Smuggler

2019 IndieReader Discovery Award Winner

When twenty-something post-grad Nick Fillmore discovers the zine he's been recruited to edit is a front for drug profits, he begins a dangerous flirtation with an international heroin smuggling conspiracy and in a matter of months finds himself on a fast ride he doesn't know how to get off of.

After a bag goes missing in an airport transit lounge he is summoned to West Africa to take a fetish oath with Nigerian mafia. Bound to drug boss Alhaji, he returns to Europe to put the job right, but in Chicago O'Hare Customs agents “blitz” the plane and a courier is arrested.

Thus begins a harried, yearlong effort to elude the Feds, prison and a looming existential dead end.... Smuggler relates the real events behind OITNB.

"Incredible, cinematic visual details ... An alluring and adventurous ride through a criminal underworld." -Kirkus Reviews

"From Provincetown to Chicago and Paris to Jakarta, SMUGGLER pulls off a seemingly impossible mix of visceral, emotional, and psychological realism-all without sacrificing the thrill of vicarious transgression or entertainment. Protagonist (and author) Nick Fillmore's reflection and restrictive interactions never bore and-like the narrative-are rich with cutting insight." -IndieReader

"Smuggler starts glamourous and slow and then accelerates into a dark world where actions have consequences. Nigerian gangsters, black magic, international travels, heroin smuggling, moral justifications, and a descent into the inevitable. Excellent writing, believable characters ... an interesting read narrated by a very competent writer."  -NetGalley review

"This isn't your run-of-the-mill crime story but a work with true literary style." -Books Direct

"Riveting." -BookBub