In 1971, a man calling himself D.B. Cooper hijacked a flight, claimed his ransom without harming a soul, and vanished. Elwood Reid uses this true story as a starting point, imagining Cooper as Phil Fitch, a Vietnam vet with a failed marriage who decides the time has come to do something that will save him from a life of punching timecards and wondering what could have been. Fitch ends up in Mexico, where he drifts until a bad turn of luck forces him to return home.

Meanwhile, newly retired FBI agent Frank Marshall is struggling with his new life of leisure–fishing, spending time with family, and drinking too much. Unable to let go of a few old cases, Marshall decides to help a young agent determined to solve the mystery of D. B. Cooper. As they close in and events bring Fitch back home, these two stories head for a moving climax in a smart, gripping, and frequently hilarious tale of one of America’s modern folk heroes. “Flawless . . . A glorious ride.” –The Boston Globe“Masterfully told, D.B. ranks among the best and most entertaining books of the year.” –Pittsburgh Tribune “Reid writes smart and direct prose. . . . By shifting the reader's attention from the overtly dramatic to the psychological, Reid has written something much more engaging than the mere suspense novel D.B. might have been.” --The New York Times Book Review"A thoughtful and funny imagining of the life of D.B. Cooper." --Esquire“Wild and alive, an epic manhunt and a brutal social portrait, D.B. is the road trip of your dreams — Hunter Thompson does the driving but John Steinbeck holds the map.” –Mark Costello, author of Big If