The Catch — Kim Wozencraft

No one knows the seductive world of drugs and addiction better than Kim Wozencraft. In her first novel, Rush, she created an unforgettable female heroine, a cop pulled undercover, who risked her life and career when the lines of justice began to blur. Now, in The Catch, she revisits that world--only this time she is writing from the other side of the law.

Kurt and Annie have been dealing enormous quantities of pot, living like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Only now, they've got two kids to take care of and the game has gotten far more dangerous. Annie is desperate to go legit, and the novel begins when Kurt, forever promising to make this trip his last, gets busted big-time by the DEA. It's unclear how much evidence they have, but Kurt won't risk life without parole and tries to convince Annie to take the kids and go on the lam with him. Staying behind and vulnerable, Annie becomes an easy target for DEA agent Joseph Kessler, who first sees Annie and her young sons as the bait to bringing Kurt in, but finds himself falling in love with her as she offers a kind of balm for his own broken life.

Wozencraft's clean, spare prose and psychological acuity combine to create the inner life of a woman desperate to keep her family together and the man she loves, whose addiction to danger threatens their very existence. Taut and compelling, The Catch is the story of a love triangle set against the backdrop of high-stakes drug dealing and the higher stakes of love.