Dog Soldiers

John Converse is sent on assignment to Vietnam by his father-in-law, who runs a tabloid paper. While there, he decides to smuggle in three kilos of heroin to the U.S. He gets his friend Hicks to do it. Once Hicks gets to the U.S., he contacts Marge, who sells tickets in a porn theater and is addicted to tranquilizers. Hicks is set upon by thugs, and he and Marge escape across Southern California, Converse in pursuit of them, and a posse of lawmen led by a man named Antheil in pursuit of the heroin itself. The three parties meet at a cult in the mountains near the Mexican border. This book won the National Book Award in 1975 and was filmed as WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN? in 1978.