BURNING MIDNIGHT
Loren D. Estleman
June 2012 Forge
BURNING MIDNIGHT. What an awesome title. If you love crime fiction and mysteries how could you not at least pick this up and look at it. If you add the author’s name it should be a no brainer. Estleman is in my opinion one of the very best PI writers in the business and Amos Walker is one of the best fiction PIs bar none.In this latest tale of Walker old friend/adversary Inspector Alderdyce has asked a favor, his nephew in law is in trouble with some gang stuff in Detroit’s Mexicantown (where White Stripes’ Jack White grew up). One of the gang leaders has gone MIA and tensions are getting high. What seems on the surface to be an act of vandalism gone wrong turns out to be murder it might be too late to get nephew Ernesto out of trouble.
Walker does what he does and keeps digging. There is more than just gangs banging going on here and Walker’s gut won’t let him back off.Like all of the Walker books, Detroit plays a major role here. If Walker is the star of the series then Detroit is his Gotham, a flawed city that he loves and wants to fix in his way. In this day of cell phones and computers Estleman does a great job of portraying a PI who just doesn’t love the gadgets and he makes it work old school. While in reality a lot of PI work is done on computer, some things just require instinct and legwork and in addition to making great reading it also gives the book an ageless feel, like it isn’t locked into a specific time. If for some reason you have not read this mast writer before, don’t worry, you can jump in here and you’ll have no problem navigating the world of Amos Walker .I will warn you, after reading you’ll want more. If you’re already a fan, you’ll love ever page and avery word of this book.
Estleman is a treasure and this book just makes him all that much more valuable to readers.
Jon
Each issue of Crimespree features over a dozen pages of reviews of the latest crime fiction. From here on out, we will select specific reviews, from the latest issue, to feature online as well. This review appears in issue 47, which shipped earlier this month.
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