Indigo by Loren D. Estleman

Published by Forge Books on July 28, 2020

I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all the books Loren D. Estleman has written. Indigo is the sixth novel in his Valentino, Film Detective series. I’ve dipped into and enjoyed his Amos Walker mysteries but this was my first exposure to Valentino.

Valentino tracks down lost motion pictures for the Film and Television Archive at UCLA. He’s also rehabilitating an old theater called The Oracle and lives in an apartment in the projection booth. His girlfriend, Harriet Johansen, is a forensic pathologist but she doesn’t have much of a role in this novel.

Among Valentino’s many friends is Ignacio Bozal, who made some money somewhere, then bought and restored a resort in Acapulco that made even more money before he showed up in Hollywood and began making generous contributions to the Film and Television Archive. Bozal gets Valentino interested in a Hollywood actor named Van Oliver who made one movie, a noir called Bleak Street. Insiders who saw Oliver work thought the realism he brought to the part was revolutionary. Bozal suggests that Oliver had a shady past that gave him insight into the behavior of gangsters. Oliver disappeared in 1957 and was widely presumed to have been murdered.

Bozal got his hands on the only surviving copy of Bleak Street. He gives it to Valentino, whose boss thinks the premiere will get huge press if Valentino can solve the mystery of Van Oliver’s disappearance. As the plot unfolds, Valentino discovers that multiple people for multiple reasons want Bleak Street to remain out of the public eye.

Indigo is a pleasant novel written in Estleman’s erudite prose style. Estleman’s investigation introduces the reader to a variety of credible characters, including gangsters, cops, and a Hollywood retiree who might have something of value to contribute if he has a lucid moment. The story misdirects, as a classic mystery should. The solution to the mystery caught me off guard, as a classic mystery should.

Indigo is, in short, the kind of book that should appeal to fans of classic mysteries. It isn’t a thriller — don’t expect shootouts or car chases — but it does create tension at key moments. Valentino is a bright, unassuming fellow whose knowledge of film trivia seems to be unparalleled. That makes Indigo a good choice for fans of film noir as well as fans of mysteries.

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