When Tim Kearney draws a license plate across the throat of a Hell's Angel, he's pretty much a dead man. It's his third crime and, according to California law, that gives him "life without the possibility of parole."  Killing a Hell's Angel also makes him a dead man on any prison yard in California. That's when the DEA makes Kearney an offer: impersonate the late, legendary dope smuggler Bobby Z so that the agency can trade him to Don Huertero -- northern Mexico's drug kingpin -- for a captured DEA agent. Tim Kearney bears an uncanny resemblance to Bobby Z, and, with some training, he might be able to pass. Or not. But, really, what choice does he have? So, he's off to a compound in the middle of a desert that's been designed by Huertero's number-two man to look like the Arab fort in his favorite movie, Beau Jeste ("The Santa Fe thing had been done to death.") Kearney's surprised when he meets Bobby Z's old flame, Elizabeth, who was never mentioned in his training, and her son, who she claims belongs to him. It's a short vacation by the pool before Kearney's on the run from drug lords, bikers, Indians, and cops ... and the kid's along for the ride. Some of the pursuers want Bobby Z, and some want the considerably less legendary Tim K. Whether he pulls it off, whether he can keep the kid and the girl and his life, makes for a hilarious, fast-paced, and truly touching novel. Here's a thriller with everything going for it--a great plot gimmick, excellent action and sex scenes, beautifully-realized characters on every level, and a crisp, pungent, in-your-face writing style that rarely stops to let you catch your breath. Nobody has actually seen the legendary Laguna Beach surfer-turned-drug dealer Bobby Zacharias for years, so a nasty federal agent thinks he has a chance of passing off a lookalike in a hostage switch with a Mexican drug lord. Bobby Z's double, a career screw-up named Tim Kearney, takes the deal because it means a chance to get out of prison--where the Hell's Angels want to terminate him. But when the switch backfires, everyone in the world is after the fake Bobby Z--who takes off with the 6-year-old son of the real Bobby on a cinematic, fully satisfying run for their lives. In this fresh, exciting first novel, three-time loser Tim Kearney is given a chance to leave prison behind when federal agents note his physical resemblance to legendary California drug dealer Bobby Z. First, however, Kearney must impersonate Bobby Z convincingly enough to fool a ruthless Mexican drug dealer. Kearney is successful and comes to enjoy the awe and respect his new identity carries. Yet many people would like to see Bobby Z dead, and soon Kearney?unable and unwilling to shed his disguise?must run for his life. Winslow juggles black humor, excellent dialog, and numerous plot twists with the ease of an accomplished veteran. Sure to be popular, this novel is recommended most fiction collections.?Mark Annichiarico, "Library Journal" Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. Prisoner Tim Kearney has just launched a "preemptive strike" against a menacing Hell's Angel--he slit the biker's throat with a sharpened license plate. "The Israelis do it all the time," Tim tells his lawyer. "They're a country," his lawyer answers, "You're a career criminal." The murder is Tim's third strike, and he's facing life without parole. So when a DEA agent tells him that he can win his freedom by impersonating the late, legendary surfer turned drug dealer Bobby Z, Tim goes for it. What the agent has failed to tell Tim is that he will be delivered into the hands of a vicious Mexican drug lord. Tim barely has time to enjoy Bobby Z's luxurious lifestyle, complete with a beautiful girlfriend and a six-year-old son, before he's on the run from the Mexican Mafia, drug dealers, the DEA, and the Hell's Angels--with the kid in tow. This is a profane, hilarious, wildly implausible novel that deserves to be a big hit. Winslow, a former private investigator, seems to be laughing up his sleeve as the body count approaches three figures, and longtime loser Tim Kearney winds up with the girl, the cash, and the kid and with readers cheering him every step of the way. Joanne Wilkinson A deal that a lifer cuts to impersonate a legendary drug dealer as his ticket out of prison turns him into a clay pigeon for the dealer's connections, the DEA, the Hell's Angels, and assorted freelancers. Robert James Zacharias, a.k.a. Bobby Z, surfer and dealer, hasn't been seen for years. When Don Huertero, the premier druglord in northern Mexico, wants to exchange captured DEA agent Arthur Moreno for his old associate, Moreno's friend and colleague Tad Gruzsa, chagrined that Bobby Z has died in a Thai prison, is also relieved that he's got access to a ringer for the late dealer, a three-time loser named Tim Kearney. Staring at imminent in-house vengeance for Stinkdog, the Hell's Angel he's just killed, Tim agrees to stand in for Bobby Z. You might expect Winslo