Devil's Harbor

At the start of Gilly's thrill-a-moment first novel, Nick Finn and his well-meaning but slightly dim brother-in-law, Diego Jimenez, both Marine Interdiction agents, are patrolling the sea off California's Santa Catalina Island early one morning in their 39-foot Customs and Border Protection vessel. When a man aboard a sport fisher refuses to identify himself and fires on Nick and Diego's boat, Nick shoots back and kills the man. It's all downhill from there. The CBP is ready to throw Nick under the bus, he starts drinking again, and his lawyer wife moves out of their L.A. home. Then Diego washes ashore with a bullet hole in his forehead. Meanwhile, Diarmud Cutts, an ex-IRA and French Foreign Legion trafficker in drugs and worse, forces Nick to transport narcotics from Mexico to save the life of a child. The ending is an unexpected nail-bitter that crackles with tension. Readers will look forward to seeing more of Nick. Agent: Farley Chase, Chase Literary Agency. (June)