Bunco Couture
by George Bixley
On sale Sunday, January 25
Don’t mess with the hothead—or he might just mess with you. Slater Ibáñez is only interested in two kinds of guys: the ones he wants to punch, and the ones he sleeps with. Things get interesting when they start to overlap.
Hired by a self-involved pop star to dig into a leak of confidential material from her high-end clothing company, Slater goes undercover in the fashion business, infiltrating industry events and getting entangled with Shaula, a smoking-hot fabric salesman who claims to be a time traveler. Proximity to the pop icon leads to Slater being stalked by the paparazzi, and things get more complicated when Shaula infiltrates Slater’s sex life, with Pike increasingly concerned that the guy is becoming a regular feature. As he starts to unravel the grift, with help from his office neighbor Cassidy, the pushback heats up, with gun-toting goons, randy fashionistas, and a hermeneutic metaphysician getting up in his grill. And who sent the knucklehead with the hatchet? Straddling the world of pool parties in Hollywood Hills mansions and grunt work in the gritty Fashion District, Slater uses his fists and his illicit Russian tech to sort out the grifters from the dupes, and might just be able to burn down the whole racket.
Freelance investigator Slater trolls the dark side of Los Angeles, rooting out insurance fraud, not afraid to use whatever means necessary to get things done, and not about to hold back with his fists. A queer antihero for a new age, Slater walks the line between ordinary life and the frayed fringes of society, keeping his balance with the back-channel support he gets from main squeeze Pike, business partner Max, and operatives Andy and Etta.
