Product Description
They are the stuff of legend, thundering out of the harsh landscapes and stunning vistas of the American West, vividly lodged in our collective imaginations. From Buffalo Bill to Billy the Kid, from Cochise to Jesse James, these names and so many others screamed across newspaper and magazine headlines while the Wild West was won. "Lost Trails" features inventive, hard-riding, action-packed stories by America's best Western writers. Louis L'Amour, Elmer Kelton, William W. Johnstone, Loren Estleman, Johnny Boggs, Don Coldsmith, and many more, share tales of the legends born out of the wild frontier. So sit a spell and listen to a good ol' yarn about Mark Twain's meeting with Buffalo Bill, a man who shoed horses for Jesse James, or a little known nugget about Cochise by the legendary Louis L'Amour...and for a time, you can find yourself riding those "Lost Trails" with the real people that make the legends of the West come alive today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New Stories of the Old West!
Western short story lovers will enjoy this new collection from Pinnacle Books. Pinnacle asked some of the best writers in the field - Elmer Kelton, Loren Estleman, Johnny Boggs, etc. - to write a new story about a famous or, in some cases, infamous character of the old West. The result is a pleasing mix of stories that bring Mark Twain, Cochise, Buffalo Bill Cody, Billy the Kid and others to life once again.

Two of the best stories in this collection, by pure accident, deal with Buffalo Bill Cody. The opening story - "Mark and Bill" - pits Cody against Twain in a contest to earn the exclusive bragging rights of being 'The American.' Throw in Teddy Roosevelt and you have a funny, riproaring tale of two giants butting heads. The second Buffalo Bill story is the diametric opposite of the first. "The Cody War" is an insightful, bittersweet, terribly human tale of the price Cody and his family payed for his fame. Another standout is "The Ones He Never Mentioned" wherein the black heart of John Wesley Hardin is well and truly revealed.

There are 14 stories in this collection and there's nary a clunker in the bunch. Recommended.

... Read more

Product Description
Based on the action-filled computer game, a novel of war and suspense finds the Earth propelled through a strange vortex into an alternate universe, a hideous parody of known reality. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good opener for Vor: The Maelstrom, but good sci-fi too!
I enjoyed this book.As an owner and collector of the Vor: The Maelstrom game, it enhanced my gaming experience.As an avid reader of science fiction, however, it also seemed to stand on its own.Having a few concurrently developing plotlines showed good reflection of how the world might react in the Vor setting.

Even though FASA is now defunct, I'd recommend this as a good read anyway....

A better WWIII novel than a game-based novel series lead-in
Since this was supposed to be the background for the FASA board game, I expected that when the Earth gets drawn into the Maelstrom, everyone would suddenly be at war with these alien horrors that immediately showed up; atleast that was the impression I got from FASA's web site on the game. Instead it read like a distant-future version of World War Three with someoccasional alien weirdness thrown in. ... Read more

Product Description

"Look for us when the moon is new. Look for us, but keep your distance. We're the Midnight Men, and the prey we're stalking could be you."

In the private eye business, mistakes can be fatal. Just ask Amos Walker.

First, he pulls his gun on a man he thought was a member of a group of potential truck hijackers. Even goes so far as to fire a round at the suspicious driver to make him step from his car. Only trouble is, the guy -- Van Sturtevant -- is a cop.

Then, after Sturtevant is crippled in a shootout with a gang of black militants, Walker -- figuring he owes the cop for letting him off the hook -- offers his investigatory services to the officer's pretty, blond wife, Karen. At no charge.

If Walker had been paying attention, he would have seen the warning signs. But now bodies are going to start piling up, with politicians, private eyes, and members of Detroit's Finest on the giving and receiving ends.

Yes, mistakes can be fatal. And if Walker doesn't watch his back, the next one will definitely be his last.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Someone was standing on my eyelids....
Amos Walker is back,and Loren Estleman's Detroit PI is nearly killed on a surveillance job, and subsequently drawn into the case of finding the shooters in an ambush that leaves the cop that saved Walker in a wheelchair.It's the early 80's and Walker is chasing holdout 70's violent revolutionaries, aided and obstructed by cops and a giant cowboy bounty hunter, wise-cracking all the way.

Estleman's prose is lean and hard, and his stories move.He has staked out the gritty and unforgivng terrain of the Motor City and this is hardboiled fiction done like it should be done.No one is working this genre any better.

Don't Pass This One Over
There are a lot of better known writers today. But, there are none better than Estelman.The Amos Walker series is fun, exciting and challenging. Strong characters and good stories. If you like noir mysteries and the Chandler hardboiled style, you'll love Estelman. This entry is one of his finest. But, whatever Estelman(Amos Walker) book you begin with, you cannot go wrong.

Another excellent entry in the Amos Walker series
"The Midnight Man" is a bit darker than usual for an Amos Walker novel.Death hangs omnipresent as the intrepid Walker tries to bring a cop killer to justice before he is killed by the police.Along the way he encounters black militants, a bounty hunter, a sex-starved cop's wife and more dead bodies than he would care to count.Author Loren D. Estleman runs his hero through the wringer in this adventure and it is a great ride indeed.Walker is everything a great P.I. ought to be, tough, sarcastic, somewhat alcoholic and beholden to a his own private code of justice.He is Phillip Marlowe updated for modern times.

This "I-Book" edition features the added bonus of an essay by the author regarding his inspiriations for the novel.Addtionally, it also has an Amos Walker short story, "Redneck" that comes along at the end like the desert to a fine meal.Overall a very worthwhile package. ... Read more

Product Description
In Detroit in 1925 prohibition has been in force for a year longer than the rest of the States, police corruption is so rampant no-one notices the stench in City Hall. Into this scene comes Constantine Minor, a young and ambitious reporter. The author has twice won the Shamus Award. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Slang too hard to comprehend
I first read Thunder City, as recommended by a friend who is an avid reader of Estleman, and enjoyed it thoroughly.However, I found the slang and lingo of the era in this book to be so difficult as to distract me from the storyline.Wish I could remember some of the words, but the book has gone back to the library.The only term I think I translated correctly is the one used for cops.Can anyone help me with a "key" to these words so I can give the book a second try?Would prefer an answer via email: dhanover12@comcast.net

Good start, flat ending
A novel of Detroit. (1928).Not Estleman's best.Good start, flat ending.Too much description not enough action to wrap it up.

Bring in the Booze
The United States's experiment with Prohibition was a disaster that created more criminals than solved problems. Loren D. Estleman with WHISKEY RIVER, the first of his Detroit novels presents a compelling picture of the flow of booze across the Canadian border and the men who transported it, profit by it, and died by it.
Constantine "Connie" Minor is a reporter who has seen it all even to riding along across the frozen lake to observe a shipment. This scene is on the the most exciting scenes in the annals of crime fiction and worth the price of the book. Connie is telling the story of Jack Dance and Joey Machine to a Grand Jury, but he also tells the story of himself.
A keep your eyes on the page read.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

A considerable work
Loren D Estleman is probably best known -at least to crime novel devotees -for his Detriot based private eye ,the Chandleresque figure of Amos Walker .The novel Whiskey River is set in Detroit but not the modern day Motor City of the Walker books ;
rather ,it is the first in what has become a regular series exploring the history of the city from the Prohibition era onwards

It is set in 1928 and the narratoris Constantine Minor -known as"Connie " -an journalist on the Detroit Banner .The framework of the book is his testimony to a Grand Jury investigation into organised crime and racketeeringin Detroit as well as police corruption within the city .Minor has known all the major gangsters in the city in his time and was involvedalbeit in a journalistic capacity in running whiskey across the frozen ice from Canada to the States ,as well as playing a role in negotiations to bring peace between the warring gangster factions ,which it is pointed out are also ethnic divisions .
During his testsimony we meet most of the big players on the local crime scene -all are fictional creations but are consistent with the facts of Detroit crime in the prohibition era .The main focus is on the battle between the gangleaders Jack Dance and Joey Machine .Dance is handsome and charismatic while Machine is more the old style hoodlum .Both are ruthless and merciles in dealing with threats to their hegemony .

Estelman paints a convincing picture of the era , a time when the distinctions between the world of high society and criminal society were becoming fuzzy around the edges .He demonstrates clearly that Prohibition was an unmitigated disaster and creates an electric atmosphere and complete engagement with the characters
The book is not perfect -I found the framing device of the Grand Jury investigation superfluous and it added to the slightly long drawn out nature of the book ,making it a tad overlong .
Setting these minor problems aside this is a major work from an accomplished writer and is unreservedly recommended to all lovers of the crime novel and indeed mainstream fiction which is rooted in reality

I Am In Awe
Loren Estleman is one of the most intelligent and sensitive writers living today and Whiskey River is true "Estleman."In addition to the standard plaudits attributed to his writings his works include an honesty, imagination, and sensitivity to the human condition simply not found in other writers' works.If I may quote from other reviews whose writers say it better than I can (with all due respect and credit):a Chicago Tribune reviewer said, "Estleman could rewrite the Ann Årbor phone book and I'd pay to take a peek."; another reviewer from the Washington Post Book World said, "--you will want to call up your closest friends to read them your favorite paragraphs."Amen. ... Read more

Product Description
In this outing, Walker goes "Downriver," which is a Detroiter's term for any part of Michigan that does not include the city. Actually, he goes to the Upper Peninsula to give a released con a ride back to Detroit. When he and the con get run off the road and the con hires him to help find 200,000 dollars from a heist for which he was convicted but which he did not commit, Walker has his hands full. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

"Downriver" definition totally wrong
Not having read this yet, I can only assume that it wasn't Mr. Estleman himself who gave the definition of "downriver" as being "anyplace not in Detroit itself."

A lifelong resident of a downriver community, I feel the need to clarify. The term "Downriver" refers to the cities that are, for the most part, literally "down the Detroit River, south from Detroit." In other words, it includes the cities south of Detroit that actually are bounded by the Detroit River on the east (River Rouge, Ecorse, Wyandotte, Riverview, Trenton, Gibraltar) and a few cities extending to the west (including Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Southgate, Taylor, Woodhaven, Brownstown).

If Mr. Estleman is responsible for the incorrect definition, it will be my FIRST disappointment with him since I started the Amos Walker series. In any case, I look forward to finally getting a copy of this from my library and delving in.

Entertaining Read
First thing to take into consideration is that I am a sci-fi and fantasy reader.The reason I picked up this book was it being based in Detroit (where I grew up).But I was pleasantly surprised by the story that unfolded in front of me.It was a good story, and seeing that mysteries are new to me, it enlighted me to the genre.

What I liked most was the character of Amos Walker.I have always gotten the impression that most "P.I." novels done in first person would portray someone that thinks they know it all, a real womanizer, and are God's gift to humanity.But what I got was a down to earth character that gave a sense of being realistic, and had a good sense of humor.

Figuring out who was the culprit was a bit beyond me.I wasn't sure where I should have picked up as clues.But that might be attributed to me being new to the genre.Overall though, it was an entertaining and fast read.

Just to clear up a fact though presented in one of the other reviews.The term "downriver" is not used by Michiganders to describe any area other then Detroit.Downriver is actually the nickname of Detroit's southern suburbs.That is the area of metro Detroit where the car plant is located in the story.

Sturdy traditional private eye yarn
This is case number 8 for Detroit private eye Amos Walker and by now Mr Estleman was well into his stride with the series and he produced a solid and thoroughly professional outing for his sleuth.
Walker meets his client ,De Vries ,on the day de Vries is released from prison having served twenty years for arson ,the police having maintained it was a crime designed to act as a diversion for a major robbery in 1967 ,against the backdrop of the riots sweeping Detroit .De Vries is adamant he was set up by a white liberal associate of his at the time of the act and wants ,not revenge ,but his share of the money from the robbery.

The solution sees Walker enmeshed in the world of high finance in the automotive industry and before the case is closed murder and violence rear their ugly heads.Walker'sinvestigations also take him to a world where peolpe still mourn for theloved ones they lost in the violence and disorder of the late 60's and the compassion for the victims of those times is neatly and tellingly done.
I liked the way Estleman in the depiction of many key figures has avoided stereotyping and neatly undercuts expectations -de Vries is a humourous man who wants ,not blood but financial recompense;an old style cop,instrumental in de Vries' arrest is not the racist we may well have expected butafamily man with scruples who is not above going out on a limb to right old wrongs.
The major caricature ,oddly enough is the main character, Walker himself and he is the traditional gumshoe to a Tee-white,middle aged .an ex-cop with a working if scarecely warm relationship with the police.
Milieu as ever with the series is good and Detroit comes alive as a character in its own right-gritty ,decaying and in thtrall to the culture of the gun

Enjoyable.

Amos going up the "River"
"Downriver" is the 8th novel is the excellent Amos Walker P.I. fiction series.As such, it is about average for the series, which is to say better than average for the genre.In this outing, Walker goes "Downriver," which is a Detroiter's term for any part of Michigan that does not include the city.Actually, he goes to the Upper Peninsula to give a released con a ride back to Detroit.When he and the con get run off the road and the con hires him to help find $200,000 from a heist for which he was convicted but which he did not commit, Walker has his hands full.The novel contains the usual social commentary and Walker is as much a loner as ever.Regular characters like Detectives John Alderdyce and Mary Ann Thaler get only cameo appearances this time out.

Bottom line is that while this edition does not rank with "The Glass Highway" or "Sugartown," among the best Walker novels, it is still well worthwhile in its own right. ... Read more

Product Description

The tabloids were full of it. Constance Thayer, after a night of clubbing, drinks, and drugs, had taken an automatic pistol from the collection of her industrialist husband Doyle Thayer Jr. and emptied it into his back, as he lay naked and unconscious in their Iroquois Heights home. The news of Constance Thayer's X-rated past breathed new life into the scandal for another month. Walker's job was to gather enough dirt on the late Mr. Thayer to make his widow look clean by comparison. What he found was a monstrous magnate, a dubious corpse, and a gang of country-style gunrunners. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The quality of writing one expects from Mr. Estleman, almost a classic
An Amos Walker Mystery.After reading a rare Estleman clunker (Stress (Detroit Crime Series #5) - skip it), this is a welcome return to the quality of writing one expects from Mr. Estleman, almost a classic.

Tight plot, no wasted words or actions in 200 pages of paperback that would be 400 pages in any other private eye mystery writer's hands, or a 1,000 page 20-hour miniseries for James Michener if he were a private eye mystery writer.

Includes an excellent short story "The Anniversary Waltz" at the end.

Polished private eye yarn
Amos Walker is solidly in the tradition of the American private eye as established by such masters as Chandler,Hammett and MacDonald.He is white,middle aged,and partial to the twin vices of nicotine and alcohol.As a one man operation in an insecure profession he is no stranger to an existence just a step or two away from the poverty line.He is quick with a one liner and has an outlook on life that tempers a bruised romanticism with a relaxed tolerance and understanding.A good friend and bar room companion methinks.
His beat is Detroit,a city Estleman makes very much a character in its own right-decaying,violence ridden,corrupt and a place -as the writer is quick to point out-that has its history and culture very much tied to the gun.
In this book Walker is hired to prove the innocence of a wealthy widow,Constance Thayer,who is pleading self defence on a charge of shooting her late husband ,an abusive drunk.The late unlamented's father is seeking to prove cold blooded murder as he wishes to gain custody of her child and train him to take over the family business.
Walker becomes entangled in the arms trade as he seeks to find evidence that will exonerate Constance,and it is this which forms the real meat and potatoes of the book.Clearing Constance is relatively easy but the arms dealers are another and more vicious proposition entirely especially when very large sums of money are at stake,as is the case here.This aspect of the book does tend to strike a false note or two for me ,with a bad guy,a vietnam veteran, who seems to have strayed in from aBond movie,what with his dreams of blackmailing an African government over mineral rights.It just sits oddly with the rest of the book which is a solid well crafted traditional private eye yarn.
Still,all in all ,its neatly and economically told,with compassion and heart not to mention a mordauntly cynical view of law enforcement.Just a pity about the plot going a tad awry towards the end
Still worth reading if you like the private eye genre.

Amos Sticks to His Guns
Loren Estleman's Amos Walker private eye series is one of the best of the genre.Novels like "Sugartown" and "The Glass Highway" are among the best P.I. novels ever.With "Silent Thunder," Walker stays true to form.He's as quick with his guns and hit wit as ever.He continues to run into dangeorus thugs and corrupt policemen.And he remains as uncorruptable as ever.In this installment, Walker takes on some crazy gun dealers and a powerful businessman on behalf of a client who's about to go on trial for murdering her husband.Its the type of case that Walker specializes in, helping the little person in a battle against the larger forces trying to extinguish them.Unfortunately in this book, Estleman allows plausibility to get taken for a ride.He stretches both the corrupt cop and the crazy gun nut angles way too far.Not to mention the fact that this is the first Walker novel in which the hero begins to seem a bit stale.Estleman has not allowed Walker to grow as a character the way Lawrence Block has with Matthew Scudder or Andrew Vachss has with his Burke charcter.And by this, the ninth novel in the series, Walker is beginning to get a little tired.Perhaps that is why Estleman took a seven year break from writing Walker adventures after the novel that follows this one.Overall, Walker novels are never bad but they are usually better than this. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautiful rendition of Norse/Germanic Myth.
A great synopsis of Viking and Nordic myth that delves into the pantheon of the Norse gods and through to the epic sagas of Iceland. A great reference as well as pure read gives short yet descriptive accounts of numerous stories and provided both cultuaral andhistorical evidence and information behind the myths.

Does a great job as well of presenting the Myths and developing them on all aspects of the Norse mythology, presenting a trove of stories from creation to Ragnarok. This book as well presents the reader with a myriad of epics to choose that are action packed and great examples of heroic tales. Along with great descriptive passages and beautiful images this book will enthrawl and incite its readers to read further.

As in most other Myth and Mankind books as well this one provides cultural aspects of the myths and even uses cultural descriptions of symbols and recurrent archetypes through the mythology. Does a great job as well as presenting the effects that the myths have had and their lasting presence even in today's society.

Just simply with the beautiful images and descriptions this book can be either read leisurly one page to another or cover to cover. I Highly recommend this book as well as the rest of the MYTH AND MANKIND series.

Numerous entries, illustrated with actual Viking artifacts.
A noble companion edition to any Norse Myth Saga and Edda volume oftraditional textual poetry and retellings. It gives the reader a strongfeeling for the people and religion of the Viking era. It makes one feelthe majesty of these people and also has many entries of the Wagnerianinspired Germanic sagas. An excellent additive source of perhaps morefactual cultural data with powerful, in color, illustrations. ... Read more

Product Description
Detroit’s favorite P.I., Amos Walker, barrels through this collection of five short stories by Shamus Award winner, Loren D. Estleman. General Murders upholds Estleman’s reputation as a master of the short story. Both card-carrying fans of Amos Walker and those who are new to the series will devour these stories as they, with Walker, expose crime in some of the most corrupt alleys and steamy streets of Detroit. Included in this audiobook are these vintage Walker and Estleman pieces: "Greektown," "Robber’s Roost," "Fast Burn," "Dead Soldier," and "Eight-Mile and Dequindre."The stories rejoice the hard-edge, wise-cracking, and scandal that typify the genre of private eye fiction.

The Oscar-nominated star of Jackie Brown, Robert Forster narrates all five stories in this collection. His history of playing detective-types in such films as Original Gangstas brings a gritty-edged sound to Estleman’s work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Amos Walker Rules!
Ordinarily I detest short stories. But this combination of classic Amos Walker mysteries is the greatest.Easy reading, exciting, and typically humorous at times, I would recommend to all RB Parker, Chandler, Sue Grafton, etc. fans.

Crackles Like a .38 Special
"General Murders" is a collection of ten Amos Walker short stories that are done every bit as well as any of the Detroit P.I.'s best novels.Author Loren Estleman proves himself to every bit as effective working in the short form as he is with his novels.As the title implies, the stories mostly deal with death and murder, but they all come with a twist, most of them unforseemn and satisfying.Walker is the most Phillip Marlowe-like P.I. walking the means streets today.Any P.I. fan owes it to themselves to make his acquaintence.At at brief 230 pages, this book is a quick delight. ... Read more

Product Description
When Pat Garrett killed his poker buddy, Billy the Kid, he had no idea what a terrible emotional price he would pay. Haunted by memories of Billy, Garrett wanders the New Mexico desert in a fruitless pursuit of peace.

Deep in the same desert, an ancient Spanish alchemist searches for the fabled philosopher's stone. Resolutely alone in his quest he devotes his long life to hunting the secrets of the old gods.

As these two men seek answers to questions that have confounded mankind for centuries, their stories encompass the panorama of American history. This journey from wild frontier into the twentieth century is an unforgettable experience.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Not a casual read
Absolutely gorgeous imagery, but any sense of storytelling gets mired in the dense prose. Sentences are long and complex, and by the time you get to the end of them, you forget anything specific happening. All you're left with are images, and though they're beautiful, it's not enough to engage me into any kind of profound reading experience.

Words can be magic even if alchemy fails
I am not one of those who are deep into the story of Billy the Kidd and Pat Garrett, his executioner. But even so, I can tell that this book offers a truly new and powerful vision of Garrett's life.

Estleman is really immersed in the Old West, its nature and essence, from its early days in the late nineteenth century, all saloons and brass cuspidors, to the early twentieth with its Eastern businessmen, snorting automobiles and rumors of manned flight. Within this, he traces the parallel arc of Garrett's life, intertwined with the lives of so many others of that time, with a true sense of time's passing, and deep compassion for "the long man" and his holding to his inner core through many hard times and betrayals.

Garrett always corrects those who mention Billy Bonney as an "enemy." No, the word is "friend." He is tormented all his life by dreams of The Kid, sometimes so real he must rise in a sweat and check the place he is staying to be sure it was a dream.

Those dreams are what tie him into a truly original aspect of this book: the extended metaphor drawn from the once-famous practice of Alchemy. The narrator is an enigmatic Spanish- or Mexican- American figure, who has lived, he claims, through three centuries and traces his ancestry back to famed alembicists of the past. The Garrett saga is set out in three serial parts named Lead, Iron, and Gold, corresponding to three ascending levels of "nobility" in alchemical lore. ("Lead" is a great heading for the early period dominated by the bullet!) Yet paradoxically, at the end the alchemist deserts his craft to indicate that it is all a myth, that "gold" - that is, the absolute truth about Garrett's ending - is likely forever unknowable, just as the transmutation of base metal into gold is impossible.

Along the way, we are treated to wonderfully close descriptions of places, character, and events. Estleman has a fine hand for words and makes us share the sights, sounds and smells of the West, never sliding over into pretentiousness. Here's Garrett's wife making their home out of a longabandoned adobe ranch house, which "...had become a shelter for every variety of Southwestern wildlife; with a broom she drove out the porcupines and badgers, tied her hair up in a kerchief and climbed into the rafters to poke the little brown bats free of their inverted perches, then swept out the cobwebs and dried dung and scoured the floors and whitewashed the walls. She hung Indian rugs, blacked the stove and embroidered new sheets for the master bedroom and the guest room where John Chisum stayed when he came to visit on his way back from decorating the cottonwoods in old Mexico with rustlers from north of the border." (However, virtue is not always rewarded: for a spell later in Garrett's life he spends more time with a sex-hungry ex-pro than with his hard-working but sexually unresponsive wife.)

If I had to summarize the overall tone of the story, I think I might say "melancholy" or "elegaic." There's no getting away from the fact that Pat Garrett's life was more troubled than happy. But the excellence of the writing ensures the reader's pleasure nevertheless: towards the very end Garrett and a treacherous companion pass a decayed boomtown "inhabited now by prospectors motivated more by habit than hope, prostitutes too old and fat to move on, and the odd armadillo..."

Read it and enjoy. Ignore the few odd misspellings, though it is surprising that a writer so steeped in the Old West could list another as "Zane Gray" - even I know it's "Grey" and have read a few.

Is it Fact?Is itLegend?Is it Fiction?

This is probably the most unusual book on The Old West that I've ever come across.To say that I enjoyed it immensely would be an understatement.Although the stories about Sheriff Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid have been told and retold by so many that at this stage it is almost impossible to sort the truth from the legend. In this book,the author introduces come very imaginative fiction to create a whole new approach to the story. You may not resolve much of the things that have been written; but that is beside the point, and not the reason for me thinking so much of this book. The author gets one right inside the inner thoughts and personalities of all the characters he covers.I found the book filled with historical facts, but it reads like a work of fiction.There are scenes after scenes that are so well described,that can only be described as masterfully imagined and written.I find it hard to think of any other western that has so many ,well written lines as this.The scene created with Garrett's meeting with President Teddy Roosevelt in the railway car will be unforgettable to me. The introduction of the alchemist is a brilliant idea and makes the whole story totally different fom anything else I've ever come across in a western.Then there is the continually reoccurring encounters Pat has with Billy Bonney in his dreams.
In this unusually crafted saga,Estleman takes us along with Pat Garrett and follow him from his earliest days until his death in 1909,basically all throughout the period generally known as the Old West.At times, the historical information is detailed like a history book,but totally without the drudgery we are used to.At other times the book gets fanciful and you can let your imagination carry you along with the thoughts and visions Eatleman is a master at creating.
Estleman ha also done an excellent job of tying in events in The Old West with other historical events in the country.Range wars,cattle ranches and drives,saloon and frontier life and and all its hardships,joys and dreams.He folds into it, politics,both locally and federally;and even carries us through the development and impact of various types of ranching and livestock,the introduction of irrigation ,the introduction of electricity and even the automobile. All this is accomplished in only 250 pages and is so well written,it is impossible to put down once started.
If there was ever a book that looks like it would be a great movie;this has got to be it.
I often like to quote a few of my favorite lines from a book;but this one has so many,I am completely at loss to choose a few from so many. All I can suggest is that you read it and find them yourself;the book is loaded with them.
This is the first of Estleman's books I've read;but won't be the last.

Journey of the Dead Given Life by Loren D. Estleman
I have never heard of this author before I picked up the book in a local thrift store.What I can't believe is that I've never heard of this author after I finished reading the book.I can't wait to go out and find more of his books!

This book is essentially a fictitional account of the real life of Sheriff Pat Garrett--infamous for killing Billy the Kid.It has a secondary character who narrates and intersperses personal observations throughout the story, which adds an interesting dimension to the story.I'm not totally sure why he's there at all, but it does add a little 'drive' throughout the book--I wanted to keep reading to see what this narrator character was going to divulge next.

Estleman is deliciously ingenious with mental images.His passages read so brilliantly with his descriptions and metaphors that you can't help but instantly develop an image in your head as you watch your own internal moving picture.Simple phrases such as "...the clatter of a heavy wagon built of elm delivering a load of rocks smelling of moist earth..." jolts your own memory to relive personal images that almost match this scene and let you fall into the arms of the storyteller.

Ths story itself takes place over several decades and highlights supposed 'facts' of the life of Pat Garrett, but seems to fill in details while skipping them alltogether.You don't feel anything missing at the end of the story.

If you haven't read this book, or any book by Loren D. Estleman, I highly advice you to try him out -- even if it isn't this particular book.While I haven't read his other books yet, if his methodology and story-telling skills are equal to this slim volume, I can't wait to read the rest!

Journey of the Dead
Having read and disliked Master Executioner, but seeing all the rave reviews Estleman gets, I thought I'd try another of his books.

This book is better than Master Executioner by far. The essential difference is the use of language -- nearly poetic here, plodding in the other book. Journey of the Dead is the combined story of Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy the Kid, and of an old Spanish alchemist who lives as a hermit in the desert.

Estleman does a good, understated job of showing how Garrett is haunted by Billy's death throughout his life. The effect would have been stronger had their friendship been more extensively described. Still, the changing Billy the Kid legend provides an interesting way for Estleman to show changes in Garrett's life and in the West.

I found the plot to move a little slowly, probably because it concerns the life of a real person, more or less accurately reported as far as I know. Garrett tried many careers and had rather little success in any, according to Estleman, until he was finally murdered. This imposes a sort of flat quality on the plot. There are no big moments of drama, aside from Billy's death, and even that comes across as understated. Toward the end of the book, I got a trifle bored and wished for more tension and drama in the narrative. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1913, young Dmitri Pulski works for his father's ice cream company in the Sierra Nevadas when he journeys south to investigate an order for ten tons of ice by something called the Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association. Almost immediately, Dmitri, an aspiring writer finds himself writing movie scenarios. But things get skewed when The Rocky is threatened with foreclosure-they're grinding out their movies just outside of each of the monopolistic Eastern Trust, which claims exclusive right to make moving pictures under Thomas Edison's patent. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

No-fat dialogue and high-impact plot; no James Michener here!
Typically crisp no-fat dialogue and high-impact plot, but a cut below classic because of a much-too-abrupt ending.It feels as if Estleman was writing to a word limit and stopped when he hit it.

Rocky Mountain is the one of the pioneer companies in the fledgling movie industry in the teens of the 20th century, struggling for legal independence from the Thomas Edison patents and financial independence from creditors everywhere.Estleman weaves in historical characters and events without becoming bogged down in either fictionalized history or history-lecture fiction.Rather, he uses the historical touch points as the foundation for a time-worthy plot and fun, memorable characters.

No James Michener here; given a thousand pages, I think Estleman could cover the entire history of the world with the fast-pace of a hard-boiled detective novel.

Nothing great, but an enjoyable read nonetheless
Loren Estleman's book 'The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association' misses quite a bit. Estleman gives the reader everything you would expect to find in a quaint mystery/thriller, but the story still left me feeling like it had not delivered the goods.

On the other hand, Estleman obviously enjoyed writing this book. The prose sparkles with a positive glow, and the descriptions of early Hollywood come across as a love letter to the past. Tom Boston is the protagonist here. The book starts off well, describing Boston's journey in finding his earlier self as he travels from his youth and a job at his fathers ice house to his early adult hood and a job writing for the silent films. I would have been very happy just reading this, but Estleman complicates the story by adding flash-forwards every chapter or two, where some character that we assume is Tom, wanders about in the years after the unfolding of the main story. I found these interruptions unneeded and in the way. Also, Towards the end is a Carl Hiaason stylized show down between Tom's picture company and the gang of hired Pinkerton's working for Thomas Eddison.

This book was good in that I never felt the need to skip ahead because the story was lagging. That, the descriptions, and the nice style of writing kept me holding on for the duration. However at the conclusion, I sort of felt let down, feeling that Estleman had left out many more interesting scenes that could have occured.

Lights! Fire Bucket! Camera! Watch Crank Speed! Action!
The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association is above all a fascinating period piece that takes you into an unfamiliar world before refrigerators, modern film technology, reliable cars, and honest law enforcement. It's a time of silent movies featuring printed cards to help relate the story, and made more exciting by a piano player in the movie theater.And the price of admission is one nickel. Vignettes set at a later date are inserted to give you a sense of what's to come: how the pioneers fared; the rise of the studio system for making stars; and the effect of stars on society.

The basic story line is about the wild and woolly efforts involved in establishing the motion picture industry.Entrepreneurs started filming and worried about the payroll later.The technology was dangerous.Indoor Klieg lights could easily start a fire, and made the actors' eyes very sore so that they could not shoot indoors every day.The film was highly combustible and had a short life if it didn't catch on fire.Thomas Edison led an effort to extract patent royalties on the motion picture technology, and Pinkerton "detectives" used violent tactics much like they did with labor union strikers.The technology was hard to use.You had to hand crank the camera at the right speed (singing She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes or Dixie at the proper tempo as you do) or the images convey nonsense.Few have any experience, and you just do your best.

The book opens near Mount Shasta in northern California where people of Russian immigrant parentage operate an ice business by cutting up blocks of a lake in the middle of winter.Dmitri Andreivitch Pulski, the owner's son, dreams of being a writer. He's supposed to be supervising the work teams, but he sneaks off to a shed to write in the quiet solitude.Unexpectedly, the company gets an order for their entire inventory of ice for delivery in two weeks to Los Angeles.Why would anyone need so much ice?Can they pay?Dmitri is sent to find out, taking along all of the family's money.The usually gentle giant, Yuri, a Russian immigrant who has a violent history, accompanies him.Their long drive to Los Angeles will change your view of what driving can be all about, as they constantly repair tires and replace the brake linings.

Once in Los Angeles, they discover the magic of the motion picture business.Instead of focusing on the ice sale, Dmitri renames himself as Tom Boston and gets a job as a scenario writer (even though he's never seen one).Yuri is encouraged to shave his beard and starts appearing in the company's westerns. In the meantime, Dmitri puts off telling his father what's going on.Even though the motion picture company is on the brink of financial ruin, Dmitri tells his father that the bill will be paid in advance.

What happens from there is an excitement-filled cliffhanger that will remind you a lot of the old silent films . . . interspaced with film noire detective stories from the 1930s.It's great fun though, and I highly recommend this book.

I rated the book down one star because the future vignettes, although interesting, don't really integrate with the plot all that well.If the vignettes had fit in better, this would have been a tremendous book.I kept comparing the book in my mind to Ragtime, and found this element to be an important flaw.

After you finish this book, consider where in your life taking action would be more important than necessarily taking the time to find out what you are doing first.Life saving of a small child in a pool might be such an example.

Get moving with your life!

Lights! Fire Bucket! Camera! Watch Crank Speed! Action!
The Rocky Mountain Moving Picture Association is above all a fascinating period piece that takes you into an unfamiliar world before refrigerators, modern film technology, reliable cars, and honest law enforcement. It's a time of silent movies featuring printed cards to help relate the story, and made more exciting by a piano player in the movie theater.And the price of admission is one nickel. Vignettes set at a later date are inserted to give you a sense of what's to come: how the pioneers fared; the rise of the studio system for making stars; and the effect of stars on society.

The basic story line is about the wild and woolly efforts involved in establishing the motion picture industry.Entrepreneurs started filming and worried about the payroll later.The technology was dangerous.Indoor Klieg lights could easily start a fire, and made the actors' eyes very sore so that they could not shoot indoors every day.The film was highly combustible and had a short life if it didn't catch on fire.Thomas Edison led an effort to extract patent royalties on the motion picture technology, and Pinkerton "detectives" used violent tactics much like they did with labor union strikers.The technology was hard to use.You had to hand crank the camera at the right speed (singing She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes or Dixie at the proper tempo as you do) or the images convey nonsense.Few have any experience, and you just do your best.

The book opens near Mount Shasta in northern California where people of Russian immigrant parentage operate an ice business by cutting up blocks of a lake in the middle of winter.Dmitri Andreivitch Pulski, the owner's son, dreams of being a writer. He's supposed to be supervising the work teams, but he sneaks off to a shed to write in the quiet solitude.Unexpectedly, the company gets an order for their entire inventory of ice for delivery in two weeks to Los Angeles.Why would anyone need so much ice?Can they pay?Dmitri is sent to find out, taking along all of the family's money.The usually gentle giant, Yuri, a Russian immigrant who has a violent history, accompanies him.Their long drive to Los Angeles will change your view of what driving can be all about, as they constantly repair tires and replace the brake linings.

Once in Los Angeles, they discover the magic of the motion picture business.Instead of focusing on the ice sale, Dmitri renames himself as Tom Boston and gets a job as a scenario writer (even though he's never seen one).Yuri is encouraged to shave his beard and starts appearing in the company's westerns. In the meantime, Dmitri puts off telling his father what's going on.Even though the motion picture company is on the brink of financial ruin, Dmitri tells his father that the bill will be paid in advance.

What happens from there is an excitement-filled cliffhanger that will remind you a lot of the old silent films . . . interspaced with film noire detective stories from the 1930s.It's great fun though, and I highly recommend this book.

I rated the book down one star because the future vignettes, although interesting, don't really integrate with the plot all that well.If the vignettes had fit in better, this would have been a tremendous book.I kept comparing the book in my mind to Ragtime, and found this element to be an important flaw.

After you finish this book, consider where in your life taking action would be more important than necessarily taking the time to find out what you are doing first.Life saving of a small child in a pool might be such an example.

Get moving with your life!

Very Good Book!
I learned so much about Hollywood in the 1900s and I actually cared about the characters. This is a fun quirky story and now I am a fan of Loren Estleman. ... Read more

Product Description
"Belker has distilled his 30 years of executive experience into a simple-to-read book whose sections are full of wisdom from which any manager can benefit. . . . Within each section, realistic management situations are discussed clearly and logically, and specific ways to handle problems are interspersed. . . . His advice is refreshingly straightforward."--Miami Herald.Amazon.com Review
In the working world, top performers are regularly rewardedwith promotions to management--whether they are prepared for theadvancement or not.Loren Belker's bestselling primer on supervisoryskills, The First-Time Manager, has long offered clear adviceon leadership, motivation, discipline, and other tricks of the tradethat are required of anyone in a supervisory position. Now in itsfourth edition, the book features 11 new chapters that add an evenmore contemporary slant to his proven recommendations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (31)

Good one for the beginners
This is a great book for the beginners on the management roles. Most of the examples are quite simple and one can relate to those. It's very easy to read. It will be a good one to read first, before moving on to management books of greater depth.

Very good resource for a first-time manager...
This is one of the better, more down-to-earth books I have read relating to first-time managers. It is an easy read... and most importantly offers a number of real-world tips.

rambling; avoid
The title and chapter titles make this book sound useful, but the contents belie the promise.Unfortunately, the text meanders around topics, defying the reader to learn.Instead of this book, read the well-organized, compelling _12: The Elements of Great Managing, by Wagner and Harter_.

A possible primer
First published in 1981 and written by Loren B. Belker, the current (5th) edition has been updated by Gary S. Topchik in 2005

I very much like the style in which the book is written - easy and conversational.I also like the complete absence of "management speak" which is such a rarity in many modern management books.The book is also written in a very positive tone - looking to help the manager to motivate, develop and get the best out of people rather than controlling them.

However, this book is an enigma.It has some great management truths, ideas and concepts that have stood the test of time, yet it falls down in how some of these can best be implemented.Three that I found difficulty with were the chapters on Recruitment, Managing Change and Performance Appraisals.

For example, in the chapter on Recruitment, the authors suggest that the most important point to keep in mind when recruiting someone, is to make sure they have the right attitude.Most people would agree with this, yet the three questions they suggest to use to test for "attitude", i.e.

- What did you like most about your last job?
- What did you like least about your last job?
- How do you feel about your last manager?

do not measure attitude. Unfortunately, neither do these type of question assess a person's ability to do the job for which they are applying.The authors do give examples of "right" and "wrong" answers which I found, particularly in the case of the "wrong" answers to be over simplistic and unlikely to be given by many applicants.

In some chapters there were also sample "speeches" (or "talks" as the authors call them) for various events such as when the new employee starts, the "Attitude Talk" or the "Improvement Seed" for discussing a person's poor performance.In any book this is a difficult concept to describe and get across.I think the authors could have improved these sample talks by giving more detail on their purpose, the key points to include (or avoid) and how to follow up these talks.

This book is a light read and may be a useful primer for a very new and inexperienced manager.However, it should be augmented with books that are just as practical, have more depth and have more "how to's" which are essential for people just starting out in management.

Bob Selden, author
What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

Good Thoughts
I bought this for my son who is a first time manager at a fast food chain of restaurants. He says it has helped him learn a lot and is putting the things in the book to good use with his team. He feels that he has learned a lot and will definately use what he has learned from this book. ... Read more

Product Description
From the three-time Golden Spur Award winner--the classic novel about Tombstone, Arizona...

"Pistol-hot...rawhide tough."--Kirkus Reviews

"Gritty and unwashed realism...a brutal showdown."--Elmer Kelton

"High drama...so real you can smell the horses."--Elmore Leonard

"Raw, realistic, myth exploding."--Booklist

*The gunfight at O.K. Corral is the ultimate Western adventure--and Estleman's novel is the definitive account

*Estleman is the author of This Old Bill, Journey of the Dead, Billy Gashade, and City of Widows

"High Drama... Estleman's account of events following the O.K. Corral gunfight is the best one I've ever read, by far."--Elmore Leonard ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Gunfight on Fremont Street
Bloody Season by Loren D. Estleman is one of the best fictional works out there that examine the famous fight at the OK Corral. Literate and deeply-researched the novel only really fails when it delves into modern day medical/forensic terminology to describe the wounds and trauma suffered by the participants.

On every other level this book is pretty solid and if you want a good gateway read into learning about this famous gunfight (which actually took place on Fremont Street and not the OK Corral) you could do a lot worse than Bloody Season.

Give it a peek.

Historical western
Estelman's "version" of what actually happened at the OK Corral is based on documented historical facts and what Estelman creates as far as his characters and their motivations -- the product is an excellent story that is just plain old enjoyable.

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD HOGWASH
This is undoubtedly the worst book ever written about the Earps and the OK Corral Gunfight. It could have been the best. Estleman was provided with the confidential files of the world's foremost Earp authority and chose to betray the trust that gained him access to them, which he had obtained by his statement: "If I do this story right, no one will ever have to set the Earps and Doc off down Fremont St. again. "RIGHT" IS THE KEY WORD IN THAT STATEMENT. BUT HE DIDN'T DO IT RIGHT, OR EVEN COME CLOSE. He did it wrong almost from the first scene, which famous "classical" Western writing Icon, Dick Wheeler characterized as a scene, "THAT WILL BLOW YOU AWAY." WHAT WILL BLOW ONE AWAY? WELL, THIS SCENE HAS THE DEATHLESS WORDS; "Doc Holliday was dying a little faster than usual." It takes place in Doc's room at Fly's boarding house in Tombstone where he is allegedly coughing up blood into the wash bowl and examining it. Unfortunately for RIGHT, Doc's TB was in arrest all the while he was in Tombstone. Loren doesn't miss another opportunity to blow us away by a reference in this same scene, to the night soil in Doc's (long john?) underwear, either, foretelling a litany of filth to follow.


This is a book full of references to stench and excrement, suggesting that the author is fascinated with filth and other things that repel most people, or is trying to appeal to the part of the public so afflicted, which he must assume is a majority.


In addition he may unconsciously reveal his own religious bias in slurs against Catholics characterized by a scene in an Ursuline nunnery where Doc Holliday's mistress Big Nose Kate, as a girl, is allegedly subjected to a lesbian rape by nuns. He doesn't fail to mention the smell of fish he thinks was involved. This is history? This is more filth and also evinces the obvious bigotry that got him widely attacked by Earp aficionados, and the family and friends of those on whom he attempted character assassination. The reaction included the Christian Science Monitor, where the editor who had published an initial favorable review (perhaps based on reading no more than the dust jacket) was aghast at the backlash, and published much of it.


This is a book that might better have been left in the word processor. Jeannie Williams, a longtime resident of Cochise County in which Tombstone is located, and noted for the depth of the research that characterizes her books on the West, took Estleman to task for his ignorance of the most fundamental aspects of the country - Estleman has the San Pedro River flowing south (thus uphill) the crash of gunfire from the famous gunfight echoes back from the Huachuca Mts. (35 miles away) the smoke from the Tombstone fire is seen in Prescott (200 miles away beyond several intervening mountain ranges) the last buffalo wanders up out of Mexico (buffalo never having been seen west of the Rio Grande some 160 miles east - and moreover the "last buffalo" scene is a direct steal from Moreton Frewen's "Melton Moray and Other Memories") an armadillo runs around the San Pedro River bottoms, (being native to Texas), cedar trees grow in Tombstone. As Tombstone's official historian Ben Traywick commented on that, "Holy Cow! He should have known better - he was here at least two hours."


Estleman's editor, Greg Tobin, pronounced Estleman "the real thing." He was obviously as ignorant as the readers victimized by this pap, being famous himself for writing in one of his own books, how Benito Juarez, president of Mexico, expressed concern for the fate of the Sacred Tilma (a Catholic sacred relic) ignorant of the fact that Juarez was rabidly anti-church.


Needless to say both Estleman and Tobin are lauded on their dust jackets as "meticulous researchers", a mantle so loosely conferred and so popular as to have given rise to the term: "Dust Jacket Historian."


I pity innocent readers who are roped in by this sort of garbage. As one Earp authority commented, "If he'd titled this book Seedy Bludgen" it would have come closer to the fact. A small publisher offered to turn it into a classic if ever reprinted, by inserting the subtitle: "An unconscious burlesque."


What can one say further? Well, maybe: "Save your time and money."


And if you're really interested in the Earps and Tombstone, read some of the earlier books, contributed to by the first hand knowledge of those who were there: Helldorado by Billy Breaknridge; Tombstone by Walter Noble Burns; Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal, by Stuart Lake; I Married Wyatt Earp, by Wyatt's widow; but for Heaven's sake don't read Frank Waters EARP BROTHERS OF TOMBSTONE, a fraud from the first word to the last. These books are all reviewed on Amazon, by the way. Read the reviews.

the bloody season by loren d. estleman
I have seen via film the ok corral story and have seen it slanted in goodguy badguy format.The film that came closer to the truth was the one called tombstone starring curt russel,val kilmer. By watching western history on the history channel i learned that there were no goodguys or badguys but a struglle for power.Wyatt earp wanted marshall Behan's job and made a quiet deal with the clanton's and mclourie's to help him catch johnnie ringo and curly bill brosus who had with the clantons/mclourie been robbing stage coaches and rustling cattle and horses,the deal fell through.The Clantonmclourie gang for fear of curly bill and johnnie ringo's gangs coming back on them decided to cover their tracks by picking a fight with the earps.They were over their heads against the earps who were true gunfighters.Despite the fact that the story is fiction,it transcends ficion.There are no cardboard characters in this story they are all flesh and blood charactersBig Nose Kate Elder ,Johnny Behan, and the most inigmatic is Wyatt Earp.If the scheme had have been sucessful, Wyatt Earp might have been able to unseat Marshall Behan.This story is spellbinding.Loren D estleman is a magician.

Clear distinctions
Of the hundreds of books written about Tombstone and the Arizona Territory during the times of the Clanton and Earps I'd give this one the highest marks.Although it's a fictionalized history, Estleman manages to capture several traits concerning the period I've never seen in non-fiction.

No US Territory during the 19th Century was exactly the shiny ideal we're tempted to assign to America. While the Tombstone marshals Earp faction were battling the Presidential appointed Territorial Governor appointed Sheriff Behan/Clanton faction in Territorial Arizona over who could seize power, steal the most cattle, rob the most stage-coaches loaded with silver from the nearby mines, similar events were happening in New Mexico and other Territories.Estleman re-creates the nature of this politically motivated war for raw power descended directly from Washington DC as few writers have managed to do.The author is also careful to explain to his readers where he's deviated from documented fact, such as in the details of conversations between the parties.

Estleman also avoids the pitfalls of so many writers by seeing a clear distinction between courage and heroism.Men willing to enthusiastically face other armed men in gun battles from a distance of a few feet are certainly in possession of fearlessness, or courage.In Tombstone, Arizona, such fearlessness was rife on both sides of the local war.The author succeeds in communicating the fact that such profound courage doesn't necessarily accompany virtue of any other sort.Tombstone was a war between brave men of ambition.The ground they fought for was profit and naked power.Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm giving this book five stars because of the eggs it breaks. ... Read more