Frank Carlson Library

Joseph Michael Ballista - "Joey Ballistic" to his mob buddies - knows most of the ways to make an illegal buck, and he's in trouble again. But his crafty lawyer is determined to free him by getting all his previous convictions set aside, beginning with one for attempted murder. She hires Detroit private detective Amos Walker to investigate the old crime. Walker's first problem? The intended victim was Barry Stackpole, his only true friend.

A Detroit mob war draws Peter Macklin back into his old life as a Mafia assassin in award-winning author Loren D. Estleman's riveting hard-boiled thriller   The Reverend Thomas Aquinas Sunsmith is halfway through his sermon when killers open fire. He is preaching against the evils of gambling, which a cartel of mobsters is trying to legalize in Detroit. The hail of gunfire misses the reverend, but a choir member is cut down-the first victim in the...

Investigating the disappearance of a woman whose demise may be linked to the mafia and an illicit pornography studio, private investigator Amos Walker is confronted by two Mossad agents who make him realize that the case is more sinister than anticipated.

Hollywood film detective and film archivist Valentino becomes embroiled in the murder of a blackmailer in this wacky comedic murder romp.

Struggling Detroit car maker Henry Ford is saved from bankruptcy by a manufacturer of horse carriages. A rare visionary, Harlan Crownover sees the potential of a horseless carriage and when the banks refuse investment money, he obtains it from the Mafia.

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...

In Loren D. Estleman's hardboiled American Detective, Amos Walker returns for his nineteenth outing in his most challenging case yet. Ex-Detroit Tigers pitcher Darius Fuller wants Walker to break off his daughter's engagement to Hilary Bairn, a man he believes is after her two million dollar trust. Walker goes to Bairn's apartment, only to be ambushed by cops. A murder has taken place, and the victim is Fuller's daughter. Walker and the cops assume...

"Valentino, a mild-mannered film archivist at UCLA and sometime film detective, is at the closing party for the Red Montana and Dixie Day museum when he is approached by no less than his hero and man-of-the-hour Red Montana, western film and television star. Red tells Valentino that he is being blackmailed over the existence of a blue film that his wife, now known throughout the world as the wholesome Dixie Day and the other half of the Montana/Day...

"Film detective Valentino is summoned to the estate of Ignacio Bozel to collect a prized donation to the university's movie library: Bleak Street, a film from the classic noir period, thought lost for more than sixty years. Bleak Street was never released. Its star, Van Oliver, a gifted and charismatic actor with alleged ties to the mob, disappeared while the project was in post-production, presumably murdered by gangland rivals: another one of Hollywood's...

"City Walls, the next Amos Walker novel from a Grand Master. "Loren D. Estleman is my hero."--Harlan Coben The search for a fugitive embezzler leads Amos Walker to Cleveland, where he is hired by Emmett Yale, a leading figure in the electric car industry, to investigate the murder of his stepson. Yale believes that his stepson's hitman is connected to Clare Strickling, a former employee, and his attempts to silence whispers that he has bought illegal...