A writer whose career has spanned just over a quarter of a century and has taken in several genres, including Westerns and historical fiction, Loren D. Estleman is probably best known for his crime novels, most of which have featured private eye Amos Walker. If this amiable, world-weary investigator is the star of the show, then worthy of equal billing is the city of Detroit, the setting for all his adventures. Memorably described by Estleman, with a mixture of affection, cynicism and disenchantment, as 'the place where the American dream stalled and sat rusting in the rain', the Motor City is Walker's beat and he prowls its crumbling, oil-slicked streets as ably as Philip Marlowe patrolled the sunlit hills and boulevards of Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles.

In Downriver, Walker is hired by Richard DeVries, a black man just released from prison, having served twenty years for arson and robbing an armored car during the riots of 1967. He claims that he was framed for a murder that was committed during the robbery and that he is now due the $200,000 that was never found after the heist, convincing Walker that he has earned his right to the money: 'I paid for it and now it's mine.' One of the men DeVries wants was a so-called revolutionary and the one who urged him to throw the firebomb during the riot, but who has since become a hotshot automobile executive, with a glamorous ex-wife and a lot of reasons for wanting to keep hidden the violent events of two decades ago. Before long, Walker is up to his neck in trouble as he starts to uncover some very nasty secrets. Witty, exciting and laced with fast-paced action and some of the crispest dialogue around, Downriver is Estleman at his best, which is pretty damn good.

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