Book Review: Retro

This is another quick read that fans of the Amos Walker series of novels will probably like.  I know I enjoy the dry wit and thoughtful commentary in these novels.

Retro is probably the 4th or 5th of these books by Loren Estleman that I have read.  Like the others fearing private eye Amos Walker, this one takes place in Detroit, and the reader gains insight into the surrounds and atmosphere  of these environs.

This story revolves around 2 murders and takes the reader back in time 50 years, to when racial tensions were high, and the fight game wasn’t as sophisticated as it was later to become.  A black fighter is murdered, and nearly 50 years later his illegitimate son is killed with the same gun.  The descriptions of the times are vivid and interesting.

Walker is under suspicion for the second murder because he had been the one to make contact with the victim, himself a fugitive.  There are a lot of twists and turns in the story.  The dialog is a principle component of what makes these books good.  At one point a potential client asks Amos, “Are you afraid of the police?”.  Amos replies: “Terrified, they’re armed and they drink a lot of coffee.”

Estleman’s Walker is also the source of one of my favorite quotes from a character in a novel, not from this book, but another: “The world’s black and white, good and bad, no matter what you hear. The people who say it isn’t have already chosen black.”