A Dan Landes Mystery

In an unnamed and timeless Latin American country, the lives of six men and three police officers intertwine after a brutal murder in a gay bathhouse. Dan Landes, an expat LA cop, is recruited to hunt for a serial killer who preys on lonely men in the dark steam rooms. Dan is forced to use his friend Ricardo as bait for the killer.

No one would suspect that Dan Landes, an ex-LA cop known for methodically building cases against criminals, was a former ayahuasca user. He thought he had buried his past when he retired to Panama 10 years ago. But a brutal murder forces him to return to the States. Now, to save his soul, he has to prevent another murder. But to do that, he may need to drink the psychedelic potion again.

Dan Landes is “ex” everything: expatriate, ex-detective, and exhausted. He has returned to Panama from a year of recuperation in the United States, ready to resume a quiet life of hunting ayahuasca plants in the mountains. But evil is coming to Panama—or rather, through Panama—as a sinister team of murderers seeks to smuggle the world’s most lethal biological weapon into the United States through Central America. A dead body in a hotel room starts the investigation, and that dead soul returns from beyond the grave to force Dan to find the killers.

When Death—that uninvited and unwelcomed guest—arrives, all plans cease; everyone has to stop and make adjustments; and everyone has to deal with it. Magali, a young prostitute of Villa Rosario, Panama, has died. Her ex-lovers, including friends Ricardo and Dan Landes, attend her funeral, each harboring different memories of her. In fact, everyone harbors different memories of her, because no one really knew who she was. But her ghost comes back from the grave to prod ex-detective Dan Landes to uncover the truth about her death.

What is the connection between bitcoin and the collapse of the Bronze Age in 1177 BC? Between the Temple of Moriah in ancient Jerusalem and the central banks of today? Between the Knights of Templar and the end of civilization? Follow ex-detective Dan Landes as he tries to unravel the riddle of thirty-three centuries in the Treasure of the Gran Ventura.

What happens when AI hits the porn industry? Dan Landes is about to find out in INAUTHENTICITY, a tale of murder among the upper echelon of porn producers who are fighting to control the new world of AI porn. When a top porn producer is found dead of a heart attack in Panama, ex-detective Dan Landes suspects foul play. But who would benefit? It turns out that everyone would. Everyone has an axe to grind, including the FBI. Expat Dan Landes travels from Panama to Madrid to unmask who is really who in the new world of AI porn.

An ambitious doctor opens up a fancy weight-loss vacation resort for the ultra-wealthy in Panama, hoping to kickstart an Ozempic empire. The profits are high, and Wall Street is hungry for a piece of the pie. But when the clinic's semaglutide cocktail turns out to be a recipe for murder, expat Dan Landes is drawn into the investigation.

When police chief José Fernando recruits his friend Dan Landes to help investigate a case of murder and human trafficking, neither of them expect to find that solving the case rests on the memory of a single mentally-challenged lottery seller.

What if there was a pill that stopped all addiction? Dr. Disraeli Gaye has developed such a pill, and it’s on its way to FDA approval. The drug cartels are watching nervously. But everyone else wants in, from drug addicts to doctors to Wall Street. The only problem is…someone is trying to kill the good doctor.

What if you created the PERFECT meme crypto coin? Not a scam, not a rug pull, not a hoax, but the perfect new crypto token that everybody wanted to buy? Hector Gonzalez, a 15-year-old in Panama, has done exactly that, and people are buying it—by the millions.

A dying confession from an old man in a nursing home leads ex-detective Dan Landes and Panamanian Police Chief José Fernando into an amazing and twisting story of real crime, including million-dollar real estate fraud, illegal Ibogaine retreats, prostitution, scams, international cover-ups, political pressure, tycoons shielded by high-priced lawyers, and, of course, murder.