The Caracas Girl

When Nelson Leatherby escapes a claustrophobic marriage in Norwalk and seeks to start a new life in Savannah, he has no idea of the mayhem that awaits him. Stoic and good natured, but with a weakness for blundering into life-threatening situations, Leatherby is quickly surrounded by shallow cheats, vicious killers, eccentric buffoons-and remarkable new friends. His longing for a singularly beautiful woman, Dominique Panadero, leads Leatherby on a hasty trip to Maduro's Venezuela, dashing from the streets of Caracas to the dusty cattle ranches of Los Llanos, all while being pursued by rival human-trafficking cartels. In the process, he discovers personal resources that he never imagined possessing. Although packed with comic situations, the narrative touches on the alarming prevalence of human trafficking, a scourge which has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, Europe and Asia. With over twenty million victims worldwide, modern-day slavery surpasses both weapons and drug trading as an international menace.