Windward Passage: A Novel

Jim Nisbet is a cult favorite in Europe and it's easy to see why. He's 'a lot more than just good . . . his style has overtones of Walker Percy's smooth southern satin, but his characterslosers, grifters, con menhark back to the days of James M. Cain's twisted images of morality,' writes the Toronto GlobeMail. In the tradition of Jim Thompson and Damon Runyon, Jim Nisbet is too good to miss and Windward Passage is a masterpiece that raises the bar even for a master like Nisbet. In the parallel nearfuture, a ship named for a jellyfish sinks into the Caribbean with its captain chained to the mast. Left behind is a logbook missing ten pages, presidential DNA hidden in a brick of smuggled cocaine, and a nearly completed novel. Tipsy, the dead sailor's sister, and Red Means, his erstwhile employer, travel from San Francisco to the Caribbean and back as they attempt to unravel a mystery that rapidly widens from death at sea to international conspiracy. With verve and humor to match the Illuminati Trilogy, Nisbet has fashioned an engaging facsimile of our modern world, albeit with snappier dialogue, ampedup technology, and even more clearly stated political prejudices. 'Neither Norman Mailer nor Truman Capote has in their writing been able to produce such an intensity as Nisbet has achieved,' writes Germany's Die Welt. Pick up Windward Passageand see why.