A shocking murder at the nexus of Silicon Valley, California surf culture, and the cannabis gold rush exposes the dark side of the legal weed business in this revelatory work of investigative journalism.
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“An exhilarating, deeply reported true-crime murder mystery and love story that moves like a Netflix thriller.”—The New York Times Book Review
“True crime doesn’t come much better than this. . . . [Eden’s] ability to dig into how marijuana is grown one minute and generate top-shelf suspense the next sets the account apart.”—Publisher’ Weekly (starred review)
“[An] exceptional piece of journalism. . . . An unsettling portrait of [an] opaque, quasi-legal, unremittingly perilous world.”—Booklist (starred review)
“A Killing in Cannabis is three books in one. First, it’s a murder mystery that would work even if every word was made up. Next, it’s a deeply reported literary nonfiction masterpiece, as if Robert Caro reported a story written by Colum McCann. It’s a book that inhabits the subculture of illegal and legal weed, of the last tracer afterglow of whatever good was happening in San Francisco in the 1960s, before it turned sour, connecting Neal Cassady to El Chapo, and the Acid Tests to violence, venture capitalism, and greed. Which brings me to the third book: Scott Eden has written a parable.”—Wright Thompson, New York Times bestselling author of The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
“A grimly fascinating true-crime yarn centered on California’s legal—and otherwise—weed business. . . . A complex story well told, and a cautionary tale for would-be drug kingpins.”—Kirkus
“This book is more than an epic American true crime offering. Multilayered, riveting, and, yes, trippy, it’s a coronation of Scott Eden as one of our finest journalists, combining incisive investigative reporting with lyrical prose.”—Seth Wickersham, ESPN Senior Writer and New York Times bestselling author of American Kings
“In A Killing in Cannabis, Scott Eden takes us deep into a hidden world of indelible characters, strange folkways, and the darker edges of American ambition. This is an immersive and masterfully suspenseful book.”—Benjamin Wallace, New York Times bestselling author of The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine
“A Killing in Cannabis is a thoughtful, well-researched exploration of a violent crime set against the backdrop of a transforming industry and culture. It’s at once a human story and a social commentary, making it a compelling read for true crime enthusiasts and those interested in the cannabis legalization movement alike. If you appreciate true crime that goes beyond the whodunit to examine why a crime unfolds within a particular time and place, this book offers fresh insights and real emotional weight.”—The Street
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Santa Cruz is one of the country’s surf meccas and a favored getaway of the Silicon Valley elite. For decades, marijuana has been cultivated, consumed, and trafficked in these mountains, one of the most important regions in the country for the crop. It’s where Ken Kesey threw his wild parties, where back-to-the-land types came to live off the grid, and where Tushar Atre, Silicon Valley entrepreneur, was found brutally murdered.
Charismatic, ambitious, arrogant, and rich, Atre was the leader among a clutch of tech execs and venture capitalists with a voracious appetite for risk, work, and money, riding waves at dawn and then putting in fourteen-hour days. When he met Rachael Lynch, a maverick cannabis grower and mover of product, he had a vision of how their lives could come together in business and in love. Atre sought to disrupt the newly legal cannabis trade by funding a start-up with black-market capital. This illegal pursuit would entangle him with an array of colorful and dangerous characters, many of whom had compelling reason to want him dead.
Award-winning journalist Scott Eden’s panoramic investigation exposes the symbiotic relationship between the legal weed world and its shadowy, black-market counterpart. It is a story of love, greed, and betrayal, set in a world where visionaries, hippies, masters of the universe, and stone-cold killers are all stakeholders, eager to exploit the power of the plant.
PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9781954118621
Price: $30.00
On-sale date: 2/3/2026
Scott Eden is an award-winning investigative journalist whose work has appeared in publications like Wired, GQ, ESPN The Magazine, The Atavist Inc., and The Believer’s best-of collection Read Hard. He is the author of Touchdown Jesus: Faith and Fandom at Notre Dame. He lives in New Jersey.