Where is Estleman, anyway?

Typically, he's at his
1950 manual typewriter
working on the next novel.
Otherwise, look for him at these events:

[2009]
May 28
7:00 PM
Interviewing Elmore Leonard
and Peter Leonard
at Ann Arbor, MI Library
in conjunction with
Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore

June 16-20
Western Writers of America Convention
Oklahoma City, OK

October 15-18
Bouchercon World Mystery Con
Indianapolis, IN

November 19
6:00 PM
Speak and Sign, Northfield Township Historical Society at
St. Patrick's Church Social Hall
Whitmore Lake, MI

December 12
1:30 PM
Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore
Ann Arbor, MI

[2010]

January 31
2:00 PM
Speak and Sign with David Geherin about Dashiell Hammett,
Howell Carnegie Library
Howell, MI

March 25
7:30-9:00 PM
Speak and sign as part of
The Big Read
Ferndale Public Library
Ferndale, MI



June 23-27
Western Writers of America Convention
Knoxville, TN

Who is Estleman?

Interested in more about the
man behind the words?
CLICK

What does
Estleman write?

MYSTERIES
AMOS WALKER SERIES
VALENTINO SERIES
PETER MACKLIN SERIES
DETROIT CRIME SERIES
OTHER CRIME FICTION

WESTERNS
PAGE MURDOCK SERIES
STAND-ALONE HISTORICAL
WESTERNS

OTHER WORKS
NONFICTION

What else can be found on this site?

AWARDS
LIST OF WHAT WON WHICH

BOOKS
COMPREHENSIVE LIST

SPATTERS
BITS & PIECES

    Shamus-winner Estleman's captivating second mystery to feature L.A. film detective Valentino (after 2008's Frames) focuses on legendary screen actress Greta Garbo. In 2005, Matthew Rankin, an elderly department store mogul whose late wife was a close friend of Garbo's, hosts a party honoring the 100th anniversary of Garbo's birth at his Beverly Hills mansion. During the party, Rankin offers to donate a copy of a rare promotional film that Garbo made when she was a salesgirl in Sweden, How Not to Dress, to the UCLA Film Preservation Department if Valentino will dig up dirt on Roger Akers, the tycoon's assistant, who's been blackmailing him. A few days later, Valentino walks into Rankin's study to find the mogul holding a smoking gun and Akers lying dead in front of his desk. Rankin claims he shot Akers in self-defense. Is Rankin telling the truth? Readers will eagerly turn the pages to learn the answer. (Dec.)

Kirkus

Once upon a time,
silver-screen siren Greta Garbo could drive men to homicide.
So what else is new?

Valentino (he's secretive about his first name) adores old movies and, lucky him, earns his bread by tracking them down for the Department of Film Preservation at UCLA. At the moment, however, he's feeling less than lucky because he's immersed in three simultaneous love affairs and a related case of heartburn. The first is with Garbo, star of stars. Cineastes know that she made her debut at 16 in a promotional film for a Swedish retailer; Garbo-besotted Val palpitates at the hope of getting his hands on this treasure. Second is the Oracle. In its heyday a byword for movie-palace opulence, it's now a derelict money pit for Val, blinkered by passion, who's about to go broke attempting to restore it. Lovely, smart, funny Harriet Johansen deserves a ranking higher than third, but she doesn't get it because Val is clueless about living, breathing women. Obviously, life has become an existential conundrum for our hero even before he finds himself up to his eyeballs in the Garbo-related murder of a slimy no-good named Roger Akers. Who cares who killed Roger Akers? Suddenly, Val has to.

Second in a series that marks a pleasant departure for the estimable Estleman (Frames, 2008, etc.), who's spent most of his 60-plus novels on the dark side.

Booklist

The second in the prolific Estleman’s newest series starring UCLA film archivist and sometime sleuth Valentino lives up to the promise of the debut (Frames, 2008). This time out Valentino is trying to save his pet project, remodeling and reopening a run-down movie palace, from being stalled indefinitely, thanks to
a corrupt building inspector. Meanwhile, he becomes involved in yet another film-history-inspired murder.
An aging business tycoon has shot his assistant, whom the tycoon claims was blackmailing him over what seems to be a love letter from Greta Garbo to his ex-wife. Valentino’s archivist nose is twitching madly at the thought of getting possession of that letter, but to do so means compromising all sorts of things, not the least of which is his relationship with his girlfriend, Harriet, an LAPD forensic analyst. Estleman again ladles on the film history but nicely blends it into the plot. And his supporting cast, including the eccentric Professor Broadbent, supplies delicious comic relief. For anyone with an interest in Hollywood’s Golden Age, this series is a delight. — Bill Ott

April 2008:

FRAMES


THE FILM BUSINESS IS TOUGH.
FOR VALENTINO, IT'S MURDER.
First in a new novel series featuring
L.A. film archivist Valentino!

Publishers Weekly Review:

     Prolific western and mystery writer Estleman (The Branch and the Scaffold) combines the best of both in his 43rd novel, an exciting western loaded with intrigue, suspense, and clever plot twists. Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock is sent to Texas in 1884 to capture a gang of armed robbers. The wrinkle is that Murdock must go disguised as a traveling preacher, toting a Bible in one hand and a pistol in the other. Murdock gets a less than pious crash course of instruction from a defrocked priest and a wily evangelist, then assumes the role of Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth. Whiskey-drinking Murdock isn't exactly suited for the clergy, and his cover begins to unravel when he meets a former lady friend, a sheep rancher with a touchy history, and a stone-cold Texas Ranger. A series of ambushes and deaths build to a churchly gun battle where everybody is throwing lead and dropping dead. This is one of Estleman's best, a smart, tightly wrapped story about an honest lawman who drinks Old Forester and knows the difference between a Presbyterian and a Unitarian. (Jan.)