Michael Z. Lewin

EYE OPENER
Back in CALLED BY A PANTHER Albert Samson lost his licence to be a private detective. It happened because he failed to be as cooperative with the police - in the person of his high school friend Jerry Miller - as the police thought he should be. It's taken him years to be reinstated.

The intervening years have been dark ones for Albert. But he's also realized just how important working as a detective is to him. He doesn't feel complete doing anything else. So that's why he's persevered and, finally, he is back in business.

But now that the cloud has lifted he begins to see that things have been going on with his nearest and dearest that he didn't notice, or appreciate. Why is a neighbor kneeling to his mother? Why is his daughter, Sam, doing nothing for her future. And as for the woman who's been his "woman friend" in all the previous books... Well!

Well indeed. But it's also a time for him to apply himself to getting back to work, getting some clients. First things first: turn on the neon sign that advertises his wares to the passing public. But the sign has suffered in the intervening years too - it's pictured on the cover of the book.

And when he finally does get a case it's working for the defence on a case Jerry Miller cracked. What is that about...?

TAKE-OUTS
On this CD, Liza Cody, Peter Lovesey and I talk about how we started writing mysteries, how we started touring, read two new stories and all sing. Devised to accompany our "Wanted for Murder" tours, TAKE-OUTS is a unique item and - generous people have told us - an entertaining one. There aren't many left. Go the the Events page on this site for more information, including how to order.

THE RELUCTANT DETECTIVE and Other Stories
Crippen & Landru, 2001

This collection includes two stories that were nominated for Edgars, as well as a Leroy Powder story, all six Lunghi family stories, and the two stories I've published in which Dan Quayle is the crime-buster. There are long stories, short stories... There's even one new story - "Mr Hard Man."

But in the book I've also given my best shot to creaing a full bibliography of my crime publications through 2001. There are notes on the stories, as well as an introduction that describes how I got into writing, crime writing, and short stories.

FAMILY PLANNING
St Martin's (NY) 1999

Three generations of an Italian family work in their family business - a private detective agency in Bath, England. And where does a lot of the work get done? Over big family dinners, of course.

I started writing about the Lunghis in short stories, but they grew on me and into the novel preceeding this one, FAMILY BUSINESS. The existing short stories about them are collected in THE RELUCTANT DETECTIVE.

HARD LINE
Foul Play, 1996

Leroy Powder was the second of my major Indianapolis characters. In this book - as the other Powders - many characters originally introduced in other Indy novels also appear. This novel won the "Falcon" for "Best Foreign Novel" in 1987 in Japan.

LATE PAYMENTS is the third of the Powder novels. It was also published by Foul Play in 1996.

CUTTING LOOSE
Holt, 1999.

I wrote the book exactly as I'd write any other book, but the fact that a young woman is the central character encouraged Holt to publish it as a Young Adult book (NB those 5 star reviews on Amazon...)

It is set between the years of 1826 and 1895 and the action occurs in many parts of the US, in London, and on the high seas in between.

ROVER'S TALES
With illustrations by Karen Wallis

St Martin's published the book but there is also an anabridged audio version (read by the author)is available from Blackstone Audiobooks.

Rover is a stray dog who narrates these thirty-eight very short stories. They describe his activities and adventures wandering in a city one summer.

UNDERDOG
Mysterious.

Jan Moro, is what we might call homeless. But he doesn’t think of himself that way. He thinks he's simply as an entrepreneur who travels light – free of the encumbrances of mortgages and house repairs and taxes the rest of it. But he's also a man for whom stories are important. He deals with the world through the stories he hears and the stories he tells. Kinda like a writer, I'd say...

An Indianapolis novel, several of my previous serious characters make appearances during the course of the story.