Loren D. Estleman

Confessional: sometimes reading Doyle gives me the sensation of being dropped into a foreign city at rush hour. People are buzzing with energy all around me, all coming and going, going and coming. Worst case in this scenario, I'm blindfolded and spun around until I can't walk straight. There are so many characters and side plots I'm bumping into everything. So far, Jitterbug is my favorite. It is the least chaotic. I like the viewpoint from the serial killer masquerading as a soldier. show more Police think the killings are mafia related because someone is targeting citizens who hoard ration stamps. Is it a punishment of sorts? I also liked the time period of life during World War II, a time when desegregation was an attempt to support the war effort, yet racism and prejudice still thrive. Some of the murders are a little hard to take because Estleman lets you into the victim's life enough so that you begin to care. You learn a little about their struggles before they die and that makes their demise a little harder to take. (Kind of like Game of Thrones when you like a character and are completely bummed when they are killed off too early in the series.) True to form, Estleman brings back well known characters, like my favorite Connie Minor.
Be warned - Estleman uses language of the time to describe ethnic groups. It isn't always pretty. show less

The first novel in Estleman's Detroit series, Whiskey River, takes the reader into Detroit's dark and dangerous Prohibition era where true events and real people are cooked together with vivid imagination, humor and grit to serve up a tasty story. Torture, murder, prostitution, political scandals, suicides, grand jury trials, corruption, and Detroit's seedy underground keep the reader enthralled.
Constance "Connie" Minor goes from having bylines in the local newspaper to his own column in show more the tabloids. The price for this upgrade? Riding shotgun with warring mob bosses, Jack Dance and Joey Machine. He gets a ringside seat to kidnappings, smuggling, and up-close and personal torture and murder. Why is so liked by these mobsters is beyond me.
Hattie was one of my favorite characters. By day her establishment was a funeral home but by night the lights were turned low for more "lively" entertainment. She was a dame who took no gruff from anyone.
As an aside, I found the inequality and racism a little difficult to stomach, especially since nothing has changed since the 1930s: "Is he white?...If he weren't they wouldn't have bothered to call it in" (p 57).
I most enjoyed Whiskey River as a period piece. the 1930s comes alive with the vernacular, fashion, and transportation of the day: spats, derbies, top coats, silks, wingtips, stoles, fedoras, stockings, LaSalles, Auburns, Packards, Model As, Vikings, Buicks, and blind pigs. show less

Claudius Lyon is a joy to read, and also the perfect compromise - I had a sudden craving for Nero Wolfe (well, Archie Goodwin) but didn't want to start reading the original books again! Estleman's Lyon is a knowing imitation of Wolfe, existing in the same fictional (but modern day) universe as his 'mentor' (Nathaniel Parker keeps sending Lyon cease and desist letters) and striving to mimic every famous quirk, from cultivating orchids (tomato plants) and drinking beer (cream soda) to Archie show more Goodwin (Arnie Woodbine) and Inspector Cramer (Captain Stoddard). The details are rendered with pitch-perfect yet skewed and slightly shabby accuracy, ESPECIALLY 'Arnie's narrative voice which is closer to Archie than the Robert Goldsborough sequel I tried. I don't think a nuanced knowledge of the original 'corpus' is necessary, because Estleman has Arnie point out every comparison to Stout's detective, but seasoned readers will love all the winks and nudges.

Claudius Lyon - see what he did there? - is obsessed with the great Nero Wolfe, to the point of living a carbon copy of the great detective's life and career, as told by Archie Goodwin through Rex Stout. He hires Arnie Woodbine, a self-confessed conman, based on his name, and keeps a Yiddish chef called Gus who makes kosher dishes rather than Fritz's gourmet meals. The brownstone is in Brooklyn, the big red chair in the office is orange, and Captain Stoddard is out to catch Lyon at working as a private detective without a license (which he gets around by working for free). I loved every last twist in the tale!

There are ten short stories, usually based around a play on words or a conundrum rather than the bigger crimes Wolfe investigates, and some work better than others, but as Estleman explains about Stout's work, the characters are what keep the readers coming back for more, not the plotting. The draw for me was always Archie, so I love that Arnie is equally snarky, especially about his boss - 'he was Scrooge out of the grinch by way of the ACLU', 'If the opera scheme, didn't pan out he could always put on the opera getup and argue Home Rule for Ireland with Queen Victoria', 'Somewhere in that roly-poly wad of derivative flapdoodle was an authentic original waiting to be recognized, as well as a tough little nut'. Lyon is not just dumb show either, waggling his finger in his ear when inspiration strikes and he solves another puzzle.

Fans of Wolfe must, must, MUST read these stories about his dodgy double - forget Goldsborough's sanctioned sequels, Estleman understands that imitation is the true form of flattery. show less

First off, if you don’t like the Edna anthologies or deal with the devil stories, this isn’t for you. I happen to love them, they make me think of being a kid watching the twilight zone, specifically the episode where a man (later revealed as the devil) kept captive in a closet, but also the sort of feel of the series overall. And the visceral thrill of trying to get one over on the devil while matching wits with such a crafty opponent has its own perverse appeal. If you don’t mind a show more little kitsch, a little tongue in cheek self awareness and the theme itself, I highly recommend this, as the majority of the authors were and are some of the best in the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fields. Most of them are multiple Hugo and nebula award winners, with a few relatively new comers sprinkled in for spice.
I read this for the first time many years ago while working at a crappy little independent used bookstore. Most days, we had a dozen curstomers at best, so I had lots of time to read anything I came across that caught my fancy. I remembered one particular story Winter in detail if not in name as a favorite and it haunted me for years as I could not remember where I had read it or who the author was. I was lucky enough to come across that information recently entirely on accident while down another rabbit hole, and immediately ordered myself an old paperback of this collection.
Winter still holds up as a personal favorite, and certainly more serious and dramatic in tone than many of the short stories, though by no means not the only serious one, but there’s a lot of standout work here. Several entries deal with the role of computers and technology in deals with the devil, in an era where the Internet was only really beginning. Others give us an interpretation on what can happen when the devil loses, or maybe when devil was never really the bad guy (or in fact doing God’s work) all along.
I heartily recommend for an easy, fun, and satisfying read. show less