Valentino is a mild-mannered UCLA film archivist. In the surreal world of Hollywood filmdom, truth is often stranger than celluloid fiction. When Valentino buys a decrepit movie palace and uncovers a skeleton in the secret Prohibition basement, he's not really surprised. But he's staggered by a second discovery: long-lost, priceless reels of film—Erich von Stroheim’s infamous Greed.The LAPD wants to take the reels as evidence, jeopardizing the precious old film. If Valentino wants to save his find, he has only one choice—solve the murder within 72 hours with the help of his mentor, the noted film scholar Broadhead, and Fanta, a feisty, if slightly flaky, young law student.Between a budding romance with a beautiful forensics investigator and visions of Von Stroheim’s ghost, Valentino’s madcap race to save the flick is as fast and frenetic as a classic screwball comedy, with a quirky cast of characters and smart dialogue.

Detroit's most savvy private eye is up to his neck in international drug smuggling, hit squads, double identities, music-industry gangsters, and a client who's nothing but trouble.Gilia Cristobal is a flashy Latina singer with a complicated past. Her name isn't really Gilia. In her home country she's wanted for a murder she didn't commit, and she needs Walker to find a missing woman─the woman whose name she's using, whom she's been paying monthly so she can stay in the U.S.But when the real Gilia Cristobal turns up dead, what was merely an odd case becomes downright nasty. His pretty young client is involved in a lot more than just music, and all of it deadly.

A killer is reenacting the deaths of Hollywood's blond bombshells, and Valentino must stop him before it's too late in Loren D. Estleman's Brazen.UCLA film archivist and sometime film detective Valentino doesn't take friend and former actress Beata Limerick very seriously when she tells him that she quit acting because of the curse on blond actresses. Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Thelma Todd, Sharon Tate... they all had more fun, but none of them made it out of the business alive, and according to Limerick, she wasn't taking any chances. But when Valentino finds Beata's body staged the way Monroe was found, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" playing on repeat; he knows Limerick's death was no accident.Police detective Ray Padilla doesn't quite suspect Valentino is the killer, but he can't let him off that easy. After all, the film archivist seems to be involved in more than his share of intrigue and death, which makes him a prime suspect. But Valentino...

Uncover these captivating Sherlock Holmes mysteries and essaysIn this adventurous collection of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, you will find yourself right by the legendary detective's side as he investigates a whole new series of crimes. Each of these fascinating tales are authorized by the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate, and while you will recognize some of them, other stories, like "The Serpent’s Egg," are revealed here for the very first time. This entertaining book also includes three previously published essays, "Channeling Holmes," "On the Significance of Boswells," and "Was Sherlock Holmes The Shadow?" that delve deeper into the daring world of Sherlock Holmes and the imaginative mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.With The Perils of Sherlock Holmes, you will love diving into the extraordinary mindset and thrilling investigations of your favorite sleuth!Review"An excellent collection of short stories and essays." --New York Review of Books"The Perils of Sherlock Holmes is an entertaining and diverting read. If you liked the Conan Doyle adventures, there's plenty here to keep you turning the pages and try to make your own deductive reasoning." --BookPleasures.com"Estleman's style as Watson is better than many, and I especially liked 'The Devil and Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Riddle of the Golden Monkeys.' His fine introductory essay discusses his interest in Holmes and writing Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula - which I read and recall liking many years ago." --BestofSherlock.com"Readers who appreciate the classic portrayal of the detective...will likely enjoy The Perils of Sherlock Holmes. The limited duration of the stories is appreciated and allows readers flexibility. However, the brevity does not diminish the storytelling. Readers are transported back to another place and time during the series of short stories that pay homage to the legend that is Sherlock Holmes." --Pop Culture Guy BlogAbout the AuthorLoren D. Estleman is the author of nearly seventy novels, including the long-running Amos Walker private detective series; Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, or The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count; and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Holmes. In thirty years, his Sherlock Holmes novels have rarely been out of print.

A policeman falls in the line of duty, and Detroit PI Amos walker searches for the shootersA routine case puts Amos Walker on the highway to Ann Arbor, but the trip turns deadly just a few miles outside of Detroit. Tailing a trucker suspected of faking hijackings, Walker does his best to keep a safe distance, but is recognized anyway. The trucker runs him off the road, and it's only the tight handling of an American-made Cutlass that keeps Walker from becoming roadkill.A good-natured policeman helps him out, and the detective continues on his way. But the next day, a bullet near the spine sends Walker's new friend into intensive care, and Walker sets out to find the scum who shot the cop.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author's personal collection.

S.T.R.E.S.S. might be Detroit's elite police undercover squad, but to black rookie cop Charlie Battle, it's nothing less than an execution squad targeting blacks. As Battle tries to walk the thin blue line between supporting his fellow officers and his own racial pride, he is compelled to speak out in a police department where talking against the squad may be the ultimate crime.

A missing boy forces Detroit PI Amos Walker to investigate a long-cold caseIt is hardly unusual for an elderly woman to ask Amos Walker to search for her grandchild. As a private detective in one of the country's roughest cities, tracking missing persons is the way he makes most of his money. But Martha Evancek's grandson Michael has been missing for nearly twenty years, having disappeared in the aftermath of a murder.When Michael's father was laid off from the Chrysler plant, he quarreled with his wife and then reached for his shotgun, killing her, his daughter, and finally himself. An eleven-year-old Michael was left to find the bodies, and he vanished soon after. Now, for the old woman's sake, Amos Walker takes up a cold scent. He expects to find nothing, but he's in for an unpleasant surprise.This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author's personal collection.

Valentino wants to keep The Oracle, his beloved run-down movie palace, from being condemned before it even reopens, but murder keeps intruding into his otherwise quiet life. At a gala party held in memory of screen legend Greta Garbo, he’s having fun until the host, a hotshot developer named Matthew Rankin, tells Valentino about a certain letter from Garbo to his late wife. She and Garbo had been…close.Such a letter is of great interest to a film archivist like Valentino, but the the plot thickens when Rankin tells Val that his assistant, Akers, is using this letter to blackmail him. Val is appalled by the thought of blackmail—but that letter sounds juicier all the time. Returning to Rankin’s mansion after the party, Val finds Rankin sitting at his desk with a pistol in his hand, looking at Akers’ dead body on the floor.Valentino’s in a quandary. He’d love to see that letter, but he can’t. He’s gotten his girlfriend—who works for the police—in trouble, so his love life is, pardon the expression, shot to hell. Worse yet, the building inspector has kicked him out of his unfinished living space in the Oracle, so he takes his life in his hands and moves in with his eccentric mentor, the elderly, insomniac Professor Broadhead. No love, no sleep, no letter—life isn’t fair!

In Burning Midnight, master of the hard-boiled detective novel Loren D. Estleman gives readers a hot new Amos Walker mystery.Amos Walker knows Detroit, from the highest to the lowest, and that includes the gangs of Mexicantown. When a friend asks Walker to get his son's brother-in-law out of one of two feuding gangs, Walker gets in trouble fast. First, dead bodies start to pile up; then come suspicious fires and the bottle bombs. Walker is caught in the middle of a gang war. Whether or not a middle-aged gringo like him can cool things off between the Maldados and the Zapatistas, he's got to try; he did promise his friend. Once he gets involved, he realizes there's something else going on; the specter of an international conspiracy threatens to make this local trouble blow sky-high. And if he ends up dead or in jail for murders he didn't commit, he might have to put that promise on hold. It's tough being Amos Walker.

The blonde wore a red slip and held a broken bottle in her hand. The man wore a trench coat and a fedora, and through the window flames were burning in the night...The paperback novel Walker carried in his pocket was fifty years old and -- from its tawdry cover to its fiery prose -- still red hot. A fictionalized tale of a real-life Detroit race riot in 1943, Paradise Valley was written by a man named Eugene Booth. With a New York publisher dying to reprint Booth's pulp-fiction classic, Booth's disappearance didn't make any sense. At least not yet. While hunting down Booth, Walker finds this peaceful missing-person case developing into something much more deadly. For a notorious New York mob hit man, one in protective custody and promoting his own bestselling, tell-all book, is also trailing Booth, and a half-century-old murder is coming back to light. Between that killing and the story told in Booth's Paradise Valley, Walker is sure Booth has good reason's to want to disappear, and some people have good reasons to see him dead. For Walker, it's a question of separating fiction from fact, and keeping the key players alive long enough to know the truth. And that includes himself. In Smile on the Face of the Tiger, Loren D. Estleman spins a vivid, gritty noir mystery. At the same time he pays homage to -- and has some serious fun with -- the classic American art form of pulp fiction, where passion, lies, truth, and murder are a way of life, and Amos Walker would be right at home...

Detroit private investigator Amos Walker has accepted a missing-persons case. Neil Catalin, a video entrepreneur, disappeared after watching "Pitfall", a Dick Powell potboiler that features a smoldering beauty, a hormone-driven private eye, and a murderously jealous lover. For Walker, the clues will be found somewhere among those black-and-white film images--only the truth he finds will be as real and ugly as the darkest recesses of a killer's mind.Amazon.com ReviewBreak out the beer and bar snacks, because Detroit's favorite private detective--Amos Walker--is back after a seven-year hiatus. Loren Estleman personifies the term "professional writer"--he writes everything from historical novels to westerns with the same sure hand. But he's at his best getting under Walker's tough, prickly hide, using him to show what life in Detroit does to its inhabitants. This outing is a pure noir gem--a black and white movie classic in a book which in fact deals with a man obsessed with old gangster films. Previous Walkers available in paperback include City of Widows, Sugartown. From Library JournalDetroit p.i. Amos Walker returns after a lengthy hiatus. As he investigates the disappearance of a businessman obsessed with gangster movies, Amos finds movie-type suspects: a cold wife, a luscious mistress, and a deceitful business partner. Classic work.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Everyone knows the Frankenstein monster was played by Boris Karloff. His portrayal is so famous that the play Arsenic and Old Lace was filled with Karloff/monster jokes—even when the part of the monstrously deformed villain was played by another actor. But before Karloff's memorable portrayal, another famous 1930s Hollywood icon, Bela Lugosi, tested for the part of the monster.The screen test footage was lost for decades, until Valentino, that never-say-die film archivist, gets a hot tip about the whereabouts of the incriminating (for really bad, heavily accented acting) footage. But it comes with a price far greater than the money he'll have to pay. Someone would kill to get that reel of film, and that makes Valentino a mortal obstacle who would rather not die for art. People have already been murdered for the film, and Val doesn’t want to push his luck—but, boy, that reel is too good to let go.Enter a crew of steampunk fans. Loving the arcane strangeness that is Valentino’s life—not to mention the completely glam prospect of seeing the original filmic Count Dracula as the Frankenstein monster—they will find a way to save Valentino and Lugosi's infamous screen test. Or if they can’t do that, have a great party anyway. Val just hopes it's not a wake.

A faded film star asks Detroit PI Amos Walker to get her out of a relationship with a deadly mobsterWhen Amos Walker was a teen, he had a poster of Gail Hope on his wall. A 60s bombshell in the beach-blanket tradition, she has fallen hard since her glory days as one of the dying studio system’s final starlets. But when she calls on Amos Walker she remains as lovely as ever: an elegant beauty with a $750,000 problem. Since her career evaporated, she has played the part of moll to one of Detroit’s big-name gangsters, a powerful man stalked by death. Tired of a life looking over her shoulder, Hope pawns everything she owns in an attempt to buy her way out. She entrusts Walker with a suitcase heavy with cash, and asks him to play delivery boy—a simple assignment that doesn’t take long to turn deadly. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Loren D. Estleman including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

Marla Bernstein is a pretty, dark-haired teenager who happens to be the ward of Ben Morningstar­a semi-retired mobster. When Marla suddenly disappears, the gang boss is forced to call in private eye Amos Walker. 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 leads Walker into the dark world of Detroit's porn shops and blue movies, where Marla's trail becomes murkier and even more dangerous to follow. As first cases go, Walker could have certainly asked for one less challenging.