A street-smart, spiritually oriented trucker hauls much more than freight in Arnold’s action thriller.

“Relax, Mister Smith,” truck driver Buddy Green says to his new passenger and client. “It’s smooth sailing here on the Shakey Town Express.” In addition to hauling goods up and down California’s I-5 corridor, Buddy runs a successful side business helping all kinds of fugitives (like Mister Smith) slip past the law. There are just a few rules everyone has to abide by: no smoking, no guns in the front seat, no music other than country, and no taking the Lord’s name in vain. (Buddy explains that he has “disabused” himself of a strict moral code after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he remains a devout Christian.) Smith begrudgingly agrees to Buddy’s rules, and the two find themselves locked in endless debates about God, war, and everything in between. (The Great Gatsby even becomes a hot topic when Smith discovers that Buddy enjoys hosting a trucker book club with no-nonsense former MMA fighter Large Marge, one of the book’s best characters.) What Buddy doesn’t know yet is that Smith isn’t just on the run for fraud—he’s a member of a gang that just pulled off a deadly heist. Danger lies in wait for them at Smith’s destination of Los Angeles, where a young sex worker named Dylan, who has crossed the wrong Hollywood mogul, is also waiting and putting all her hopes on Buddy. Arnold introduces readers to this gruff but fascinating world with fantastic cinematic energy, snappy dialogue, and well-calibrated suspense. Buddy is an instantly likable character whom readers will be happy to ride along with. The treatment of Smith (and, as a consequence, the overall story) is more uneven. Pages fly by when Smith and Buddy settle into a Midnight Run-like action-comedy groove, evading the police and learning about each other. But a sudden burst of unexpected, gratuitous violence awkwardly shifts the story’s stakes and tone. (The second half, dedicated to Dylan, has a great set-up and some touching moments but feels like an entirely different novel.) Arnold assembles some inventive set pieces and memorable characters here, but they don’t quite make a cohesive whole.

A thoroughly enjoyable—if sometimes bumpy—ride with a philosophical outlaw trucker.