Publisher's Weekly
Collins's one-armed PI Dan Fortune is up against the FBI, the CIA and a ruthless family in this tautly crafted mystery. Brooding ex-teacher Frank Owen is searching for his immature kid brother, Billy, a frustrated John Wayne type involved with gunrunning in Central America. When Frank's worried ex-wife brings in Fortune to help solve the death of Billy's shadowy Latin friend, shots fired at Fortune before he finds the body, and an attempt to murder Frank all hint that Billy's latest mission of glory has put him in over his head. As the action shifts from New York's Chelsea district to cowboy country in California's Santa Ynez Valley, Dan and Frank constantly talk about women and manhood. In fact, the real theme of this yarn is misplaced manhood, spotlighted in a procession of handguns, pit bulls, Mexicans and even hand grenades. Frequent flashbacks impede the early going, but the dialogue is crisp, and the ''castrati'' of Castrato are well-wrought, if not memorable.

Library Journal
Recently transplanted to Santa Barbara from New York City, one-armed private investigator Dan Fortune proves himself to local authorities and client alike when he looks into the disappearance of Billy Owen, a mercenary with alleged ties to Central American juntas and drug smuggling. Finely honed prose, intrusive suspense, and bits of reflective philosophy accompany Fortune from California to New York and back as he tracks Billy, runs afoul of the FBI and CIA, and has a close encounter of the worst kind with a murderer. Fine work, crackling with excitement, from the author of Red Rosa .-- REK

Genre: Mystery