Loren D. Estleman (born September 15, 1952, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker.

Life and work

Estleman graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1974 with a BA in English and journalism. In 2002, Eastern Michigan University presented him with an honorary doctorate in humane letters. He married the mystery writer Deborah Morgan in 1993. He writes with a manual typewriter. Estleman published his first novel, The Oklahoma Punk, in 1976, and published the first of his P.I. Amos Walker series, for which he is best known, in 1980. Other series center on Old West marshal Page Murdock and hitman Peter Macklin. He has also written a series of novels about the history of crime in Detroit (also the setting of his Walker books), and a more recent series about Valentino, who tracks down lost films, and crimes related to them. His non-series works include Bloody Season, a fictional recreation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and several novels and stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, as well as contributions to several books on how to write and sell stories and novels. Estleman's literary works have been recognized and highlighted by Michigan State University in their Michigan Writers Series. Estleman's Amos Walker stories occasionally acknowledge fellow Detroit P.I. Ben Perkins, created by Rob Kantner, and Kantner has done the same.

Amos Walker novels

Amos Walker short-story collections

Other books

Western novels

see also under Contributions to collections, below

Page Murdock

Sherlock Holmes

see also under Contributions to collections, below

Peter Macklin

The Detroit novels

The Detroit series sets out "to tell the story of America in the twentieth century through the microcosm of Detroit, the one city whose history mirrors precisely the history of the United States of America". Given its historical fiction nature, the series is often given "in order of chronology rather than date of publication: Thunder City (1900–1910); Whiskey River (1928–1939); Jitterbug (1943); Edsel (1951–1959); Motown (1966); Stress (1973); and King of the Corner (1990)".

Valentino, film detective

Other

Story collections

Contributions to collections

Estleman's short stories have been collected in a variety of anthologies, including both western and crime collections:

Non-fiction

Awards

Estleman has won many awards for his writing including American Mystery Awards, Golden Spurs, and three Western Heritage Awards. He has been honored by the Michigan Foundation of the Arts and the Michigan Library Association.

Wins

Nominations