978-1-956474-93-0
Pub Date: September 15, 2026
Author: Olaf Kroneman
July, 1967: Detroit is burning but the Tigers keep playing.
Dr. Matt Drummond starts his internship at the city morgue. Forty- three dead; the three at the Algiers deliberate murders.
As an intern, Matt sees the results of racism, interprofessional medical violence, gunshot wounds, criminal abortions, and neglect. He wants to help the community, but is framed for an illegal abortion death. As Matt goes on the run, pursued by Detroit Homicide, he turns to the Detroit underworld for help.
1968 becomes apocalyptic. And the Tigers keep playing.
“Fast-moving and captures the soul of Detroit at a pivotal point in history. If you like James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard, you’ll love this book by a writer who has all the makings to be the heir to these two masters.”
—Andrew Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine
“Detroit Heroic, Olaf Kroneman’s ballsy and hilarious hard-boiled novel, follows a young doctor trying to survive in my Motor City hometown right after the 1967 riots.Recalling the shady characters of Damon Runyon and Dutch Leonard, a dazzling debut.”
—Susan Shapiro, bestselling author of Unhooked and The Forgiveness Tour
“Olaf Kroneman takes us back to one of Detroit’s most fascinating chapters, capturing the injustice, heartache and yet unfailing hopefulness of the time. The colorful characters that typify our great city are peppered throughout, in the spirit of Leonard and Estelman. Detroit Heroic is a must-read.”
—Guy Gordon, legendary Detroit radio and television personality and historian
“Was it easy to practice medicine in the midst of the race riots in Detroit some sixty years ago? It was not. And Olaf Kroneman’s Detroit Heroic explores the America back then that foreshadowed today’s Trump-era America: tense, angry, unsettling—loaded with conflicts that make for courageous, fast-paced, thought-provoking storytelling.”
—Mark Wish, founding editor of Coolest American Stories
“As a 15-year-old living on the outskirts of Detroit in 1967, I can still remember the smell of smoke from the riots as well and still see the National Guard vehicles rumbling along the main streets. Dr. Olaf Kroneman brings to life those tumultuous five days in late July that changed the landscape of the City of Detroit forever.”
—Dr. Frank Pollina, president of Great Lake Physiatry
Dr. Olaf Kroneman III, MD, is a highly experienced nephrologist practicing for more than 45 years in the Detroit metropolitan area. He graduated with his medical degree from the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine in 1977. Dr. Kroneman then completed an internship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, followed by a residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Further specializing his training, he completed a clinical-research fellowship in nephrology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Board-certified in both internal medicine and nephrology by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Dr. Kroneman serves as a Medical Director at the Southeastern Michigan Kidney Center. Detroit Heroic is his debut novel. 
