The Brass Rainbow

Dan Fortune #2

by Michael Collins, Dennis Lynds (Writing as)

Con artists and call girls, hoods and hippies, and New York City’s untouchably wealthy populate this smashing tale of a small-time crook wanted for a murder he swears he didn’t commit. The problem lands with an ominous thud in the office of Dan Fortune, Private Investigator, when the crook, Sammy Weiss, comes begging Fortune for an alibi. But the alibi Sammy needs is for a beating, not for the murder for which he’ll soon be charged. Fortune says no.
The Brass Rainbow is the second novel featuring Dan Fortune, following the Edgar Award–winning Act of Fear. In this one, Fortune goes on the hunt when an uptown blueblood ends up dead and Sammy vanishes. Sammy had always been a loser, and a petty liar, and a magnet for hard luck. Still, Fortune doesn’t think he killed the guy. What else can a one-armed detective do, if not help his friends? And Sammy is a friend. Soon Fortune finds himself targeted, and the disappearance of Sammy becomes more puzzling. Is Sammy the killer – or the victim of a frame-up?
Written in the crisp style he helped popularize, the legendary Lynds opens the floodgates to the bygone colorful era of ‘60s Chelsea – no pricey real estate then, just a teeming Petri dish of hustlers and pigeons and those trying to make a living any way they can. Lynds captures the richness and exposes the underbelly in a tale The New York Daily News called, “engrossing.”

“The man who won the Mystery Writers of America award ... has given readers another exceptional story.” – Parade of Books

“Skillfully plotted with finely honed suspense.” – New York Times

“[Lynds] is a writer to watch and above all to read.” – Ross Macdonald

“A master of crime fiction.” – Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Genres: Mystery

194 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1969

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

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Collins’ Dan Fortune is the missing link, the greatest modern private eye nobody remembers. Sam Spade’s hoods step forth from some stone-cold poker game, Marlowe’s villains from the greensward of knightly necessity, Lew Archer’s murderers from a confluence of Greek tragedy and Freudian theory. But Dan Fortune’s bad guys are more like us: children of the city and its neighborhoods, shaped by its distortions, summoned by its needs. In this way Collins resembles Joseph Hansen, Bill Pronzini, Robert B. Parker, Robert Block—all masters of the last generation. But their first books came in '70, ‘71 ‘73, ‘76 respectively, and their progress toward mastery was slow. But Michael Collins nailed it—first time out—in 1967.

This second adventure, published in ‘69, is just as good as the first. Our story begins when Sammy, a small-time gambler, tries to “hire” Fortune as a phony alibi witness. Turns out some rich guy Sammy was supposed to collect money from, has ended up dead, and now the police are looking for him. Fortune won’t lie for him, but looks into the murder, and he soon finds himself neck deep in second-rate hoods, big-time baddies, the women who claim to love them, plus a rich family harboring a wealth of secrets.

Give Michael Collins a try. His one-armed detective, “Danny the Pirate” Fortune is worth getting to know. And the private detective today wouldn’t be the same without him.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Syd Maroon · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me Michael Collins' first Dan Fortune novel, "Act of Fear" was a great debut. "The Brass Rainbow" almost, but not quite, lives Up to expectations raised. Again New York and its neighbourhoods and communities is the canvas on which Collins paints a tricky mystery. Many fascinating characters, too, great writing. But I felt a bit more authenticity, a bit more empathy for the characters in the debut. Still, an exzellent crime novel, working very well today even though it was written half a century ago.

[dennis barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Brass Rainbow. Dennis Lynds

A classic old school detective read. Matter of fact, a spectacular one. Dan Fortune knows a fall guy when he sees one. A lot of bodies fall. Question is, who is the real pawn, or better yet the winner? Only Fortune knows. Enjoyed tremendously!

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

RATING: 3.25