Sugartown [Import] [Unbound]

Loren D. Estleman (Author)

Product Details

• Unbound
• Publisher: Ibooks (February 2001)
• ISBN-10: 158824394X
• ISBN-13: 978-1588243942
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another First Rate Amos Walker Mystery, March 26, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: Sugartown (The Amos Walker Series #5) (Paperback)

Loren Estleman writes in the author's notes that follow the story at the end of this i-books edition of "Sugartown," that the novel was his angriest in the series. Interestingly, Estleman places the source of his anger as the backdrop for the story. In the early 1980s, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young made a legally shaky eminent domain deal with General Motors that forced hundreds of long time residents from their homes so that a new assembly plant could be built. The displaced homeowners got a very raw deal and a historic neighborhood was destroyed.

But the story Estleman weaves around these events is actually one of Amos Walker's more lively and fun. For once he finds a love interest to lighten his dreary existance. And the two cases he investigates involving Eastern European immigrants lead him in some interesting directions. Overall, this makes the fifth Amos Walker book the best so far in the series (I've been reading them in order) a fact which was confirmed when the book won the Shamus Award for best private eye novel of 1984. This i-books edition also includes inaddition to the newly published author's notes, a recent vintage Amos Walker short story at the end. Think of it as dessert after a fine meal.

5.0 out of 5 stars "You could change." No one has since Lot's wife., April 25, 2007

By 

Archmaker (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sugartown (The Amos Walker Series #5) (Paperback)

Loren Estleman continues his excellent series of tough PI Amos Walker, working the mean streets of Motor City, complete with great thumbnail description, wiseguy dialogue, and rife with the sardonic simile and metaphor. This time Walker's missing-persons case takes him into the historic Polish section of Detroit, being quietly devestated by GM backed eminent domain, and mixing Amos up with Russian emigre writers, illegal religious articles traffickers and possible KGB agents. Not to mention encountering the gorgeous book editor Amos will meet again in Every Brilliant Eye, all the while finding a bit of illusive love with a nurse about whom he says "there are women that can be had, and there are women that can only be borrowed". Alas, Amos again must realize his limitations.

Loren Estleman is doing as well with this genre as anyone. His books are great reads--lively, sharp and tough--and, yes, I am a fan and the rating reflects that.