THE OTHER FAMOUS AMOS: LOREN D. ESTLEMAN'S SMOKE ON THE WATER

The Amos Walker books are some of the best examples of comfort food crime fiction. Author Loren D. Estleman whips up hard boiled meat and potatoes private eye fiction with a few ingredients that make it his own. He serves another hearty helping with Smoke On The Water.

Amos is called to the offices Waterford Group law firm. An attorney asks him to find the confidential file that was on another member of the firm when he was killed in a hit and run. Amos takes the job, even though he realizes it's not completely on the up and up . He learns how much as he discovers the file connected to a land deal, some pissed of Native Americans, and more murders as he sleuths, fights, and knocked out on his way to answers.

Estleman demonstrates his ability to lean into the genre and its tropes without falling into the anachronistic. Amos carries himself with that tough attitude, cynical wit, and working class code and capability that it is hard not to picture him in a fedora and trenchcoat at times. The mystery itself has a tight structure and pace of the bes fifties paperbacks. However, the story deals in modern politics and business with cryptocurrency playing a part.

Estleman makes Amos and the private eye story his own. Part of this is done in the way he uses his gumshoe's stomping ground of Detroit as he and the author drop knowledge about the town and its history. It makes Walker's city his and also gives him a feel of a man born out of his time, uniting the classic era the style is a throwback to to the contemporary one our detective operates in. In this book he also contemorizes the story by having it take place under the eye burning cloud of smoke from the Canadian wildfires.

Smoke On The Water proves a fun weekend read for fans of Amos Walker or and traditional tough guy detective. Estleman knows the genre and his hero inside and out. He delivers what died in the wool PI fans want with a modern spin. You feel both the strong roots of 1920s Hammett while we always know he is writing about the 2020s.