Left on Rancho

by Francesco Paola

Genres: Thrillers

Synopsis

For fans of Tod Goldberg and Tim O’Brien, this debut contemporary noir follows a burned-out tech entrepreneur into the Wild West of California cannabis and the converging worlds of contraband weed and illegal immigration.

There are only two reasons to take a left on Rancho: cannabis and immigration.

October 2019. Adelanto, a desolate outpost in the Mojave Desert. Andrew Eastman, a tech entrepreneur with a bank account running on fumes, rides into town to help an old friend. The ask: turn around a fledgling legal weed operation in the California High Desert, where a dead “desert walker” is just another day in Adelanto, according to the local sheriff. Where coyotes “help” migrants escape from the ICE detention center nearby as protests ignite around it. Where no one cares about illegal marijuana because the pie’s big enough for everyone.

Andrew, the outsider, asks too many questions—the viability of the legal market, cannabis’s social impact, inoperative surveillance cameras in the factory, and the dominance of the illegal trade. An illegal trade run by unscrupulous actors.

On a hunt for contraband that’s based on a stolen formulation, Andrew journeys from Adelanto to West Hollywood to the underbelly of Los Angeles, until he lands at the intersection of cannabis and immigration. Bodies pile up around him. And when tragedy strikes, Andrew’s left with one last decision, one that will forever change him.

Release date: February 11, 2025

Publisher: She Writes Press

Print pages: 380