Zig Zag

“A stoned odyssey across the dive bars, neon-lit motels, and lost highways of the American West.”

Capri Dall has a foolproof plan to knock over the marijuana dispensary where she works. But when her boyfriend botches the heist, the two of them end up in a stolen car with a trunkful of rare high-end weed—and an unhinged security guard on their trail.

Harry Robatore is a burned-out rhinestone cowboy, barely scraping by as a bail bondsman. Agreeing to help out an old pal, and settle his bar tab, he sets out to track down the lovers on the run. The chase begins in the San Fernando Valley and leads him deep into the heart of the Mojave Desert—building to an explosive showdown at a ghost town tourist trap.

Zig Zag is equal parts Elmore Leonard and Charles Portis—with Larry McMurtry’s cowboy hat along for the ride.

J.D. O'Brien was educated by nuns and holds a degree from the Jack Dempsey Bartending School in New York City. He has studied under Gordon Lish and Jonathan Ames, and his writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Lowbrow Reader, Arthur Magazine, and elsewhere. He's been a bartender, a cold caller, and a clerk at the Strand Bookstore. He lives in Massachusetts and has a dog named Lefty.