Sinister Heights: An Amos Walker Novel (Amos Walker Series) [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

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

Book Description

Series: Amos Walker Series | Publication Date: January 10, 2003

Walker came to Iroquois Heights to meet a very rich old lady. He left with the image of a beauty in boxing gloves etched in his mind - and a roughing-up from the police for driving without a license plate light. Mrs. Rayellen Stutch, the young widow of one of Detroit's most powerful industrialists, had given Walker a little job to do. Wanting to unload part of her enormous inheritance on the illegitimate offspring of her late husband, she needed Walker to find them. And show them the money. It's a simple case ... until Walker discovers the would-be millionaires are the textbook dysfunctional family. The battered wife is on the run, the abusive husband is packing a gun and a little remorse, and the kid is caught in between. Walker knows the right places to look for a missing woman and child, but he couldn't expect what comes next: an act of horrifying violence that leaves a beautiful woman dead and a boy kidnapped. For Walker, what started as an errand of mercy quickly turns into a dirty little war. With at least some members of the Stutch family lined up on the other side, Walker must lay siege to the sprawling fortress that is the Stutch Motors factory. Somewhere in the building the stage is set for a bloody payoff. And trapped in the middle is a private eye who can remember when cars had fins - and a city had a dream.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

More than two decades after his introduction in Motor City Blue, Amos Walker is still the same cynical, computer-illiterate, lone-wolf Detroit private eye he always was. He hasn't even bothered to update his hard-boiled patter. "I got out of the robe and into the shower," Walker explains partway through Sinister Heights, "scraped off the Cro-Magnon growth of the night, put on a fresh suit from the cleaners, and drove to the office, where I sat around making a good impression on the walls until the telephone rang at ten."

However, it's the pairing of unreconstructed gumshoe with modern malevolence that makes Loren Estleman's stories interesting. In Sinister Heights, Walker is hired by the fetching young widow of powerful auto maker Leland Stutch. She wants him to locate her hubby's illegitimate offspring so she can share with them her inheritance--and thereby avoid future lawsuits. But the would-be heirs have troubles beyond the monetary. Stutch's granddaughter is on the run from an abusive spouse, and Walker's efforts to help her only lead to her son's kidnapping, the violent death of one of the PI's oldest women friends, a cinematic assault (by 18-wheeler trucks) on a suburban car factory, and a surprise Stutch progeny who hopes to capture all of the late magnate's millions.

Estleman's cops and politicians are caricatures, and he doesn't give his protagonist much emotional complexity (though Walker does bare a bit of beating heart in this book's fine closing sequence). But he makes up for these faults with his polished plot, a talent for fleshing out characters with a minimum of words, and a robust nostalgia for Detroit's heyday that almost makes you think fondly of belching smokestacks. --J. Kingston Pierce --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In Estleman's 15th lively novel to feature Detroit PI Amos Walker (after 2000's A Smile on the Face of a Tiger), Walker is hired by the young widow of a recently deceased multi-millionaire centenarian who wishes to mitigate the sexist offenses of her former love-'em-and-leave-'em spouse by sharing some of her millions with his victims. Even some of Estleman's own characters find this hard to believe. Not impossible, mind you. Just hard to believe. For the first third of the novel, veteran noir fans will understand that Amos is being set up for a double-cross, which comes in the form of a lethally souped-up pickup truck barreling down on him on the highway. One of the women he was asked to find is killed, another hospitalized and her child abducted. What's going on? And who's behind it? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions and the means by which Amos discovers them are as implausible as the rest of the story, and the violence involved in bringing the guilty to justice is ludicrous. On the positive side, when he isn't beating somebody up or being beaten, Amos is a most congenial host, given to witty banter with the rest of the cast; and there's Estleman's dazzling Detroit, its past, present and future. Estleman has written a lot of books, and Amos is sure to have a lot of fans who'll find his Rambo-like antics perfectly plausible. Whether they'll like this as well as the previous books in the series, they'll find it neither humorless nor dull.

Copyright 2001 Cahners 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: Brilliance Audio Paperback Audiobooks; Abridged edition (January 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587889773
• ISBN-13: 978-1587889776
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,432,632 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hardboiled PI as American as the Auto Industry, March 17, 2002

By 

Kent Braithwaite (Palm Desert, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sinister Heights (The Amos Walker Series #16) (Hardcover)

While many authors are currently working in the hardboiled mystery tradition, Loren Estleman, in SINISTER HEIGHTS, proves once again that he deserves to stand near the front of today's long line. Though countless PI authors (I know too well of what I speak) have been compared to the giants of this genre, giants with names such as Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald, Estleman is the writer of our time who holds the best claim to a seat at the table with these immortals. His PI creation, Amos Walker, remains as contemporary as the Rust Belt yet as classic as a Model T.

In SINISTER HEIGHTS, Walker is hired by the youngish widow of an automobile industry pioneer to locate the illegitimate heirs to her late husband's furtune. She claims she wants to do right for these offshoots of the family tree, and Walker's investigation lands him in the middle of a complicated plot that moves fast and doesn't stop. Murders and other crimes soon follow. Estleman takes his reader on a joyride around post-industrial America, complete with Cayman Island bank accounts.

As Robert Parker did in his recent POTSHOT, Estleman features many secondary characters from past Walker novels. This element gives SINISTER HEIGHTS a nostalgic feel for the experienced Estleman reader and adds an enormous depth to his story.

SINISTER HEIGHTS is among Loren Estleman's finest works.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Amos Goes Over the Top, March 10, 2002

By 

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

This review is from: Sinister Heights (The Amos Walker Series #16) (Hardcover)

"Sinister Heights" is the 16th novel in the Amos Walker series. I've read them all, and unfortunately have to report that it is one of the lesser in the series. That's a shame, because it feels like a key turning point in the the Walker saga. Estleman brings back many of the memorable supporting characters from past novels (and in one case, the son of a supporting character) that really enhance the plot for any longtime fan. The part with the former hooker Iris, who first appeared in the very first Walker novel, "Motor City Blue" is particularly poignant. Walker also revisits the infamous Iroquois Heights, the corrupt town that has tromented him in previous novels (hence the title).

Unfortunately, the plot that all of this is in service of strains credibility to the breaking point. It also goes over the top with the violence, a first in a Walker novel. Estlemen uses the old "talking killer" ploy no less than THREE times, a key indicator of the weaknesses within with the story.

Overall, the Amos Walker series remains among the absolute best private dectective series currently ongoing. But even an ace can take a bit of a stumble once in awhile.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Amos Walker book yet, February 5, 2002

By 

J. Jordan "Editor of Crimespree Magazine" (milwaukee, wi United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sinister Heights (The Amos Walker Series #16) (Hardcover)

Sinister Heights by Loren Estleman

In Sinister Heights, the 15th Amos Walker book, Mr. Estleman has surpassed himself. It's not just hardboiled, It's rock hard. Full of short bursts of Detroit and the auto industry's history. Enough to educate, but not long enough to bore. Estleman's love of this city and surrounding area are very evident. This book is crime literature at it's finest.

Amos is hired by the widow of a Detroit industrialist to clear up some old family business. Along the way he gets tangled up with the steel haulers union, dirty cops, shady politicos, and the intrigue of a strange plan for extortion. Also along for the ride is his old friend Iris, who is running a shelter for abused women. Caught in the middle, a young boy. Walker handles this case like all his others, with the style of by gone era, making it timeless.

The book has a fast pace and never slows down. Walker's way of dealing with obstacles is as ever, down and dirty. I can safely say that this is by far my favorite in the series so far. Amos Walker at his best. And that's saying a lot, because Estleman is one the finest mystery writers writing today.

And the finish will knock your socks off.

Jon Jordan