This fast-paced story, illuminating the still-evolving dynamics of the legal marijuana trade during the late Obama years, will captivate readers up for crime, a brisk and canny chatter, and the occasional jolt of action. DeFoe’s tale doesn’t shrink from the gruesome—a human head in a crabbing pot, a devious woman literally fileting a nemesis for food for sea creatures—but employs such details for more than shock; instead, Herbvana demonstrates the lengths to which corrupt individuals will go to protect their interests. The perspectives of supporting characters, such as internet fame-seeking teenager Leaf, solid cops Sarah and John, and Internal Affairs officer Eleanor, are finely drawn, each distinctive and adding depth to the narrative.
Readers will sympathize most with slightly dopey Barry, whose ambition is to share his passion, marijuana, with others to make them happy, while all around him are plotting for their own personal gain. Crooked cop Earl is so odious that readers won’t waste a lot of time feeling sorry for him, reflecting the author’s skill in spinning a world that seems eminently possible. The storytelling is agreeably loose, fitting the milieu, but never slack.
Takeaway: Briskly told thriller of the Washington State weed biz circa 2012.
Comparable Titles: Nick Petrie’s Light it Up, T. Coraghessan Boyle’s Budding Prospects.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-
