Samedi's Knapsack — Gaylord Dold

After a long stay abroad and a love affair that fell apart, Mitch Roberts is headed home. Back to his ranch, his horses, and maybe - or maybe not - to being a private eye again. But if Roberts is looking forward to an uneventful life, he has farther to go than a return to southern Colorado. His problems start when a beautiful airline flight attendant suggests he meet her for a drink at her favorite bar in a stopover in Miami. The bar's parking lot, however, comes equipped with two thugs who knock Mitch out, take his passport, credit cards, and every cent in his pocket, and drive off in his rental car.
Desperate, Mitch calls the only person he knows in Miami - a former college acquaintance. Bobby Hilliard, a rather sleazy character who has made a lot of money in questionable ways, and is now an art dealer. When Mitch finds the seductive flight attendant at the man's mansion, he is quick to realize he has been set up. But an offer of a sorely needed big fee tempts him, and he accepts a job. Hilliard's agent, sent to Haiti with money to buy a large number of paintings, has disappeared. Mitch's mission: find the agent and buy paintings to replace those that are lost.
Haiti is dismaying. The police and officials openly scoff at Mitch and, more subtly, let him know that he should stop nosing around. He is also sickened by the tropical heat and humidity and by the poverty and fear that is everywhere. The atmosphere of Haiti's dark folklore pervades daily life - the frightening Baron Samedi is a very real presence.
Mitch is convinced that Hilliard's agent has been murdered and the art stolen, but he is driven to go on, as much for a feeling deep inside that the quest has some meaning for him as to earn his fee. With a Haitian guide, a poor but educated and desperately loyal man, Mitch travels the country tracking down the painters of the missing art in remote towns and buying more of their work.