Stress (Detroit Crime Series #5) [Hardcover]

Loren D. Estleman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

A continuation of the popular Detroit series traces the experiences of Charlie Battle, a black rookie policeman, who joins an elite undercover squad known for its shoot-first philosophy and its anti-black prejudice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Its urban tensions arise from race, not booze, but the Detroit of this fifth volume (after Edsel) in Estleman's ongoing saga of the Motor City is as rife with violence and corruption as the Prohibition-era burg of Whiskey River, which began the series in 1990. After three men are shot by Paul Kubicek, an off-duty cop moonlighting as a security guard, during an attempted robbery at a posh New Year's Eve party, the Detroit Police Department greets 1973 by declaring that Kubicek was working undercover for STRESS (Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets), a notorious "police crackdown squad." Even so, the DPD can't bury the fact that the three men Kubicek shot were the only blacks at the party, and that only two of them were involved in the robbery. To head off a scandal, black policeman Charles Battle is assigned to investigate, and he comes up against the racism of the old-boy cop network. It turns out that the heist was organized by Wilson McCoy, one of the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, a marijuana chain-smoking black radical who's trying to get money to buy illegal weapons. Through grittily precise detail of character and place, Estleman compresses the subsequent action, which revolves around kidnapping and multiple murders, into a tightly paced yarn that reads like a taut docudrama. The story culminates in a wild courtroom finale in which several kinds of justice?and injustice?are meted out at once. It's difficult to believe that Detroit will ever find a more eloquent poet than Estleman, who here, as in his Amos Walker PI mysteries, celebrates the gristle and sinew of the city as well as its aching heart.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The fifth entry in Estleman's Detroit series--mysteries in which a city, not a sleuth, is the recurring character--is set in the mid-seventies, when the Motor City was still scarred by the riots of the sixties and when white flight was more a stampede than a trend. A young black cop, Charlie Battle, is assigned to handle the investigation after an off-duty cop kills three black intruders at an upscale suburban party. Battle knows he's a token meant to placate an enraged black community, but he's intent on finding the truth, whether it exonerates the shooter or implicates him in murder. Both the cops and a group of local black militants pressure Battle to edge the truth their way. There are also carefully drawn parallel plots involving an illegal gun dealer, a kidnapping, and a paranoid Black Panther who remains in hiding even though the cops are no longer interested. This story of a once-great city in decline is played out by people who don't really understand their roles in the inexorable, merciless crush of history. A fine installment in an innovative series. Wes Lukowsky

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Mysterious Press; First Edition edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892965533
• ISBN-13: 978-0892965533
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,677,379 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

3.0 out of 5 stars Stress by Loren Estleman, May 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Stress (Detroit Crime Series #5) (Audio Cassette)

Amos is wondeferully described. I could hang out with him anytime in Detroit. I grew up in Detroit so this novel was a treat to read. The author takes you to those places and I can see myself walking along side with Amos!