Michael Z. Lewin
Michael Zinn Lewin (born 1942, Springfield, Massachusetts) is an American writer of mystery fiction primarily known for his series about Albert Samson, a distinctly non-hardboiled private detective who plies his trade from a modest walk-up apartment in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lewin himself grew up in Indianapolis, but after graduating from Harvard and living for a few years in New York City, has lived in England for the last 40 years. Most of his fiction, however, continues to be set in Indianapolis, including a secondary series about Leroy Powder, a black policeman who frequently appears in the Samson novels, generally in a semi-confrontational manner. The Samson stories are told in the breezy first-person narrative form typical of private-eye novels and are witty, off-beat for both their plotting and their somewhat unusual setting, as well as for the somewhat off-beat personal life that Samson leads with his mother and a long-time but nameless girlfriend whom he refers to as "my woman". Although the stories start off in modest, understated fashion about seemingly trivial domestic matters, they eventually escalate to scenes of startling violence. Of major importance in the stories is the locale itself, the city of Indianapolis and its surrounding countryside, and Samson is certainly one of the most important of the regional detectives in mystery fiction, as well as being one of the very first to appear in what is now a widespread genre.
Indianapolis novels
Books that take place in Indiana
Albert Samson novels
- Ask the Right Question, Putnam, New York, 1971
- The Way We Die Now, Putnam, New York, 1973
- The Enemies Within, Knopf, New York, 1974
- The Silent Salesman, Knopf, New York, 1978
- Missing Woman, Knopf, New York, 1981
- Out of Season, Morrow, New York, 1984; British edition, Out of Time
- Called by a Panther, Mysterious Press, New York, 1991
- Eye Opener, Five Star 2004
Leroy Powder novels
NIGHT COVER 1976 Knopf
HARD LINE 1982 Morrow
LATE PAYMENTS 1986 Morrow