Panama Red, Georgia Dust

Panama Red, Georgia Dust: 24 hours till home, is the first book in a gritty crime fiction trilogy that follows Gabriel, a boy caught between two worlds-his Panamanian roots and his American upbringing-who grows into a young man navigating the dangerous currents of the drug trade in the 1980s South.

The series begins in 1979 Panama, where ten-year-old Gabriel discovers freedom and temptation in equal measure. What starts as a childhood adventure riding trains into Panama City quickly turns into something darker when he befriends Mateo, a boy whose family controls a growing drug empire. Gabriel learns he can slip in and out of the U.S. Army base undetected, making him the perfect link in a network moving product north.

By the mid-1980s, after his father retires from the Army, Gabriel is living in Augusta, Georgia. Now sixteen, he hides behind the mask of a normal high school student while running a carefully controlled route from Tampa through Valdosta and into Augusta. From there, the drugs branch out west to Atlanta and east to Columbia, South Carolina. Over the course of just twenty-four hours, Gabriel must untangle a chain of problems threatening the entire operation: a stalled shipment in Valdosta, a violent standoff in Atlanta's Techwood projects, and a suspicious meeting in Beech Island, South Carolina-all while keeping up the façade of an ordinary teenager.

Across the trilogy, Gabriel's world expands and darkens. The second book will take him deeper into the web of cartel politics and local rivalries as he balances loyalty, survival, and his growing ambitions. The third will bring the story full circle, testing whether Gabriel can escape the life that has defined him-or if the mask of "just a regular teenager" will finally shatter for good.

Equal parts coming-of-age story and crime saga, this series blends history, tension, and raw authenticity. It's about choices made in shadows, the thin line between survival and destruction, and the cost of carrying secrets that no one around you can ever know.