It is June of 1977 and Jesse McMillan is standing under the canopy watching what will probably be his last tropical storm in the Panama Canal Zone. His 6-foot lanky frame is filled with despair because President Carter is getting ready to sign the treaty that will take away his home.
His best friend Randy shows up wanting to party and pulls a joint from the Marlboro pack in his back pocket. All his late-night partying is starting to show on his face and no matter what he says Randy doesn't listen. Randy is more interested in partying and selling weed.
When their fellow classmate Sam is gone for three weeks without a word, Jesse finds out that Randy is into more than just weed, he and Sam have been selling cocaine. It's their last night in The Zone and Randy tells Jesse that he has to leave the party to make a deal and asks Jesse to come along, but he tells Randy he wants nothing to do with cocaine and walks into the party.
Almost a decade has gone by since that night and Jesse now lives in Irvine, California. While he is waiting for his grilled cheese sandwich to brown Jesse picks up a dart and aims it at the dartboard on the kitchen wall. Bullseye! Right between the eyes on the photo of the former President. His cat, Millicent watches him with boredom as she finishes eating.
He's had to change the photo multiple times as all of his friends from Panama throw darts at the photo and curse the former President for costing them their homes in the Canal Zone when he signed the treaty giving Panama back to the Panamanians. In doing so all their homes reverted to Panama and all the military-based families moved back to the United States.
Jesse is an investigative reporter for the LA Times covering the Latin American beat because he is fluent in Spanish and more importantly his association with Panama. And his boss is on his back for a front-page story about Panama now since it was upside down after an American soldier was shot down and Noriega annulled the election. He is also after him about his story about the crack cocaine that was ravaging the young kids of the barrios of Santa Ana.
Gonzalez, a Mexican mafia drug lord's name kept coming up in his investigations about the crack cocaine, but whether he was involved was still unclear, but after his boss gave him a deadline so the story would hit tomorrow morning's paper he needs to stall him to see if he can get a meeting with the drug lord.
When he gets home his friend Micky pulls him to a Zone party despite his pleading he didn't want to go, but once he gets there he is happy that he did because standing before him is his old girlfriend Clare who he hasn't seen since he left Panama.
I loved this story. It is very well written and thoroughly researched. This book is totally from Jesse's POV and the story goes back and forth in time as Jesse realizes the current Panama crisis he is doing a story on is closer to home and more dangerous than he would like.
I love all the characters in this book. We get to know Jesse and his friends fully as he goes back in time and get a feeling for all their issues growing up - love, drugs, friendships and enemies.
I love the intrigue of the story and how it was woven through an actual event in history. This book is full of action and danger. Although Jesse gets his HEA the story doesn't revolve around his romance, but more on his investigative story and how it all leads back to his and his friend's past life in the Panama Canal.
This book was very emotional at times especially when Jesse finally deals with what happened in the final days before his family left Panama. I highly recommend it and look forward to reading the rest of the series!
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