2017 International Thriller Writers Award — Shortlisted, Best Paperback Original Novel

Phillip Scarnum must employ his cunning and seamanship to stay alive and out of prison in this fast-paced, gritty thriller.

Phillip Scarnum is sailing along Nova Scotia’s South Shore when he finds an abandoned lobster boat smashed on the rocks. He risks his life to haul it in, hoping to collect a big salvage fee, but before he can cash in, a fisherman’s body full of bullet holes washes up on a nearby beach. The Mounties seize Scarnum’s prize and start asking tricky questions about how well he knows the fisherman's wild widow. Scarnum needs to find out what happened on the boat, but as soon as he starts to investigate, some heavily armed Mexican drug runners show up, looking for 100 kilos of missing cocaine. Scarnum needs to keep a step ahead of the police and the gangsters if he wants to stay alive and out of prison and get the salvage fee that’s coming to him.