Publisher's Synopsis
THE ADVENTURES OF THE LAZY GRINGO is the story of stressed out beaten down ex Miami Beach vice cop Jake Westerwheel (aka The Lazy Gringo) who gets set up, knocked down, loses it all, becomes a homeless beach bum, then in a bizarre twist of fate gets a job as bodyguard for Charlie Crowne, a crooked crypto billionaire playboy who is sleeping with Jake's gorgeous ball-busty blonde ex wife, Shana. Crowne has a shadowy past and an even darker future.
When Crowne realizes Shana is trying to blackmail him, he sets up Jake to be the fall guy patsy then has her murdered. Crowne then fakes his own death aboard his yacht during a Caribbean hurricane and disappears, taking several billion of his investors money with him. Meanwhile, Jake is arrested for first degree murder. Jake appears so guilty and has so little chance of proving his innocence that he decides to flee to Mexico. South of the border, he buys a Jeep and a new identity, and drives south to the Yucatan in search of evidence to prove Crowne's duplicity, and to clear his own name. The trail goes cold, but at the end of the road Jake finds the magical beach paradise of Mixlic. Knowing he doesn't have much choice, he decides to drop out off the grid, find a funky jungle palapa and stay there, quitting his stressful life and becoming the world's laziest beach bum, aka The Lazy Gringo.He commits himself to mastering the art of being lazy, but just as his worries start melting away both true love and major trouble find him. The Lazy Gringo is shocked back to reality. He falls in love with beautiful eco warrior/yogini Ixschelle who is threatened by Mexican gangsters working for a shadowy business consortium run by the infamous El Gordo Vidal and his Juarez drug cartel. The cartel plans to develop the fifty miles of virgin beach, lagoons and jungle south of Mixlic, a protected biosphere worth billions when transformed into a major tourist center and cruise ship port. Ixschelle and her friends want to stop them, but it is a hopeless David versus Goliath struggle. Despite the danger, the Lazy Gringo volunteers to be Ixschelle's hero, meaning he suddenly finds himself up against the entire Mexican mafia, plus the local police if they find out he is a wanted fugitive.
To make matters worse, a girl he had an earlier affair with is found dead at the bottom of a cenote, and once again, our hero is falsely blamed and arrested. The Lazy Gringo finds himself locked in a Mexican prison now double framed as the murderer of not just one, but now two sexy exes. He realizes it is all over, but then the last honest cop Mexico shows up, Federale Colonel Cordero, the nemesis of El Gordo Vidal, and a man with a plan. Cordero tells The Lazy Gringo he has two choices, life in prison or to go to work for him. Cordero compels both The Lazy Gringo and his motley crew of fellow fugitive local badass amigos to become a Magnificent Seven type Suicide Squad bunch of Expendables. Their mission impossible is to set up El Gordo and somehow take him down at his massive beachfront compound. It is an offer they can't refuse, plus El Gordo has a 100 million peso reward on his head, so The Lazy Gringo and amigos go to work for Colonel Cordero, all leading to the big climactic finale.
