Dove Season: A Jimmy Veeder Fiasco by Johnny Shaw

A dying man might ask for anything: forgiveness, a compassionate ear, a cold glass of water. Jimmy Veeder’s father asked him for a Mexican prostitute.

It has been twelve years since Jimmy set foot in the desert border town of his youth. But as his father’s cancer spreads, Jimmy returns to share what little time they have left. He never expected to be sent into the Mexicali underworld in search of a hooker named Yolanda. With the help of an erratic-at-best childhood friend and too much beer, Jimmy stumbles among the violent, the exploited and the corrupted on the Calexico/Mexicali border.

The search that follows forces Jimmy to confront family secrets and question everything he held to be true about his father.

*****

“[Johnny Shaw] is excellent at creating a sense of place with a few deft strokes…he moves effortlessly between dark comedy and moments that pack a real emotional punch, and he’s got a knack for off-kilter characters who are completely at home in their own personal corners of oddballdom.” –Tana French, author of In the Woods and Faithful Place

“Johnny Shaw calls Dove Season a Jimmy Veeder Fiasco, but I call it a whole new ballgame; I enjoyed this damn book more than anything else I read this year!” –Craig Johnson, author of The Cold Dish and Hell is Empty

“Johnny Shaw’s Dove Season may well be the best debut this year. It has the warm wit of Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard novels, the effortless cool of Elmore Leonard and just a sprinkling of Crumley’s border dust. Here’s to many more Jimmy Veeder fiascos to come.” –Ray Banks, author of Beast of Burden

*****

Johnny Shaw was born and raised on the Calexico/Mexicali border, the setting for his debut novel, DOVE SEASON. He received his MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA and over the course of his screenwriting career, he has seen his screenplays optioned, sold and produced. For the last ten years, Johnny has taught screenwriting. He has lectured at both Santa Barbara City College and UC Santa Barbara. Johnny lives in Portland, Oregon.

To learn more about Johnny, please visit his website.