Kevin wrote, in response to Duane:
"Yes, he seems almost forgotten now, possibly because in
these times of dumbed down political commentary, where morons
are praised for being
"down to earth," he's defiantly intelligent and political,
and a liberal
-- in the truest sense of the word -- to boot."
Duane, you are far from alone in your praise of the Dan
Fortune series. I picked up one when Playboy Press was
reprinting them a decade ago, actually probably more than
two. Then I picked up them all. (The one advantage to Collins
not being as well known as he deserves is that those reprints
are now relatively easy to find used.) The character was
fully developed and his politics were completely interwoven
in the stories -- no harangues as sidebars (not that I don't
enjoy Travis's sermons).
You might want to check out another series by Collins/Lynds,
written under the name Mark Sadler. Paul Shaw is a corporate
PI, not an outsider like Fortune. It is interesting to see
the same critique, but this time shown from within the belly
of the beast. Again, though, these books are good reads
first, not dry political treatises.
Oh, and just because Collins is critical of the workings of
our class system does not mean he sets up easy upper class
targets to be knocked down. His individuals, no matter what
their class, are always complex characters. However, class
gives some of those characters the means that the waves from
their actions, good, bad or in between, often crest much
further from their source.
Mark
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