I couldn't find the first in the Amos Walker series, Motor City Blue, in bookstores, so I picked up the twentieth and latest as my introduction to an author in the hard-boiled tradition compared to Chandler and Hammett. I get why. Estleman is stylish and creates a very individual voice for his private investigator narrator. This novel featured snappy dialogue, memorable characters (including more than one femme fatale) and evocative details that bring a setting to life--particularly the mean streets of Detroit, but also the affluent suburbs with their McMansions and rural fishing holes beyond.

A "left-handed dollar" is basically dirty money--criminal enterprise and this story involves organized crime. Amos is working for "Lefty Lucy" a lawyer for left-wing causes whose latest client, gangster Joseph Michael Ballista, is facing hard time in prison if he can't get his prior record expunged. Which means Amos has to look into a thirty year old attempted murder--of his close friend, Barry Stackpole, a reporter who covers the mob.

If I found anything off-putting about the novel, it was the love interest--not that she wasn't an appealing character in her own right, but this being the twentieth novel in the series, I thought this meant this was one of those series with a different woman in every book. But another review told me this is the first sign of a love interest in a while. Yet another review I read claimed The Left-Handed Dollar wasn't as strong as earlier books. Well, if so, then those earlier books must be plenty impressive, because this was an enjoyable read. ( )