What Are the Odds

The debut novel from screenwriter and producer David List, What Are the Odds is an entertaining, binge-worthy, and addictive crime thriller.

Ray Dawson, a former NYPD detective unfairly forced into early retirement, never thought he would get another chance to be with his second wife and love of his life, Stephanie. So when she opens the door to the possibility, he spends his savings on an extravagant romantic getaway at a resort in Costa Rica. But Ray is still as much a cop as he is a man, and when, in the hotel elevator, he has a chance encounter with Wilbur Bailey-a wily, neurotic, and environmentally conscious fugitive with a $5 million bounty on his head-things get complicated.

IRS Special Agent Phil Dancourt is determined to bust Mika Salko, the corrupt CEO of Houston-based Amco Oil, and believes Wilbur Bailey, an Amco analyst with a conscience, is the one guy on the inside who could help bring Salko down. But in a bizarre twist, Bailey embezzles millions and disappears, putting Phil's job on the line. Now, after Wilbur is sighted in Costa Rica, Phil is sent to retrieve him. But from the moment he steps off the plane and crosses paths with Ray and Wilbur, nothing goes as planned.

The encounter propels the three men into a harrowing, death-defying, life-changing, and often hilarious journey, attracting unwanted attention from a heroin-addicted dishwasher, a powerful, corrupt CEO, bloodthirsty gangs and drug cartels, and pandering government watchdogs. Along the way, they come face-to-face, in unexpected ways, with life's larger questions: friendship, love, loss, faith, and the commitment to values larger than oneself. What results is a trio of unlikely friends, and Ray can only hope that once it's all over, Stephanie will still be there.

David List is a writer and producer of films, including the latest Fletch film, Confess, Fletch, starring Jon Hamm. He is a native New Yorker now living in Los Angeles. What Are the Odds is his first novel.