Sprinting through I.V.

Behind the Scenes of Dan Wesolowski’s Final Sprint

by Felicia M. Tomasko

“It’s easy to find a lot of characters
in I.V,” said Dan Wesolowski. The Santa Barbara author’s series of
detective novels draw on these Isla Vistan personalities to liven
up tales centered around Drake Simo, a man in Isla Vista who has a
knack for solving mysteries and uncovering secrets kept in the
backrooms of keggers and classes.

Final Sprint — the fifth, and by no means final, entry in the
series — is Wesolowski’s most recent novel. Between dashes on his
18-speed racing bike, odd jobs, and romantic adventures, our hero
Simo is hired to uncover the meaning behind what initially appears
to be a senseless death at a keg party, where a young man goes over
a beachside balcony. As we wander the eclectic streets of I.V. by
day and night with Simo, the truths and half-truths are revealed to
be much more sinister than they first appear.