Six White Horses

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 as fuck 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 a pier, staring out over the ocean, waiting to meet his girlfriend Suzanne. Instead of meeting Suzanne, however, Palmer encounters Staff Sergeant Harry Wilde, who gives Palmer a stark choice: help Wilde’s criminal activities, or be railroaded to jail on 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, fetanyl. 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 Mexican town of Wilde’s supplier. 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 palpable suspense.

"Six White Horses is the most basic of stories—a good man in a corrupt world—and Dold’s telling of it is, within the boundaries of noir, 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