A few weeks ago I checked Black and White Ball by Loren D. Estleman out of the library and finally got around to reading it. It’s book #27 in the Amos Walker series. For reference, the first Amos Walker novel, Motor City Blue, was published in 1986 — and it was the very first entry in my Book Lovers Journal in 1987! The most recent Walker novel is City Walls (#31), released in 2023, so I clearly have catching up to do.
Between 1987 and 1991 I read 8 of the first 10 Walker books. Then I didn’t pick up the series again until 2012, when I read #20, The Left-Handed Dollar. Next came #12, The Witchfinder, in 2022. So when I grabbed Black and White Ball (#27), I’d read 10 of the earlier books and none of #27–31. Honestly, until a few years ago I didn’t realize Estleman had taken the series that far. Now that I do, the TBR pile just grew.
Black and White Ball (Amos Walker #27)
The book reminded me quickly why I like this series: reading an Amos Walker novel feels like catching up with an old friend. The setup: Amos is hired by an old flame to track her cheating husband, who has also skimmed $600,000 from his company. Walker traces him to Canada. While Amos is trying to confirm the couple’s room number, a woman screams. By the time he reaches the room, the husband is dead and the window is open — the killer apparently gone.
After the police interrogation, Amos is told the hit was the work of professional killer Peter Macklin. Soon after, Macklin “introduces” himself by pressing a gun into the back of Amos’s neck from the backseat of Walker’s car. Macklin, in the middle of a divorce, has received a photo of his wife with a note demanding $100,000 — or she dies. He hires Amos to keep her safe. The threat comes from another hit man Macklin knows all too well.
My Thoughts (with Spoilers — at least I think they would be)
Reuniting with Old Friends
Reading Estleman’s Amos Walker always feels like traveling back in time to meet an old friend. Here, it’s like meeting two: Walker and Peter Macklin. Estleman brings them together for the first time in this novel. While Amos has anchored 30+ books, Macklin has headlined only a handful; I’ve read one — Roses Are Dead.
Walker Meets Macklin
Their paths cross at the Cabot Lodge in Toronto, where Amos arrives to help his client’s husband, Guy Lennert. The killer is Peter Macklin. Soon after, Macklin — facing a pending divorce — receives a note and photo of his second wife: pay $100,000 or she dies. He wants Walker to protect her. The twist? The would-be assassin is Macklin’s own son, Roger — a hitman like his father, but with a very different motivation.
A Killer’s Code and a Detective’s Morality
This puts ex-cop PI Amos Walker in a bind. He’s spent a career chasing men like Macklin, and now he has to help one. But saving a life means more to Walker than sticking rigidly to his personal code. Macklin, for his part, follows a cold professional ethic — not admirable, exactly, but consistent. The friction between Walker’s decency and Macklin’s “code” gives the story its moral backbone.
Family, Hatred, and Inherited Violence
There’s also a generational angle: how criminality — and hatred — gets passed down. Roger isn’t driven by the detached professionalism that defines his father; he’s fueled by resentment. That difference matters. It shifts the stakes from a tidy noir chess match to something more volatile and personal.
Shades of Gray
The title Black and White Ball is a neat bit of irony. Neither Walker nor Macklin operates in purely black-and-white terms. They both move through gray areas — different grays, for sure — and that moral complexity is what elevates this book beyond a standard cat-and-mouse.
The Bottom Line
Black and White Ball is a strong addition to the Amos Walker series. It works as a brisk thriller, but it also wrestles with ethics, loyalty, and family damage — which makes it linger. If you’re dipping into Walker again (or for the first time), this is a rewarding stop.
About Loren D. Estelman
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker. Wikipedia
Born: 1952 (age 73 years), Ann Arbor, MI
Partner: Deborah Morgan (1993–)
Awards: Spur Award for Best Western Novel · See more
