MICHAEL COLLINS – Act of Fear. Dan Fortune #1. Dodd Mead, hardcover, 1967. Bantam, paperback; 1st printing, April 1969. Playboy Press, paperback, 1980.

   Introducing PI Dan Fortune, the book being the winner of an Edgar by the MWA for Best First Novel. Partly autobiographical in nature, with Fortune’s own insights into people and the world. He has only one arm and wavers between the worst of society and those who at least live honestly and lawfully. Chelsea, the area of New York City to which he has returned, is not quite sure of him, for he has left them before. Fortune asks many questions of life, He also has some answers, so he keeps asking.

   Helping the friend of a boy who has disappeared puts the kid in more danger than before, and Fortune must intercede in a local mobster’s affairs to solve a couple of murders, Pressures from the boy’s miserable family matter less.

   Included are sad pictures of what people like and what they have to settle for,  The case is broken by the realization it is not what is true that matters, but what people think is true.

Rating: ****½