to sound like Chander that it interferes with the flow of the novel. But, remarkably, he succeeds. Listen to this: "The air was as bitter as a stiffed hooker and smelled of auto exhaust." And this, "Together they led him to the car like a whipped spaniel."

MOTOR CITY BLUE was published in 1980. For once I thought I'd try an author at the beginning of his career. Estleman has a new one out entitled, NICOTINE KISS, that I plan to read. I look forward to comparing the two.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good debut novel featuring Amos Walker, October 2, 2011

By 

K. Schonlau "MysteriesinStL" (St Louis MO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Motor City Blue (The Amos Walker Series #1) (Paperback)

This book was originally printed in 1980 and is the first one featuring Detroit P.I. Amos Walker. This novel has a very "film noir" feel to it. Reading it made me think of novels by Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. The writing is typical noir, e.g. "She had the cold heart of a banker." Walker drinks too much, smokes too much and gets beat up too much, but in the end, he solves the mystery.

The book starts out with Walker tailing a suspected fraudulent injury claim. While doing this, he is hired by a dying mob leader, Ben Morningstar, to find his ward, Maria. Maria disappeared from boarding school months ago and the only recent picture Morningstar has is a porn shot.

This is a convoluted plot involving Army Intelligence forces, a Klan-type group of goons bent upon suppressing minorities, the porn industry, etc. There are a lot of characters in the book, but I had no trouble keeping tract of them. In the book's afterward, Estleman even admits that there are more characters in it than in a Russian novel.

I enjoyed this introductory Amos Walker novel and plan to read his more recent works. For those interested, Loren Estleman also writes Westerns. He is an award winning author.