Fortune's World

Dan Fortune #19

by Michael Collins

The world of one-armed private investigator Dan Fortune is filled with danger, deceit and striking contrasts. The 14 stories in Fortune's World range from the mean streets of New York City's Chelsea district, to the bleak winter world of Syracuse, New York, to sunny and sometimes violent South America, to Santa Barbara, California, where Fortune now has his office. And the contrasts are not only in the settings, for Michael Collins is aware of the inequities in modern society, and his stories are dominated by a social conscience rare in popular literature. Fortune's World contains all the previous uncollected Dan Fortune short stories as well as a new story written especially for this volume. The introduction is by Professor Richard Carpenter, and the book concludes with a complete checklist of Dan Fortune novels and short stories.

250 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Michael Collins was a Pseudonym of Dennis Lynds (1924–2005), a renowned author of mystery fiction. Raised in New York City, he earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart during World War II, before returning to New York to become a magazine editor. He published his first book, a war novel called Combat Soldier, in 1962, before moving to California to write for television.

Two years later Collins published the Edgar Award–winning Act of Fear (1967), which introduced his best-known character: the one-armed private detective Dan Fortune. The Fortune series would last for more than a dozen novels, spanning three decades, and is credited with marking a more politically aware era in private-eye fiction. Besides the Fortune novels, the incredibly prolific Collins wrote science fiction, literary fiction, and several other mystery series. He died in Santa Barbara in 2005.

Reviews

[Tom Pepper · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of stories from the seventies to 2000. Dan Fortune is probably the most radical-thinking detective in the genre. I don't think I've ever read another detective story where it was suggested that capitalism itself was at the root of the crime--and Fortune (and Collins) say just that. These stories engage issues from homophobia and racism to economic blight, abortions rights, and Alzheimer's. Probably too leftist and too engaged with reality to be really popular, but great stories in the private eye tradition.

If only some producer would make a tv show out of the Dan Fortune stories and novels. I can imagine a sort of present day Fortune, looking back on his career with Kay, and episodes jumping from decade to decade...then maybe a bigger audience would discover Collins.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Collins' creation, the one-armed detective Dan Fortune, is one of the most credible detectives who have walked down the mean street of crime and retribution. In these 14 stories Fortune ostensibly solves mysteries concerning murders, suicides and missing persons. But in reality, the stories are concerned with the human pathos and longing, sometimes dealing with explosively charged themes as in "Angel Eyes" that make the stories very-very special in the pantheon of crime literature. This book is recommended to all lovers of mysteries who perfer to have solid stories with strong prtagonists marked by the subtle flavour of life rather than with liberal sprinklings of blood & sex.

[Jerry Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply the best collection I have read in years. If you read anything (even vampire stuff and all), you need to read these stories. Absolute gems, every one.