Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12) [Abridged] [Audio Cassette]

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

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

Neil Catalin had gone missing after watching a video of "Pitfall," a potboiler featuring a smoldering beauty, a hormone-driven private eye, and a jealous lover. For detective Amos Walker, the truth behind Catalin's disappearance is going to be found somewhere among those black-and-white film images.

Catalin's wife is an ice queen in a showplace home. His mistress claims she hasn't seen the victim in a year, and Catalin's business partner wants to point Walker in the wrong direction. In a Mackinac Island sanatorium, Catalin's seedy shrink is running a dangerous scam. Meanwhile, a missing ninety-two grand keeps colliding with the case, and so does a series of murders. With a Luger caressing his kidney, Walker has become the director in a stark nightmare of double-crosses and violence as brooding as the storm clouds over southern Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Break out the beer and bar snacks, because Detroit's favorite private detective--Amos Walker--is back after a seven-year hiatus. Loren Estleman personifies the term "professional writer"--he writes everything from historical novels to westerns with the same sure hand. But he's at his best getting under Walker's tough, prickly hide, using him to show what life in Detroit does to its inhabitants. This outing is a pure noir gem--a black and white movie classic in a book which in fact deals with a man obsessed with old gangster films. Previous Walkers available in paperback include City of Widows, Sugartown. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Detroit p.i. Amos Walker returns after a lengthy hiatus. As he investigates the disappearance of a businessman obsessed with gangster movies, Amos finds movie-type suspects: a cold wife, a luscious mistress, and a deceitful business partner. Classic work.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Paperback Nova Audio Books (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567402453
• ISBN-13: 978-1567402452
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 4.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,790,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 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

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Walker, Back from Beyond, August 4, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12) (Mass Market Paperback)

After a seven year absence, tough guy Detroit private detective Amos Walker returned in 1997 with "Never Street." I'm a huge fan of P.I. fiction, and Walker is one of the best around. He doesn't work the streets of Detroit so much as he INHABITS them. "Never Street" is longer and more complex than any Walker story up until that time as Amos tries to find a missing video producer and noir film buff who appears to be acting out his fantasy of sisappearing into one of his movies. For any fan of classic film noir, this is a MUST read. As a mystery, it reads reasonably well, although is not nearly as good as the best of the Walker series (novels such as "Sugartown" and "The Glass Highway"). Walker novels suffer a bit from too little reliance on supporting characters. Reappearing cops John Alderdyce and Mary Ann Thaler make a brief turn here, but only in the background of the story. Walker does have a rare romance this time out, and that helps give the story a bit of a lift.

Overall, fans of Amos Walker should enjoy this entry in the series. His is a welcome return.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must If You Must, July 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12) (Mass Market Paperback)

If, for some reason, you must read books that are well written, with tough talking, wise-cracking, good intentioned, interesting, likeable private eyes who live in the atmospheric pages of a master crime writer, then you must read this book. Great fun for lovers of the hard-boiled genre. Read all of Estelman's Amos Walker series and you'll be have something to measure all the rest by.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loren Estleman is one of the best writers around, April 23, 1999

By 

tpmcguire (the Grand Texas Prairie.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12) (Mass Market Paperback)

I just finished Never Street. I had to. It nagged me when I put it down. Like the late show movie, I was hooked when I first put eyes on it, wanting to know what happened next. Amos Walker is the genuine article, a renaissance man to the bygone era of street wise 'private dicks' who often find out more than they wanted to. Walker is the real gem. He's involved in a track down of a nut case hooked on film noir by the worried movie widow during a Detriot heatwave. A conniving partner, a crooked shrink, an ex-con, a bumbling P.I. competitor, and a sultry mistress later, produces a couple of bodies and more than one headache the kind a couple of aspirin can't help. Walker's wisecracks alone are worth the cover price. It's no wonder Estleman is one of the most decorated mystery writers in the business.