Pirata

Book excerpt: An ex-car salesman heads to Mexico following a near-death experience, but trouble soon finds him in this “thoughtful” thriller” (Publishers Weekly). In a former life, Nick Lutz, sold cars in the Golden State. He had a wife and a young son, and they struggled along until Nick was shot in the head when a potential customer hijacked the car he was demonstrating. The incident sets off a bad-luck domino fall, and he loses an eye, his job, his family, and, eventually, his self-respect. With nothing left, Nick heads for Mexico, where he sheds his former self among an eclectic group of expats and locals, who fondly name him “Pirata” on account of his eye patch. There on the beaches of Sabanita, Nick and his buddy Winsor drink, surf, and—most of all—escape, buoyed away from their pasts on south swells and Tecate. Nothing epic. That is until Winsor’s girlfriend, Meagan, ends their abusive relationship and flees with her two boys to the safety and solace of Nick’s beachside casita. A monsoon season fling of convenience turns into a torrid love affair as new loyalties and dark secrets are shaped into something like a family. But when the local policía struggle to identify a body that has washed up in the surf, Nick realizes his secrets—and sins—have caught up with him. And there are dangerous new surprises that have yet to roll in with the tide. . . . A gifted storyteller, Hasburgh drops readers into the middle of a gripping, heartwarming, viscerally compelling page turner. At once tender and deadly hysterical, Pirata is a novel readers won’t soon forget.