Book description
High on a mountain above Albuquerque lives a man who's a throwback to
the outlaw heroes of the Old West. Rainbow Porter lives on the edge,
watches his back, and occasionally drops into the valley below to lend a
hand to those in trouble. To his door comes lovely Eurasian April Bow,
adopted daughter of one of his Vietnam buddies, to appeal for help: her
father has been blasted to bits in his California home by a mine,
leaving her orphaned, broke, and scared to death. Responding, Rainbow
begins a quest that turns into a journey back into his own past -- where
he and a very select few did very well profiteering out of the war -- to
find out why accounts, literal and figurative, appear to have been
reopened.... This first mystery combines appealing characters with a
well-paced adventure staged in New Mexico, Arizona, and Mexco with a
sidetrip to the Philippines. Recommended to fans of John D. MacDonald
and Randy Wayne White, whose stubborn Travis McGee and Doc Ford would be
pleased to figure in Rainbow's story. Harlen Campbell, a writer of
mystery/suspense novels, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Campbell
attended New Mexico State University and has BA's in English and
Journalism and an MA in English Literature. Except for a brief stint as
a journalist with the US Army and an even briefer one teaching college
English, he never used his degrees professionally. Before he started
writing, most of his work was in construction, real estate and computer
programming, but he has also done satellite tracking, tended bar, and
turned a dollar in a number of less likely ways. Campbell's interests
lie in the nature of the individual's relationships to society and to
the world, but he is willing to apologize if they show up in his
writing. In fact, he believes that a writer's primary obligation is to
entertain, and that he should only be allowed to fool around with ideas
if his readers don't notice what he's up to
