*We are accepting requests from booksellers, librarians and media professionals.* James and Kate are golden children of the late twentieth century, flush with opportunity. But an economic downturn and an unexpected pregnancy send them searching for a way to make do. A winter in the mountains of California's Siskiyou County introduces a tempting opportunity. A friend grows prime-grade marijuana; if James transports just one load from Cali to Florida, he’ll pull down enough cash to survive for months. James navigates life as a mule, then a boss--from money-hungry friends to gun-toting drug lords, from Sacramento to Tallahassee, from just making the weight move cross-country to making thousands of dollars a day. The risks keep rising, forcing him to the next criminal level. A kidnapping, a shootout, a bank vault— it all culminates in a swirl of action. A page-turning, timely novel that perfectly captures the anxieties of plunging into the criminal underworld and the zeitgeist of the recession generation, Mule is about young people trying to make do in a moment when the American Dream they never had to believe in—because it was handed to them, fully wrapped and ready-to-go at the take-out window—suddenly vanished from the menu.