Michael Zinn Lewin is an American writer of mystery fiction primarily known for his series about Albert Samson, a distinctly low-keyed, non-hardboiled private detective who plies his trade from a modest walk-up apartment in Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis, Indiana

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

. Lewin himself grew up in Indianapolis, but after graduating from Harvard and living for a few years in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, 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 policeman who frequently appears in the Samson novels, generally in a semi-confrontational manner. He is the son of Leonard C. Lewin

Leonard C. Lewin

Leonard C. Lewin was an American writer, best known as the author of the bestseller The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace...

, author of the 1967 bestselling satire The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.

Albert Samson

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 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

Régional

Régional Compagnie Aérienne Européenne, or Régional for short, is a subsidiary airline wholly owned by Air France which connects hubs at Paris, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, and Bordeaux to 49 airports in Europe. The airline operates in Air France livery, retaining its name in small titles and logo on...

detectives in mystery fiction, as well as being one of the very first to appear in what is now a widespread genre.

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 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 Line, Morrow, New York, 1982
• Late Payments, Morrow, New York, 1986