A botched dispensary heist leaves a pair of young lovers on the run through the Mojave Desert.
Equal parts Elmore Leonard and Charles Portis - with Larry McMurtry's cowboy hat along for the ride - Zig Zag is a stoned odyssey across the dive bars, neon-lit motels, and lost highways of the American West.
Capri Dall has a foolproof plan to knock over the marijuana dispensary where she works. But when her boyfriend botches the heist, the two of them end up in a stolen car with a trunkful of rare high-end weed - and an unhinged security guard on their trail.
Harry Robatore is a burned-out rhinestone cowboy, barely scraping by as a bail bondsman. Agreeing to help out an old pal, and settle his bar tab, he sets out to track down the lovers on the run. The chase begins in the San Fernando Valley and leads him deep into the heart of the Mojave Desert-building to an explosive showdown at a ghost town tourist trap.
'A stoned odyssey across the dive bars, neon-lit motels, and lost highways of the American West.' - Mike Postalakis, author of L.A. By Mouth
'J.D. O'Brien has written the perfect Country & Western novel.' - Mike Postalakis, author of L.A. By Mouth: The Essential Guide To Eating In Los Angeles
'A rare debut crime novel with the hardboiled humor of Charles Willeford and Barry Gifford, J.D. O'Brien's saga of a dope-smoking, Nudie suit-wearing bail bondsman is a freewheeling oater for the ages.' - Jim Ruland, author of Forest Of Fortune, Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall Of SST Records
'Feels like a great 70s movie.' - David Gordon Green, director of Pineapple Express
Industry Reviews
"An at times funny, at times hard-boiled, at times sweetly sad crime romp set in some of the scuzzier pockets of Southern California. J.D. O'Brien lovingly limns these divey bars, rundown motels, and ticky-tacky apartments and brings to life the stoned and soused oddballs who stumble through them. It's Elmore Leonard meets Warren Zevon with a wry sensibility all its own, and I enjoyed every page of it." - Richard Lange, author of Rovers, The Smack, and Angel Baby
"A book that starts with an epigraph from D.C. Berman already has me eating out of its hand but then J.D. O'Brien goes and ups the ante. Zig Zag is a cosmic American crime odyssey that's reminiscent of Barry Gifford, James Crumley, Charles Portis, Elmore Leonard, and Charles Willeford. Wild, funny, and entertaining as hell. Capri Dall and Harry Robatore are characters I won't soon forget." -William Boyle, author of
Shoot the Moonlight Out,
City of Margins, and
A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself"A weed-soaked modern western packed with laugh-out-loud digressions and hard luck characters so real I half-expected to find one sitting on a barstool next to me long after I finished the novel. The kind of offbeat book that I can't wait to loan out to friends."
- Duncan Birmingham, author of The Cult In My Garage and writer/director of Who Invited Them
