- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (April 19 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765304473
- ISBN-13: 978-0765304476
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.6 x 2.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 426 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,811,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
PI Amos Walker makes a two-fisted foray into the Detroit Latin music scene in Estleman's 50th book, the 17th entry in this streetwise series (after 2002's Sinister Heights). Eschewing the suburbs, Amos inhabits a tiny house bordering on the Polish enclave of Hamtramck, surrounded by metropolitan Detroit, and works out of a dingy downtown office with a resident wino. When Gilia Cristobal, a glitzy young Latin music sensation, summons him to find the woman blackmailing her, Amos delves into her past and discovers a very different se¤orita from the platinum bombshell strutting the stage. A Central American freedom fighter unjustly accused of murder, Gilia fled north, assumed another identity and never looked back. Terror resurfaces when the decayed body of a woman with the same name turns up next door to a Mexicantown woman who breeds vicious dogs for sale to unsavory characters. Drug smuggling, torture and the music industry goon squad keep Amos running and calling in favors from press and police friends. In the great noir tradition, he rarely blows his cool, the throwaway lines never let up and though some may think he's over the hill, the Vietnam vet perseveres. Wordsmith par excellence, Estleman has Amos deliver passionate laments for his city that add a melancholy counterpoint like background music.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Latin singer Gilia Cristobal, the hottest commodity in show business, hires Detroit private eye Amos Walker to get to the bottom of a scam involving the singer's designer gowns, but her real problem is blackmail. It turns out she's not really who she claims to be. Years earlier, she left her native South America with a purchased identity after death squads and drug lords overran her country. Now someone is threatening to reveal her past to her enemies. Walker, who has developed more than a passing interest in his alluring employer, agrees to help, and soon he's knee-deep in a tangled web of assassins, drug dealers, revolutionary wanna-bes, and adoring Cristobal fans. The groups overlap, which makes his job even tougher. Walker is a classic hard-boiled private eye. He breathes air heavy with smoke and cordite, he delivers his dialogue through clenched teeth, and he operates by a murky moral code only he understands. For fans of the genre, that makes him about as comfortable as an old trenchcoat. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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The last line of security was a big Basque built like a coke oven. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hard boiled detective fiction at its gritty best.,
By
This review is from: Poison Blonde: An Amos Walker Novel (Hardcover)
This latest Amos Walker mystery finds the Detroit based private eye in the employ of Latina singing sensation Gilia Cristobal. Apparently subscribing to the old saw that it's better to deal with the devil you know, Cristobal makes an unusual request: she wants Walker to track down a blackmailer, not to bring him/her to justice, but to determine whether he/she is alive and well. Accordingly, Walker embarks on a dangerous investigation, involving confrontations with the police, international drug smugglers, music industry gangsters and a pack of vicious guard dogs. Certainly one of the top mystery authors of modern times, Estleman offers yet another winning piece. Although Poison Blonde is his seventeenth (!) Amos Walker novel and his fiftieth (!) published book, the writing is as fresh and engaging today as it's ever been. Estleman has a real feel for the streets of Detroit, and a real understanding of his tough, frank, and often bemused private eye, an appealing mix of tough guy bravado and sensitivity. Rather than showing signs of wear, the series continues to offer up all the trademark humor, violence, suspense and surprises for which it is known. Hard-boiled detective fiction at its gritty best.
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's Amos Walker...but less of him!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Poison Blonde: An Amos Walker Novel (Hardcover)
This is not the best Amos Walker by any means...very light plot, very apparent killer...but a "lesser" Amos Walker mystery is still miles above the best of most other authors. Buy it...you won't be sorry!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Dialogue and Action in Thin Mystery,
By Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (#1 HALL OF FAME)
This review is from: Poison Blonde: An Amos Walker Novel (Hardcover)
At his best, Loren D. Estleman reminds me of Raymond Chandler. At his weakest, his characters are engaging and rewarding. So even if you are not an Estleman fan, I suspect that you will enjoy Poison Blonde.Poison Blonde belongs to Mr. Estleman's distinguished series featuring private detective, Amos Walker, who haunts the night in Detroit. His work is his life, and vice versa. Poison Blonde brings him a job working for a hot young recording star, Ms. Gilia Cristobal. The young woman is not whom she seems, and the many ex-cons around her bring Walker onto his guard. One of them is a man he helped put away for life. The music industry scenes ring true, and could have come out of a tabloid. The Detroit color is, as always, solid and striking. The thugs are as stupid and gratuitously cruel as anyone would want. The character of Gloria Cristobal is a particularly interesting one, and adds a lot to the story. She is one of Mr. Estleman's best characters in years. The story is fast-paced and engrossing, and I found myself unable to put the book down until I had finished it. Why did I grade the story down one star? There are mysteries here, but their explanations are the obvious ones that would occur to any reader in the first few seconds. Mr. Estleman does a pretty good job of making them seem more mysterious than they are by putting in lots of color, but at bottom there's not much here to exercise your mental processes. After you finish enjoying this book, I suggest that you take the time to get to know someone better whom you think you know. Look for the depths behind the obvious social facade. Take what you find and use it to look deeper into the hearts of all those you meet.
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