NEVER STREET
An Amos Walker Novel
Loren D. Estleman
Warner Books: A Mystery Press Book
copyright 1998
ISBN#0-446-60596-4
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In Loren D. Estleman's latest contribution
to the Amos Walker Series "Never Street",
Amos Walker IS Detroit. As a street-wise
private dick, Walker has seen it all. He's seen
the Motor City at it's best and at it's worst, or so he thought.
Hired by Gay Caitlin to find her missing husband, video entrepreneur
Neil Caitlin, Walker finds himself being pulled into the world
of 'film Noir', the black and white crime films from the 1940's.
Neil Caitlin became obsessed with these films and it is one
of these films that is at the center of his disappearance. It's
Walker's job to find out which film, and Neil Caitlin. As he
gets deeper into this case, Walker seems to be living a real
life version of a 'film noir' private detective. Eclipsed in
intrigue, Walker must untangle the web of betrayal, blackmail
and murder.
Though the year is never mentioned in this
story this is a modern day tale. Nuances of the past creep
in, turning "Never Street" into a intricate compilation
of the 'film noir' industry, real life murder, and liberal
fiction. Supporting characters like Fat Phil Muscuraca, the
competition; Leo Webb, the partner; Dr. Ashraf Naheen, doctor
at a local private mental hospital; Vesta Mannering, a would
be actress and ex-mistress; Brian Elwood, the brother in law;
and others, gives this story a well rounded complexity.
"Never Street" reads like an old
detective movie plays. Words written on the pages seem to
echo with voices of those long ago actors of black and white
movies, like Humphrey Bogart, Rita Hayworth and Marlene Deitrich.
The reader can almost see Walker with his hat pulled down
over one eye, standing in the rain with his hands shoved into
the pockets of a tan trench coat snugly buttoned around his
body, stogie smoldering from between his lips. This type of
cliche seems to run rampant through the book. And with the
colorful prose, this book the perfect example of the stereotypical
private detective story. One liners, name dropping and the
requisition tough-guy hero allow the reader to involve themselves,
even temporarily, in what a real mystery novel was meant to
be. Though "Never Street" is the 11th in the Amos
Walker Series, 41st in his published collection, I found this
story clever and full of twists and turns.
