Motor City Blue

An Amos Walker Mystery, Book 1

By: Loren D. Estleman

Narrated by: Mel Foster

"If I see my name in tomorrow's paper yours will be in the next edition. Bordered in black."

Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager who also happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar - a semi-retired mobster who prefers to keep family business out of the newspapers. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eve Amos Walker, who quickly learns his new employer doesn't take "no" for an answer when he offers a job opportunity.

Unfortunately, the only clue to Marla's whereabouts is a pornographic photograph that clearly proves that she's become part of a world that disgusts even her criminal guardian....

The photo, in turn, leads Walker into the seedy world of Detroit's porn shops and blue movies, where Marla's trail becomes even murkier and increasingly more dangerous to follow. As first cases go, Walker could have certainly asked for one less challenging.

You can share your thoughts about Loren D. Estleman's Motor City Blue in the new ibooks virtual readers' group at www.ibooksinc.com.

©1980 Loren D. Estleman (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

A great intro to Amos Walker

This is the first book in the Amos Walker Detective series Of hard boiled mysteries set in Detroit. Great story, more complicated than you might expect, but it all comes together: Murder, mafia, mobsters, union politics, dopers, federal agents, local police. If you like Chandler, or Robert B Parker you will love this book.

Technical Detective Story

The main character was very good. Yet some of the good characters turned evil. I didn't like that part very much. Good mystery.

A hard boiled detective story from an earlier era

Although the story supposedly takes place in 1979, the tone reminded me of of the hard bitten detectives of the 50s, like Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and Richard S. Prather's Shell Scott. That's a compliment. This story gets right to the point, the plot keeps moving, and Amos Walker wraps up the case in a couple of days (though he doesn't really sleep). Many of the current detective series have become so bloated that they are more like character studies than mysteries (yes, Elizabeth George, I'm talking about you and your 750-page Inspector Lynley novels).

Good characters, pat ending

Since is the first in the series, it's not too surprising that the ending of this book sounds as though the author ran out of paper and had to wrap everything up. Still, the writing is good and the characters are nicely drawn. The narrator, not so great. He fails to convey any of the sense of a hardbitten private dick and the vocal characterizations are off-putting enough to keep me away from the rest of the series, which he also narrates.

Noir style story ruined by a bad choice narrator

I had read the first two chapters of the book and decided to get the audible version for a car trip. The story has a world weary, hardbitten investigator in your standard noir world. My kinda book.

Then I started listening, and could not believe the narrator's voice. Instead of the hard boiled, cynical, noir PI you expect (and it's in first person) I heard someone with the perfect enunciation and higher pitched and upbeat voice of a young happy go lucky accountant. It was like listening to Chandler or Hammett or Spillane narrated by the voice of a Disney nature documentary: "Well, old Bucky may not be the oldest beaver in the pond, but by golly he's smart enough not to fall for the trap of that sneaky old alligator!" You hear a line that would fit in a Phillip Marlowe novel, but read by this happy, super enunciated narrator, and you picture Marlowe or Mike Hammer slapping the narrator and telling him to put down that book and go back to your prep school and never show your face around here again.

It's a shame, but I simply can't listen to it any more. I'll go back to reading these.