Crime Scenes by Joseph S. Walker

A Review by John Larsen
(June 2026)

FOR THOSE who have not fallen down the rabbit hole of biographies, histories, and books on authoritarianism as I have, every once in awhile I happen across a work of fiction which just grabs me by the lapels in terms of quality. This book is CRIME SCENES by Joseph S. Walker. It is a collection of 20 short crime fiction stories first appearing in such magazines as Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and various small publications over the past 10 or 15 years.

I was unfamiliar with Walker’s work, but I check out this website from time to time and Walker’s first collection of short stories appeared to a favorable mention. I bought the book and it does not disappoint. The hard-boiled crime novels of Hammett, Chandler, and Cain (i.e., Double Indemnity) have always stood high in my estimation but I have been disappointed with more recent efforts by novelists who seek to recapture the tone of the earlier ground breakers. Too over the top and formulaic for my taste.

With Walker, however, the formula works just fine. In four stories, we are introduced to Tim Chadwick, a retired major crimes detective who spends his evenings in Heston’s bar nursing five drinks a night. His backstory is a little vague but we know that he lives on a police pension in a shabby one bedroom apartment in a marginal neighborhood. Heston sends people over to Chadwick’s table who introduce themselves by saying “Heston says you used to be a cop.”

Indeed he is. Despite his alcoholic life on the edge, Chadwick retains his law enforcement instincts and his memory for names, faces, and cases worked over his years on the force. They stand him in good stead as the cases unfold in this highly readable section.

Walker’s stories approach the hardboiled standard withoutseeming to do so. No wasted words yet he sucks you into the opaque crime world of seemingly normal people acting normally in morally complex and menacing situations. You stay for the plot twists where what you think you are seeing inevitably collides with the author’s version of reality at the end. The deft touch of a master written in a matter of fact tone. Walker was born in Peoria and is a lit professor in Indiana so perhaps there is a Midwestern sensibility creeping into the mix. Who can say?

In any event, I really liked Crime Scenes.

THE BOOK

• Crime Scenes (2026) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
  Twenty shotgun blasts of crime, including four featuring unlicensed PI Tim Chadwick.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Thrilling Detective Non-Fiction
  Essays, Reviews and Other Stuff

Respectfully submitted by John Larsen (June 2026)