I met Francesco Paola at Left
Coast Crime last month during the Author Speed Dating event. For those who have
not attended a mystery conference, author speed dating takes place in a large
room, where readers sit at tables and authors in pairs walk from table to table
and describe their latest book in two minutes. They generally give out
bookmarks and other swag. The room usually holds around 30 or 40 tables, and
the authors are talked out by the time they reach the last few groups. From the
reader’s perspective, it’s a great way to learn about new authors, which is the
point of the exercise.
Paola’s debut is Left on
Rancho (SparkPress, 2025), an original tale based on Paola’s short-lived
career in the California cannabis industry. Andrew Eastman spent 20 years in
the Silicon Valley tech world. When his last company collapsed in flames, he
was so bruised by the experience that he planned to live abroad for awhile. A
call from his childhood best friend Charlie changed his mind. Charlie’s legal
cannabis company Kannawerks is floundering. He needs Andrew to apply his
corporate management expertise and his knowledge of mergers and acquisitions to
shore it up until the company can be sold. Manufacturing is a different world
from IT but Andrew’s bond with Charlie ran deep, so he agreed.
The Kannawerks manufacturing
facility is on the edge of the Mojave Desert in a small town, with only a
for-profit prison that holds immigrants waiting to be deported. Andrew quickly
learns that the facility operations need rework, although the staff, many of
whom are enthusiastic users of the cannabis gummies they produce, are resistant
to structure and process.
The managers fill him in on
the legislative side of the business. While cannabis has been legalized in
California, the illegal sale of marijuana continues. Firms who have gone
through the licensing process to become legal producers and who are subject to
regulatory oversight are consistently undercut by their street competitors.
Marijuana and its products are still considered illegal federally, which means the
stores who buy merchandise from Kannawerks are generally an all-cash business,
subject to frequent robberies. (See Light It Up by Nick Petrie, the
third book in the Peter Ash series, for another look at this aspect of the
legal cannabis industry.)
Andrew recognizes the company
is in an impossible situation. He intends to help Charlie find a buyer and make
a quick exit until circumstances shift beyond his control.
While the narrative is mostly
fresh and unexpected, the theme of immigrant abuse is unfortunately nothing new
and downright depressing. Despite Andrew’s extensive experience in the tech
world, he is astonishingly naïve in this new setting, mostly due to his loyalty
to his childhood friend whom he comes to see he doesn’t really know.
I have mixed feelings about
the depth of industry information in the story, which covers the California
state legislative quagmire, the production process, the relationships with
retail sellers, and funding for start-ups. On one hand it all informs the plot,
on the other it approaches the level of a data dump.
I found the ending both
surprising and deeply satisfying. Not the usual thriller, readers who enjoy
financial crime fiction or who are looking for something new will want to look
at this one.
- Publisher:
SparkPress
- Publication
date: February 11, 2025
- Language:
English
- Print
length: 352 pages
- ISBN-10:
1684632927
- ISBN-13:
978-1684632923
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4tHLEWr
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2026
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal
It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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