Showing posts with label Loren D. Estleman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Loren D. Estleman. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Little Big Crimes: Tarzan Must Die!, by Loren D. Estleman
Little Big Crimes: Tarzan Must Die!, by Loren D. Estleman: "Tarzan Must Die!," by Loren D. Estleman, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May/June 2025. I am astonished that this is onl...
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Friday, August 09, 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in June 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in June 2024: I read eleven books in June and that was many more books than I expected to read, considering that I had cataract surgery in the middle of...
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday – Valentino: Film Detective
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday – Valentino: Film Detective: This week I read three stories from Valentino: Film Detective by Loren D. Estleman, published by Crippen & Landru in 2011. The collecti...
Wednesday, June 05, 2024
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Nearly Nero, Part 2
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Short Story Wednesday: Nearly Nero, Part 2: In April, I read the first four stories in Nearly Nero by Loren D. Estleman. See my comments on those stories here . This week I finished...
Monday, June 19, 2017
Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Alive! A Valentino Mystery by Loren D. Estleman
Alive! A Valentino Mystery (Forge Books, 2013) is Loren D.
Estleman’s third full-length book about UCLA film archivist Valentino, I’m not
sure his first name is ever mentioned. A collection of short stories is
available in ebook. Valentino spends his days tracking down rare film footage and
artifacts from the golden days of Hollywood on behalf of the university while
fending off collectors with deeper pockets.
A friend from the past calls, claiming to have found the long-lost
Bela Lugosi screen test for the part of the Frankenstein monster in the 1931
movie, a part that went to Boris Karloff and made him famous. Valentino doesn’t
believe him and doesn’t follow up. Within 24 hours the friend is dead and the
police are questioning Valentino. The police think they’ve found the killer but
Valentino knows they haven’t and delves into the case for the sake of self-preservation.
Along the way the acting careers of Lugosi and Karloff are described and the not-quite-sane
acquisitiveness of collectors is fully illustrated.
Valentino is no stranger to collector obsession; he has
purchased a defunct movie theatre with the intent of returning it to its full
1920s glory and is selling some of his own movie memorabilia to pay for the
restoration. His efforts to establish the exact shade of blue paint used in the
original theatre demonstrate just how far over the edge he has gone.
In this adventure Valentino finds a sidekick in his intern,
who educates Valentino on the world of steampunk. The intern and his friends
come to Valentino’s rescue at the Hollywood wax museum in a frantic resolution
scene. Film lore, steampunk, historic building renovation, all wrapped into a
carefully plotted mystery; there’s something for everyone in this entertaining
book.
- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Forge Books; 1 edition (April 2, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0765333317
- ISBN-13: 978-0765333315
Aubrey Hamilton © 2017
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian
who works on Federal IT projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Gravetapping: THE SUNDOWN SPEECH by Loren D. Estleman
Gravetapping: THE SUNDOWN SPEECH by Loren D. Estleman: The Sundown Speech is the most recent entry, 25 th overall, in Loren Estleman’s justly celebrated Amos Walker private detective series. ...
Friday, April 12, 2013
FFB Review: "The Book of Murdock" by Loren D. Estleman
Friday
means Friday’s Forgotten Books hosted by Patti Abbott who is currently
celebrating five years of FFB. Quite the accomplishment! I am proud this little
blog has been a small part of it. As I noted a few days ago, Loren Estleman was
the winner of the Edward D Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Winner as bestowed
this year by the Short Mystery Fictions Society (SMFS). While I am a member of
SMFS and even have a very nice collection of his work give to me by a very good
friend, I have not yet read any of his mystery stories. I have, however, read the
below western of his and enjoyed it immensely....
Page Murdock is a deputy U.S. Marshall
in Montana in 1884. He has done a lot of things over the years but not once has
he gone undercover as a preacher. That is about to change as Judge Harlan A.
Blackthorne wants him to do just that and to do it in Texas Panhandle town of
Owen. By going undercover as a man of the cloth it should be easier for Murdock
to track down a gang of bandits operating in the Texas panhandle who might
eventually make their way Montana if left unchecked. The reason is flimsy at
best and Murdock knows there has to be more at stake than just the vague
possibility that the bandits might expand their operations all the way up to
Montana. Still, one does not say no to Judge Blackthorne.
After a two week crash course in
religion, Murdock is sent to Texas as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church
of Evangelical Truth. A crash course in religion and wearing a clerical collar
does not necessarily make him a good fit for an undercover job as a preacher.
It does not change his natural inclinations or his responses when confronted. What
it does do to Murdock is to make him reconsider the world and his role in it.
That may not last too long thanks to be increasingly bold actions of the
bandits, a shady woman from his past, and the plain fact that his notoriety
that has followed him all the way to Texas. A place and a people he hates on
every level.
Murdock is a caustic character and
one that frequently makes comments about others in highly entertaining fashion.
He does not pull his verbal punches and so readers are frequently entertained
with laugh out loud moments as Murdock tells folks in public and in private
exactly what he thinks. Not to mention the occasional zings in internal
character dialogue. Humor is just as much a part of things here, as is the
mystery of the bandits, a failed romance, and the meaning of god and faith,
among other story elements. Murdock is just one of many real and interesting
characters in this 271 page western novel. The Book of Murdock is a very
good read from multi award winning writer Loren P. Estleman.
The Book of Murdock
Loren D. Estleman
A Tom Doherty Book (Forge)
April 2010
ISBN# 978-0-7653-1600-4
Hardback
271 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2010, 2013
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Deputy United States Marshall Page Murdock is back in "The Book of Murdock"
Page Murdock is a deputy U.S. marshall in Montana in 1884. He has done a lot of things over the years but not once has he gone undercover as a preacher. That is about to change as Judge Harlan A. Blackthorne wants him to do just that and to do it in Texas Panhandle town of Owen. By going undercover as a man of the cloth it should be easier for Murdock to track down a gang of bandits operating in the Texas panhandle who might eventually make their way Montana if left unchecked. The reason is flimsy at best and Murdock knows there has to be more at stake than just the vague possibility that the bandits might expand their operations all the way up to Montana. Still, one does not say no to Judge Blackthorne.
After a two week crash course in religion, Murdock is sent to Texas as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth. A crash course in religion and wearing a clerical collar does not necessarily make him a good fit for an undercover job as a preacher. It does not change his natural inclinations or his responses when confronted. What it does do to Murdock is to make him reconsider the world and his role in it. That may not last too long thanks to be increasingly bold actions of the bandits, a shady woman from his past, and the plain fact that his notoriety that has followed him all the way to Texas. A place and a people he hates on every level.
Murdock is a caustic character and one that frequently makes comments about others in highly entertaining fashion. He does not pull his verbal punches and so readers are frequently entertained with laugh out loud moments as Murdock tells folks in public and in private exactly what he thinks. Not to mention the occasional zings in internal character dialogue. Humor is just as much a part of things here, as is the mystery of the bandits, a failed romance, and the meaning of god and faith, among other story elements. Murdock is just one of many real and interesting characters in this 271 page western novel. The Book of Murdock is a very good read from multi award winning writer Loren P. Estleman.
The Book of Murdock
Loren D. Estleman
A Tom Doherty Book (Forge)
April 2010
ISBN# 978-0-7653-1600-4
Hardback
271 Pages
$24.99
Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2010
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