Customer Reviews

Never Street (The Amos Walker Series #12)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Never Street is an excellent addition to the Amos Walker series. After a client turns missing, Amos must investigate, leading him into the seamy underworld of blackmail and betrayal and one man's obsession with noir film.

While I liked Never Street, I am not a big fan of 'old movies,' which I felt was an underlying theme in this installment. Film Noir is a genre, I think that is much better 'viewed' than read about. Overall, another light, entertaining read with plenty of puns and snappy comebacks, sure to delight fans of the rest of the series.

I have never read any other books featuring Amos Walker, nor any others by Estelman for that matter. I stumbled upon the book by accident, and found I couldn't put it down. Walker is a great protagonist, and the author plays him well off all the characters. Highly entertaining.

Amos Walker has returned.

After what seems like forever (I believe it's only 5 years) Loren Estleman gives us more of the hard-boiled gumshoe from Detroit, Amos Walker. He comes to us with a mixture of old and new. The old would concern trappings from the plot; A man is missing after seemingly becoming obsessed with "Film-Noir" movies. Since Mr. Walker's character is firmly entrenched in the same attitudes and dialogue as some of these same movies, this is right up his alley.

The new touches are simple ones; Estleman scatters references to computers throughout, vague references to the new Mayor of Detroit (Mayor Archer), and even some rap music tossed in to remind you this is set in present time.

Loyal readers may be heartened to know some of Walker's friends have returned such as ex-newspaperman Barry Stackpole, and Walker's childhood friend Police Inspector John Alderdyce. The sharp tongue and extremly witty comebacks are there also. I found myself laughing out loud many times while reading this book, something I try not to do in public.

The weather pounding the steaming streets of Detroit in this book is as hot and oppresive as most of the characters Walker runs into during his investigation. Estelman has a great talent for threading seemingly unattached segments of the story all into one neat little package. In the end, it makes so much sense you wind up kicking yourself for not having discovered the seam before Walker lets you in on it himself. In "Never Street", as in most Amos Walker novels, you find yourself suspecting everybody, because nearly all the people the unlucky Mr. Walker comes into contact with is guily of something.

If you're looking for an updated flashback to the days of the smart-cracking detective that has more answers than most of us have questions, then give this book a whirl. If you're a fan of the Amos Walker series, why are you wasting your time with this review? Go get it!!!

Larry Wangemann

Loren Estleman can write! No doubt. He can create the scene, the people, the plot. I think Amos Walker is very true as a P.I. Great book about a man's passion for old noir films that become a smoke screen for his disappearance. You can feel Amos Walker. He is a street smart man that is not of the street. Amos is no schmoe.

The book is an easy and entertaining read, a new side of looking at a private eye, the book takes you into a neatly woven plot, comforting i should add. read it to know more...

Good, oldfashioned, hardboiled sleuthing like it used to be a generation or two ago. None of that serial stuff and gore, that is so tiring and unbelievable. It's about time we get back to the nitty-gritty and the real potboiler.