The Irishman's Horse(1991)

Dennis LyndsMichael Collins

Colorful settings in treacherous Guatemalan jungles, Mexico City street markets, and remote Santa Barbara ranches, plus powerful villains and a violent scheme legions of Dan Fortune fans have come to expect, enrich this novel of corruption and death that Publishers Weekly hailed as page-turning high adventure.
It’s also the next-to-last book in the popular Dan Fortune series, and it’s a beaut.
Esther Valenzuela is visiting her parents in Santa Barbara, California, when her husband, Paul, an earnest young State Department diplomat, records a puzzling phone conversation while working at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. Soon Esther realizes she’s being followed, and her husband vanishes. Frightened, she hires private detective Dan Fortune, recently of New York City, to find out who’s tailing her and why, and to track down her missing husband.
Threats and near-misses dog Fortune as his investigation takes him from an import company, which gives every sign of being a drug-smuggling front, to the murdered corpse of one of the company’s executives. Cornered, Fortune gets help from an unexpected source – the Irishman, the dangerous and charming figure around whom the mystery revolves. Fortune butts heads with local police forces, the FBI, and the CIA, as the Irishman proclaims his innocence and concern for the common good.
By the time Fortune learns the Irishman is an international drug kingpin, the man has disappeared inside his mountain stronghold. The chase hurls Fortune into the uncharted and extremely perilous waters of the drug wars and of secret, high-level government treachery that could cost Fortune his life.

“High adventure ... The page-turning plot and its fittingly cynical ending make this one of the best Fortune stories yet.” – Publishers Weekly

“Tension-packed ... entertaining.” – Kirkus Reviews

“Dan Fortune is the sort of guy you’d like to strike up a conversation with late at night or in a bus station. He stays a choice friend from book to book.” – Ed Lynskey, Mystery File

“No one could accuse [Lynds] of reworking the same turf in his novels featuring one-armed private detective Dan Fortune. His last several books have pushed the private-eye form into some fascinating new shapes.” – The Wall Street Journal