Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Amos Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust fund. But then Fuller's daughter is found dead in Bairn's apartment, and what seems like a simple case of greed and murder soon uncovers a twisted web of corruption.
Walker discovers that Bairn had made many enemies before he disappeared, and continuing his investigation puts Walker on the wrong side of all of them. On the run from crooked cops and vile gangsters, and at every turn farther from the truth than when he started, this case will take all of Walker’s cunning to survive and will prove to be his greatest trial ever!
Description:
Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Amos Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust fund. But then Fuller's daughter is found dead in Bairn's apartment, and what seems like a simple case of greed and murder soon uncovers a twisted web of corruption.
Walker discovers that Bairn had made many enemies before he disappeared, and continuing his investigation puts Walker on the wrong side of all of them. On the run from crooked cops and vile gangsters, and at every turn farther from the truth than when he started, this case will take all of Walker’s cunning to survive and will prove to be his greatest trial ever!
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. The 19th Amos Walker mystery (after 2006's Nicotine Kiss) 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. Walker is hired by Darius Fuller, a legendary retired Detroit Tigers pitcher facing substantial financial pressure from the IRS. Fuller's daughter Deirdre is several weeks away from gaining access to her $2 million trust fund, and her father fears that her sleazy boyfriend, Hilary Bairn, is wooing her just to get her money. Before Walker can fulfill his assignment to attempt to bribe Bairn to back off, Deirdre is found dead in Bairn's apartment, a death that may be connected to a smuggling ring and a local gangster. 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. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
Retired Tiger pitcher Darius Fuller was once the toast of Detroit. Three divorces and a couple of bad investments have left the former star with creditors nipping at his heels, but he had enough foresight to set up a $2 million trust fund for his daughter, Deidre. Now Deidre is about to marry Hilary Bairn, a shadowy figure on the fringe of Detroit's criminal subculture. Suspecting that the groom-to-be is interested mainly in the trust fund, Darius hires private investigator Amos Walker to present Bairn with a cash payoff as an inducement to back away from Deidre. When Walker shows up for a meet at Bairn's apartment, he is met by both the police and Deidre's cold body. Walker and the police embark on a race to find Bairn. Walker's search is complicated by the necessity of eluding crooked cops and organized crime, and both have motives for finding Bairn first. Estleman collects genre awards--four Shamus, five Golden Spurs, and three Western Heritage Awards among them--like Barry Bonds piles up homers. The nineteenth Walker case is among his best. The world-weary, cynical, first-person narration is perfect, and the plotting is tighter than a snare drum. The resolution is as twisted and painful as one would expect when an American detective looks deep into the heart of a shattered American dream. Wes Lukowsky
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