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1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

It's 1966 and Detroit has entered its Golden Age. America throbs to the throaty rumble of Motor City's powerful road-eating machines. It'll never be this good again, and Big Auto is fighting to keep it that way. Ex-cop Ricky Amery is hired to go undercover to put the brakes on runaway consumer advocacy that would legislate Detroit right out of business. They couldn't have chosen a more loyal disciple. Amery's god is horsepower, and his house of worship is the open road.

Meanwhile, the rattle of automatic weapons fire sweeps the streets as the mob fights a rear-guard action against a union president and the ruthless street gangs that rule the black community, led by Quincy Springfield. It's in the middle of this free-fire zone that Amery finds himself paying the price for his obsession with four-wheeled thunder. Will he sell himself out? Or will he drop a match in a high-octane blend of race, violence, greed, and corruption?

The city has reached critical mass, and there's no time for decline and fall. When Detroit blows, she's going in a mushroom cloud—every bloodstained block, all at once.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 29, 1991
      The second installment of Estleman's Detroit trilogy ( Whiskey River ) is terrific: fast, intricate and often funny. Choreographing the movements leading to the August 1966 Detroit riots, Estleman focuses on three main characters: Rick Amery, an ex-cop hired to spy on a Ralph Nader-like consumer advocate; inspector Lew Canada, trying to prevent a war between the Mafia and black gangs, and a likely race riot; and Quincy Springfield, numbers racketeer and ``blind pig'' (after-hours club) operator. But the author does not stint on minor characters, and they, too, leap off the page. A crippled mob boss resolves to oust ``the coloreds'' from the rackets while his exiled father schemes to reclaim the family business; there's also a retired newsman right off The Front Page , plus a Jimmy Hoffa-type labor leader. Set pieces are no less than stunning, notably a publicity stunt to embarrass GM chairman James Roche, and a big black funeral. Period details work wonderfully as well: the clothes, cars, songs, political references, even the price of lamb chops at the A & P are right on the money.

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  • English

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