General Murders – Loren D. Estleman
This book collects ten short stories and novellas published in the early Eighties in monthly mystery magazines. The tales star lone wolf PI Amos Walker who has been featured in about 30 novels, from 1981 to the present.
Estleman is a true professional in that he delivers the action that mystery readers want, but touches on themes we’d expect in a modern novelist. PI Walker’s experience in Vietnam, military intelligence and Detroit have given him wisdom and irony in spades. Walker is skeptical without being cynical and is hard-boiled but sympathetic. Like more than a few people who have lived or live in SE Michigan, Walker has tangled feelings about the region, especially the border of Detroit-Hamtramck.
Some readers might find hackneyed the hard-boiled tone. Equally by the numbers are the characters of the wise-cracking detective, lawless police, and vicious law breakers. But to me the crooks and victims were an interestingly diverse bunch. Believable dialogue, descriptive passages, and the mood is never, I think, too dark or callous.
The situations varied enough in settings to hold attention. Some stories ended a little abruptly, but others were about the ideal length for a novella. Readers that like to stretch and lounge a bit in short novels will prefer the 20-plus pagers to the 10-pagers, which may lack elbow room.
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