Sugartown [Large Print]

by Loren D. Estleman

Book Overview

AN AMOS WALKER MYSTERY Spring has come to Detroit's Sugartown enclave, and Amos Walker would like to feel kindly toward the human race. Unfortunately, his first case of the new season immediately leads him into trouble among the Polish settlers of neighboring Hamtramck, when old Martha Evancek hires him to look for her missing grandson. But even before Walker gets a chance to investigate, he's presented with a second case: an eminent Russian novelist...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Large Print: Yes
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0449209989
• ISBN13: 9780449209981
• Release Date: December 1985
• Publisher: Fawcett Books
• Length: 10 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Dryer than sand

Dryer than sand, more hard-boiled than ceramic eggs, makes Dashiell Hammett read like James Michener. Estleman has the hard-boiled detective genre nailed to the wall. Which raises the question: has the genre reached a point of diminishing returns? The logical conclusion would be books with one chapter, stories with one page, pages with one paragraph, paragraphs with one sentence, sentences with one word, words with one letter, stories so hard-boiled and fast-moving they consist of a blank sheet of paper. For this reason, the rating of Worth my time (4 stars) I think is the highest I can honestly rate any book in this genre. Not to take anything away from the enjoyment of reading it. I had to come back and edit this review several months after writing it. Since then, I have read and rated three of Estleman's books 5 stars: A Smile on the Face of the Tiger (The Amos Walker Series #15) King of the Corner (Detroit Crime Series #3) Thunder City (Detroit Crime Series #7) While Estleman is consistently good, these rise above to the classic level.

"You could change." No one has since Lot's wife.

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.

Another First Rate Amos Walker Mystery

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.