El Artista Fugitivo, by Tom Larsen

 "El Artista Fugitivo," by Tom Larsen, in Black Cat Weekly, #227, 2026.

This is the second story by Larsen to make this list, and it stars the same character.  

Wilson Salinas is a private detective in his native Ecuador.  This story takes place not long after he sets up his business after leaving Seattle where he worked as a chef until alcohol got the better of him.  

His U.S. experience helped him get a new client, an American P.I. named Cabrera who  wants him to find a yankee who has disappeared.  Jefferson Bushnell is an eighty-year-old painter.  Why does Cabrera want to find him? Because Bushnell got the detective's twenty-year-old niece pregnant.

If that sounds suspicious Salinas agrees with you.  But he takes the case and, as usual, finds out that it is not nearly as straightforward as it seems.

This is a fun private eye story.  I have to say there is a goof in the storytelling it that someone should have caught. It doesn't affect the  plot but it is certain to annoy alert readers.

 

Hiding in Plain Sight, by Tom Larsen

 "Hiding in Plain Sight," by Tom Larsen, in Black Cat Weekly, 193.

Most of Larsen's stories are set in Ecuador. Some feature a cop but this is from his other series about private eye Wilson Salinas.  

Our hero explains that a big part of his job is hunting down gringos who have come to Ecuador to hide from governments or other agencies.  

All my clients wanted from me was a location where they could find the subject of their search. "We'll take it from here," was the common response when I located someone.  I had a standard disclaimer that I gave all my clients stating that if they were after someone to beat them down or kill them, I wouldn't help. I doubt if any of them even read it. 

Now he's looking for John McIntyre who ran a jazz club in New Orleans that laundered money for the mob.  Finding him is easy; surviving an encounter with the man's bodyguard is harder.  But then it turns out that nothing about the case is as it appears.

A twisty and satisfactory tale.