PURGATORY

Double-crossed, robbed, and left for dead by enterprising drug middleman Tommy Delorme, bagman Danny Castellano plots, fights, and lies his way from tiny Jerome, Arizona, to Alaska, Louisiana, and Mexico—all in his quest for a piece of Tommy and the $350,000 he took. There's never a dull moment for Danny. While he's lying in a hospital waiting to be transferred to the Scottsdale prison, he sees Hector Lupino, his boss Luis Manzanaro's top errand boy, in the corridor carrying a bouquet, and takes off, together with rotten DEA apple Charlie Cadeaux, one step ahead of both cops and robbers. But when Hector catches up with them again, he and Charlie kill each other, leaving Danny with only one last hope to turn the tables on Tommy and Luis: Carl Dupree, a snitch the feds once planted in Tommy's cell, now living on the Alaska coast. No sooner has Danny gotten the lowdown from Carl when the DEA grabs him and squeezes—and his deal to buy into the Witness Protection Program falls through when he inadvertently tips off Luis to a forthcoming raid and the feds hang him out to dry. Still to come: Danny's unlikely romance with Indigo, an Alaskan New Age spiritual counselor who thinks Danny is psychic (``You either reconcile your lifestyle with your ability or die''); his stepping into the middle of another double-cross south of the border; his joining forces with Carl and Indigo for a grand kidnapping scheme; and a final, now-you-see-it grab for the money before Danny goes straight, more or less. Newcomer Mickelson knows just to how to keep this motley crew afloat until the last page. Fasten your seat belt.