Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17) [Mass Market Paperback]

Loren D. Estleman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 6, 2004

The New York Times calls Amos Walker a "streetwise indestructible tiger with an ethical code that keeps him with the good guys." In a sharp new thriller, Detroit's most savvy private eye is up to his neck in international drug-smuggling, hit squads, double-identities, music-industry gangsters, and a client who's nothing but trouble.

Gilia Cristobal is a flashy Latina singer with a complicated past. Her name isn't really Gilia. In her home country she's wanted for a murder she didn't commit, and she needs Walker to find a missing woman--the woman whose name she's using, whom she's been paying monthly so she can stay in the U.S.

But when the real Gilia Cristobal turns up dead, what was merely an odd case becomes downright nasty. His pretty young client is involved in a lot more than just music, and all of it's deadly.

Poison Blonde is an enormously entertaining, fast-paced novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Loren D. Estleman's never been better!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

PI Amos Walker makes a two-fisted foray into the Detroit Latin music scene in Estleman's 50th book, the 17th entry in this streetwise series (after 2002's Sinister Heights). Eschewing the suburbs, Amos inhabits a tiny house bordering on the Polish enclave of Hamtramck, surrounded by metropolitan Detroit, and works out of a dingy downtown office with a resident wino. When Gilia Cristobal, a glitzy young Latin music sensation, summons him to find the woman blackmailing her, Amos delves into her past and discovers a very different se¤orita from the platinum bombshell strutting the stage. A Central American freedom fighter unjustly accused of murder, Gilia fled north, assumed another identity and never looked back. Terror resurfaces when the decayed body of a woman with the same name turns up next door to a Mexicantown woman who breeds vicious dogs for sale to unsavory characters. Drug smuggling, torture and the music industry goon squad keep Amos running and calling in favors from press and police friends. In the great noir tradition, he rarely blows his cool, the throwaway lines never let up and though some may think he's over the hill, the Vietnam vet perseveres. Wordsmith par excellence, Estleman has Amos deliver passionate laments for his city that add a melancholy counterpoint like background music.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Latin singer Gilia Cristobal, the hottest commodity in show business, hires Detroit private eye Amos Walker to get to the bottom of a scam involving the singer's designer gowns, but her real problem is blackmail. It turns out she's not really who she claims to be. Years earlier, she left her native South America with a purchased identity after death squads and drug lords overran her country. Now someone is threatening to reveal her past to her enemies. Walker, who has developed more than a passing interest in his alluring employer, agrees to help, and soon he's knee-deep in a tangled web of assassins, drug dealers, revolutionary wanna-bes, and adoring Cristobal fans. The groups overlap, which makes his job even tougher. Walker is a classic hard-boiled private eye. He breathes air heavy with smoke and cordite, he delivers his dialogue through clenched teeth, and he operates by a murky moral code only he understands. For fans of the genre, that makes him about as comfortable as an old trenchcoat. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books (April 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076534372X
• ISBN-13: 978-0765343727
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #885,592 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 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amos Walker, Back in Form, July 27, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17) (Hardcover)

As a huge fan of the Amos Walker private eye series, I am happy to report that "Poison Blonde" is a return to form after the previous book in the series "Sinister Heights" had been something of a letdown. At his best, author Loren Estleman is an elite hardboiled mystery writer. Since its first appearance with 1980's "Motor City Blue" the Walker series has been rivalled only by Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder series in term of quality hardboiled private eye writing.

This time out, Walker is hired by a susperstar female Latin singer with a very dark and sordid past. A onetime revolutionary in her home country, she fled to the U.S. under an assumed identity after being accused of murder. When the person whose identity she assumed turns up missing after blackmailing her, she hires Walker to find the blackmailer before her secret becomes public.

The plot draws Walker into web of intrigue, pitting him against his usual assortment of gangsters, cops and other assorted heavies. Though "Poison Blonde" breaks no new ground for the series, it is delivered with such fresh and inventive prose that it is a more than worthwhile read. Fans of hardboiled mysery novels owe it to themselves to get hooked on Amos.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Dialogue and Action in Thin Mystery, August 6, 2003

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17) (Hardcover)

At his best, Loren D. Estleman reminds me of Raymond Chandler. At his weakest, his characters are engaging and rewarding. So even if you are not an Estleman fan, I suspect that you will enjoy Poison Blonde.

Poison Blonde belongs to Mr. Estleman's distinguished series featuring private detective, Amos Walker, who haunts the night in Detroit. His work is his life, and vice versa.

Poison Blonde brings him a job working for a hot young recording star, Ms. Gilia Cristobal. The young woman is not whom she seems, and the many ex-cons around her bring Walker onto his guard. One of them is a man he helped put away for life. The music industry scenes ring true, and could have come out of a tabloid. The Detroit color is, as always, solid and striking. The thugs are as stupid and gratuitously cruel as anyone would want.

The character of Gloria Cristobal is a particularly interesting one, and adds a lot to the story. She is one of Mr. Estleman's best characters in years.

The story is fast-paced and engrossing, and I found myself unable to put the book down until I had finished it.

Why did I grade the story down one star? There are mysteries here, but their explanations are the obvious ones that would occur to any reader in the first few seconds. Mr. Estleman does a pretty good job of making them seem more mysterious than they are by putting in lots of color, but at bottom there's not much here to exercise your mental processes.

After you finish enjoying this book, I suggest that you take the time to get to know someone better whom you think you know. Look for the depths behind the obvious social facade. Take what you find and use it to look deeper into the hearts of all those you meet.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add to your must-read list, June 25, 2003

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Poison Blonde (The Amos Walker Series #17) (Hardcover)

When a beautiful singer asks private investigator Amos Walker to find evidence that her wardrobe manager sold her out, Walker takes the job--and isn't happy to find that it was only a test. Gilia Cristobal was being blackmailed--and the blackmailer has vanished. A vanished blackmailer might be good news, or it might be the worst possible news and Gilia needs to know. Because the blackmail is about illegal immigration, subversive activities, and murder. Walker is suspicious--not least because Gilia's manager is Hector Matador, a Columbian mobster and killer. Still, a job is a job and he is intrigued by the beautiful blonde and her story.

Author Loren D. Estleman is a master of dark mystery. The winter of Detroit, Walker's outdated tough-guy image in a changing world, and Walker's curious blend of cynicism and hope all involve the reader in the story. Estleman's compelling and powerful writing adds to the emotional charge of the story--with enough witty passages and throw-away dialogue to break up the tension and emotional darkness in the story.

Amos Walker makes a wonderful damaged detective--and Estleman plays him straight, with no cheating, no avoiding the pain, and no faked heroism.

Fans of the Amos Walker fan will add POISON BLONDE to their must-read list. Those new to Estleman or Walker have a treat to look forward to.