Dan Landes is one of many US expats who thought he had escaped the madness of the world when he emigrated to Panama twenty years ago. Panama was his safe haven, his piece of paradise. But international conflicts are spreading, and encroaching on utopia. Outside of Panama, the world is plagued by a new type of warfare. Strategic small wars, driven by AI, are erupting all over the globe. The US has retaken the Panama Canal; Iran has been nuked; and China is threatening retaliation after the bombing of its ports in Mexico. But US resources are spread thin. There is civil war in the States, and the US military is bogged down in a jungle war inside Venezuela. It feels like the end of the world.

But inside Panama, life retains a certain normalcy. Locals still go to market to bargain over the price of tomatoes while gossiping about the small wars across the border. New construction is everywhere. Panama’s economy is growing, and bankers are opening new crypto-exchanges.

And Dan Landes is trying to help his friend Police Chief José Fernando solve the murder of an unidentified man whose body is found in a field. It seems like a simple case… at first.

Robert Rahula, the author of CRIME, STUPIDITY DUST, and THE ERIKSCHITZ PRINCIPLE, brings us another Dan Landes Mystery, full of twists, political commentary, human weaknesses… and murder.