The Left-Handed Dollar - (Amos Walker Novels) by Loren D Estleman (Paperback)

About the Book

In his exciting twentieth mystery, hardboiled detective Amos Walker is hired to help free a mobster who once tried to kill Barry Stackpole, Walker's only true friend.

Book Synopsis

Joseph Michael Ballista--"Joey Ballistic" to his mob buddies--knows most of the ways to make an illegal buck, or "a lefthanded dollar." That's why he's in trouble again. But his crafty lawyer, Lucille Lettermore--"Lefty Lucy" to just about every prosecutor she's ever humiliated in court--is determined to free him by getting all his previous convictions set aside, beginning with one for attempted murder.

She hires Detroit private detective Amos Walker to investigate the old crime. Walker's first problem? The intended victim was investigative reporter Barry Stackpole, Walker's only true friend. Walker's not thrilled to help get his buddy's would-be killer off the hook. But money's money, so he takes the case, though it won't be easy. For starters, the creep's ex-wives grudgingly talk to Walker, but he knows they're not leveling with him. And two new murders tied to the case aren't likely to make them any chattier.

Walker, friendless and desperate for answers, follows a string of leads old and new straight into a war of nerves and bullets in Detroit's seedy, crime-ridden underbelly.

Review Quotes

"Estleman turns Amos Walker loose in a plot and it's pure private eye all the way. In a great tradition, the gumshoe with an attitude. No one does it better." --Elmore Leonard, bestselling author of Get Shorty on American Detective

"Loren D. Estleman is one of a handful of candidates for the title of true heir to Raymond Chandler and Ross Macdonald. He is a great 'American Detective' writer." --Max Alan Collins, author of Road to Perdition on American Detective

"Confirms that Estleman's long-running contemporary hard-boiled hero deserves a place in the genre pantheon with such better-known figures as Raymond Chandler's classic gumshoe, Philip Marlowe, and Robert Parker's Boston PI, Spenser. Estleman's prose is as gritty and compelling as ever as he lets fly razor-sharp dialogue, brings the Motor City to life, and combines a whodunit plot with traditional noir action." --Publishers Weekly, starred review on American Detective

About the Author

LOREN D. ESTLEMAN is the author of more than sixty novels. He has won four Shamus Awards, five Spur Awards, and three Western Heritage Awards among others. He lives with his wife, author Deborah Morgan, in central Michigan.