Background
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.
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.
Harvard University.
Much of his fiction continues to be set in Indianapolis, including a secondary series about Leroy Powder, a policeman who frequently appears in the Samson novels, generally in a semi-confrontational manner. Another series, however, is set in Bath, England, where Lewin now lives. This features the Lunghis who run their detective agency as a family business.
So far there are three novels and nine short stories about them.
Lewin has also written a number of stand-alone novels. Some have been set in Indianapolis and others elsewhere.
His latest novel, Confessions of a Discontented Deity, is even set partly in Heaven. A satire, it breaks from Lewin"s history of genre fiction.
Lewin is the son of Leonard C. Lewin, author of the 1967 bestselling satire The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.
Much more information is available on Lewin"s website, www.MichaelZLewin.com The Samson stories are told in the breezy first-person narrative form typical of private-eye novels. They are witty and somewhat off-beat, both for their plotting and their somewhat unusual setting, as well as for the sharply drawn relationships that Samson has with his mother, who owns a diner, and with his long-time but nameless girlfriend, whom he refers to only as "my woman". He eschews whiskey and chasing women in the manner characteristic of his fictional confrères, does not own a gun, makes modest, non-gourmet meals for himself from cans, and shoots hoops in the park as a recreation.
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. As well as the novels there are currently five short stories featuring Books that take place in Indiana 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 title: Out of Time, Oldcastle Books, 1984 Called by a Panther, Mysterious Press, New York, 1991 Eye Opener, Five Star, 2004 Leroy Powder novels Night Cover, Knopf, New York, 1976 Hard Lincolnshire, Morrow, New York, 1982 – 1988 Maltese Falcon Award, Japan Late Payments, Morrow, New York, 1986 Non-series Outside In, Knopf, New York, 1980 And Baby Will Fall, Morrow, New York, 1988 Underdog, Mysterious Press, New York, 1993 Oh Joe, Five Star, 2008.