My Kindle Unlimited subscription expires this week, which is kind of disappointing because that’s how I’ve discovered Dennis Lynds’ (aka Michael Collins’) Dan Fortune series. These books are so much fun. And because they never found new life the way many old school pulp writers did through Black Lizard or Mysterious Press, they’re difficult to find in stores. I can get ’em from the library but it’s not the same as having another series to hunt for in used book palaces.
At any rate, this is another good entry in the series. Collins was obviously motivated by the works of the Lew Archer series, he even gave Kenneth Millar a shoutout here, likely as a thanks to Millar blurbing his first book. This is about as close to a decent Archer substitute as you can get. In the first book, Collins gave Dan Fortune a lot of back story and personal time. Here, he acts the way Archer often does: you get some internal monologue but not a lot and you get scenes in the office but nothing deeply personal. And the mystery itself is an Archer tale to its core: a rich family with a shady past and an uncertain future.
Collins is no Macdonald but he knows how to create a mystery with compelling characters. Even though I wasn’t surprised at the resolutions, I still felt empathy for the characters, which is a quality I appreciate in a mystery writer. I hope to get to more of these books.