A Smile on the Face of the Tiger

I picked up this book because of the title. I opened it and read: "Bang! Bang!Bang! Bang! Four shots ripped into my groin, and I was off on the biggest adventure of my life. But first let me tell you a little about myself. --Max Shulman, Sleep Till Noon (1950)" Estleman can't top that, I thought, and then I read his opening lines: "I thought I'd never see her again. But never is longer than forever." And I was off on another adventure with one of my favorite PIs, Amos Walker. Estleman's writing flows, with seldom a sour note or wrong or useless word. Amos is hired to locate a writer who returned his advance and dropped out of sight. The publisher is a handsome blonde named Louise who has started her own company, and the author, Eugene Booth, hasn't written a word in 40 years, but is back in style. Louise explains: "He's part of that whole tailfins-Rat Pack-lounge lizard-swingers revival ... The contract was to reprint Paradise Valley, his best-known novel, with an option on three others if he sold through." Finding Booth is no problem for Amos, but the trail leads back to a 1943 race riot and three lynchings, two cops caught in the middle of it, a moldering web of lies and coverups, and Glad Eddie, a nasty hit man who has written his memoirs. I don't know where Estleman finds his characters, but Eugene Booth and his friend, Fleta Skerritt, are worth the price of admission. Fleta's mind comes and goes, but in her dreams she's still the blonde in the red slip on all those lurid paperback covers of the 1950s. Eugene is an old coot with no illusions and one desire: to rewrite "Paradise Valley" the way the story really happened. I hated to close the book on Eugene Booth, but at least Amos is still around. If Estleman keeps writing them, I'll never run out of Amos Walker books.

Most mystery series have become either worn out or routine by the time they get around to their 15th outing. Not so Loren Estlemen's Amos Walker P.I. series. If anything, Estlemen and his hero are getting better. "A Smile of the Face of the Tiger" is the fourth Walker book since Estlemen took a seven year hiatus from his favorite shamus, and it is easily the best of the "comeback" novels. Walker remains one of the few who truly does carry on the torch of Phillip Marlowe with his lonliness, cynicism and uncorruptible nature.This time out, he tracks a old pulp fiction writer who has disappeared after turning down an advance to reprint one of his old novels. I've seen this story line several times before, but Estlemen gets clever with it. Along the way, he weaves in his usual menacing mobster (a Sammy "the Bull" Gravano clone, no less) and corrupt police officer angles, also in a fresh and unique way. It also helps that Estlemen puts two of the series's better supporting characters, police Lieutenant Mary Ann Thaler and beguiling publisher's representative Louise Starr, to good use this time out. As always, the real hero of the story is the once great city of Detroit, still struggling to regain some of its lost luster, this time with casino gambling.Overall, Walker is among the best private detectives in the literary world today, and this is one of his best novels to date.

Amos Walker is a hard-boiled private eye of the old school. in A Smile On The Face Of The Tiger, Walker is tracking down a man named Eugene Booth as part of a missing-person case. But something is going on he wasn't expecting that involves a New York mob hit man and a half-century-old murder. Just as with his previous Amos Walker mysteries, Loren Estleman writes a vividly crafted, gritty, pulp fiction style novel set in an underworld of passion, lies, murder, and unexpected revelations. A "must" for all classic, two-fisted private eye mystery fans

Private Detective Amos Walker soon learns there is more to his latest missing person case than a drunk who wandered away from home. Police lies and incompetence, Mob killers, and the damaged flotsam of an author's life form the rich history of missing author Eugene Booth.Walker is the perfect tough detective--reminiscent of the 'hard-boiled dectectives' of the 1930s, Walker has to deal with his own morals in a world where Mafia killers sign million-dollar book deals and where a murder doesn't get investigated because the woman had questionable morals. Loren D. Estleman has created a powerful mystery with all of the twists and turns you could possibly expect, and with an additional spark. A SMILE ON THE FACE OF THE TIGER makes you think, may give you an occasional smile, and will get your heart rate up.I highly recommend this excellent novel.

New York publisher Louise Starr hires Detroit's private investigator Amos Walker to locate writer Eugene Booth, author of the half a century old classic "Paradise Valley." Louise wants the rights to reprint the novel. However, Booth has simply vanished.While Amos goes about his missing person inquiries, he learns that former Mafia hitman turned author Glad Eddie also seeks Booth. When he finds Booth, Amos learns that the recluse plans to write a non-fictionalized account of the city's 1943 riots. The next day Booth is dead, an apparent suicide. Amos begins investigating the death of Booth and the murder of the writer's wife over fifty years ago, not yet understanding the danger he faces.SMILE ON THE FACE OF THE TIGER, the fourteenth Amos Walker mystery novel, retains the noir feel of its predecessors. The book pays homage to the pulp fiction of the thirties and forties and to Detroit. The story line is captivating, and the who-done-it is fun but clearly this tale belongs to Amos, a fresh intriguing character who constantly take beatings. Loren D. Estleman continually shows his ability to write delightful contemporary noir.Harriet Klausner