Nicotine Kiss
An Amos Walker Novel
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
In this installment of Loren Estleman's signature PI series, Amos Walker, the quintessential hard-boiled detective, proves that he's mortal after all. Jeff Starzek, an old friend who smuggles cigarettes for a living, saves Walker's life, getting him to the hospital after he's taken a bullet in the leg. A month later, still convalescing, Walker gets a panicked phone call from Starzek's sister. Jeff is missing. One of the few leads is a Homeland Security agent who's after Starzek, in connection with a counterfeiting operation that may have terrorist ties.
Though Walker doubts Starzek is a terrorist, he finds treasury paper at a church run by Starzek's brother. Then Starzek's brother disappears too. Back to square one, Walker follows his best hunch, driving Starzek's usual cigarette route along the Lake Huron shore, and finally gets a solid lead on the paper hangers. But before Walker can break the case, someone tries to shoot him—and he's accused of murder. Walker will need all of his intestinal fortitude, injured leg notwithstanding, to stay alive long enough to figure out who's doing what to whom, in time to save his friend, in Nicotine Kiss.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Amos Walker, Estleman's hard-boiled Detroit PI, shows no sign of losing steam in the 18th novel in this Shamus Award-winning series (Retro, etc.). When a routine job tracing a deadbeat dad turns violent, Walker's life is saved by Jeff Starzek, an acquaintance on the wrong side of the law. That act of kindness eventually involves the detective in a murky, twisty inquiry into Starzek's disappearance. The trail leads Walker to a cold, desolate area near Lake Huron and the bizarre Church of the Inland Sea, an evangelical house of worship marked by images of the martyred St. Sebastian. Evidence turns up suggesting that Starzek has moved from smuggling cigarettes to working with a terrorist counterfeiting ring. Unlike many other authors, Estleman successfully introduces a topical post-9/11 plot line into his creation's world. No current writer has consistently evoked Chandler and Marlowe like Estleman, whose steady if unflashy work has yet to gain him the plaudits or name recognition he deserves.
