Don’t be a fool and think you can change the picture I’ve drawn you of the future. Look at it this way. Most guys your age would be happy to get a picture of the future that looks as clear as this.
On a beautiful, foggy evening, Marine Corporal Palmer stands at the end of Oceanside pier, staring out at the ocean, waiting to meet his girlfriend Suzanne. Instead, palmer encounters Staff Sergeant Harry Wilde, who gives Palmer a stark choice: help Wilde’s criminal activities or be railroaded to jail on a drug possession charges.
With Suzanne’s help, Palmer flees to Mexico. Seven years later, ex-Sergeant Wilde is a rich drug dealer and gun runner, trading stolen marine guns for the deadly synthetic heroin, fentanyl. The murder of the “mule” who brings the drug over the border leaves Wilde badly in need of a new courier. Fate delivers one in an encounter with Palmer in the small coastal Mexican town of La Paz. Wilde holds all the cards and Palmer is desperate. Desperation, however, doesn’t make Palmer as easy to control as Wilde thinks. Six White Horses is a story driven by emotionally riveting human drama, by raw tension and suspense.
This is my favorite novel!! I hope you’ll enjoy it. It is set partly in Oceanside, California, where I spent many fine days on and around the beach, in the water, and enjoying the company of my favorite Uncle. Suzanne is someone I used to know.
Six White Horses is the most basic of stories—a good man in a corrupt world,
and Dold’s telling of it, within the boundaries of noir, is just about perfect. In
a world of bloated bestsellers, it is always a pleasure to happen upon a writer
who understands that less is more.
Patrick Anderson
The Washington Post Book World
The tension runs so thick you’ll be able to cut it with a switchblade. Desperate
characters, seedy locales, and a satisfying ending all contribute to the appeal of
this neo-noir thriller by veteran suspense author Dold. Violence, while not gratuitous,
is very much a presence throughout the book.
Booklist.
The writing is superb and supple in appealing ways.”
Daniel Woodrell
Author of Winter’s Bone
A fine brew of Mexico, Southern California, and the various drugs we all need
and swallow to keep this charade going.”
Charles Bowden