Jack Vermillion is a businessman with a problem: a son with a criminal record who is in trouble again. This time, Jack's kid is looking at twenty-five to life in maximum security. And there's nothing Jack can do . . . or is there?

Black Water Transit is Jack's container ship company, and when Jack is approached by a man wanting to ship his gun collection to Mexico -- very simple, very illegal -- he sees an opportunity. So Jack cuts a deal with the ATF to trade one illegal gun dealer for one slightly imperfect kid. The deal is set, the weapons on board, the cops and feds in place. Everything should come off without a hitch . . . until the shooting starts and people start dying. As the body count rises, Jack must go on the lam, in a race for his life; and there isn't a law enforcement agency in the world that can help him now.

"Black Water Transit" is a tough, gritty look at what happens when a pretty good guy takes on the really bad ones. Carsten Stroud makes the Manhattan waterfront a frontier readers of Elmore Leonard will want to explore.