Knottspeed

Book excerpt: Enigmatic, charming, and brutally resourceful, Knottspeed is a man on a mission. He also happens to be dead, but the rumors of his demise have been slightly exaggerated—by the man himself as the key to his plan. A problem-solver, a finder of lost people and rare things, and an accomplished criminal, Knottspeed is experiencing Big Love for the first time in his life, and his elaborately orchestrated plot to reunite with his beloved will profoundly affect everyone he meets, including a rudderless, alcoholic piano player; a wealthy, dispassionate doctor; and an amiable-but-desperate cab driver. From the bars and graveyards of Portland, Oregon to the taco stands and charity hospitals of East Los Angeles, Knottspeed is the uncompromisingly offbeat story about the momentum of love.