Trail of the Blue Agave

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. A 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.

Pulled in on a case by a colleague from his former life in the landscaping world, Slater uses illicit surveillance gear to track a stolen blue agave to a seedy dive bar, where the patrons are not what they seem. Working undercover at a shady tequila factory, he starts to figure out what’s really going on, and uncovers a deeper grift preying on newcomers in Koreatown. Frustrated by his inability to shut down the racket, Slater collaborates with some of the victims, temporarily distracting himself by playing best man at a wedding, only to face an inadvertent turn of events that might send him to the hoosegow for good.