The Brass Rainbow(1969)

Michael CollinsDennis Lynds

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