He's Loren D. Estleman. Don't forget the "D" in his name. You wouldn't want to confuse him with all of the other Loren Estlemans who write mystery novels

The photo belongs to Deborah Morgan, his publicist, webmaster, and wife. She pens the Jeff Talbot mystery series. Don't ask me, I've never read 'em. I just snarfed the  photo from his web site and then massaged it in CorelPAINT.

You gotta hand it to Estleman. No leather jacket and is pretty equanimous about taking an uppercut from someone off-camera.

He and Robert Crais are the electron and positron of mystery writers. Where Crais attended the Clarion Workshop and started writing for "Hill Street Blues," Estleman began writing and sending out his work when he was 15. He collected 160 rejection letters before his first sale. Crais lives in LA, Estleman in Michigan where he pounds out his novels on a manual typewriter.

Estleman earned a B.A. degree in English Literature and Journalism from Eastern Michigan University in 1974. That could put his birth year around 1952.

Most of Estleman's work is split between Westerns and Mysteries. His Pete Maklin series follows a professional hit-man and his Page Murdock novels recount the exploits of a western lawman in the 19th Century.

It's his Amos Walker novels that put him squarely in the hard-boiled PI genre.

Whatever you do Mr. Fawlty, don't mention his store-bought hair!

Motor City Blue
© 1980