Comment

Apr 06, 2017
Maybe it’s inevitable that even the best mystery franchises can eventually lose their vigor. John Harvey, Henning Mankell, and Graham Hurley all found ways to retire their weary heroes before that happened. It’s looking like Loren Estleman should have done the same for Amos Walker a few books ago. Estleman has been one of the best stylists in the genre, with Walker’s wisecracking narrative as icing on the cake of solid plotting and action. This unlikely story seems to have been pasted together solely to provide a rickety stage for what on its own is a tired vaudeville routine. When I realized that the melodramatic “Moriarty” character of Madame Sing was being dusted off, this became the first of the series I didn’t bother finishing.