Author Praise for Clearing Customs "Has Carl Hiaasen switched states and gender or what??? Is the best-selling mystery novelist now targeting his noir satires not at Florida but New Mexico, going undercover as a Santa Fe gallery owner named Martha Egan? Egan's CLEARING CUSTOMS wages jihad on the same brand of self-serving cretins that overpopulate Hiaasen's Miami, heavy-handed, power hungry, sloppy politicos and so-called public servants too ready to break the law to enforce it. And anybody who loves Hiaasen will have a ball reading Egan's fast-paced, chiliflavored, and always entertaining mystery."         --Bob Shacochis, American Book Award, 1985, Easy in the Islands; Prix de Rome, 1989, The Next New World "Thanks to Martha Egan for giving us Beverly -- a river running, shop-keeping protagonist who doesn't look like a Barbie doll, to propel her page turning story about a brave new world where privacy does not exist. Read this book at your own risk. You may never feel the same about your mail, your phone or your life. "         --Elizabeth Cohen, author of The Family on Beartown Road, a New York Times Notable Book, 2003 "If you suspected the government was tapping your phone, following you around, and otherwise harassing you unjustly, you could passively ascribe it all to paranoia, or, like Beverly Parmentier, the protagonist in this exciting novel, you could fight back. I'd bet that, in a similar situation, the author, Martha Egan, would do just what Beverly Parmentier did and that she'd be as successful at it as she is in the writing of this terrific and engaging story."         -- Fred Harris, former US Senator (D-OK), author of ten nonfiction books and three novels. His most recent book is Following the Harvest: A Novel "In Clearing Customs, Martha Egan has written a flaming indictment of government bureaucracy run amok. . . Humor and compassion abound in this personal odyssey of Beverly Parmentier, an importer of folk art, whose adventures transport her from the American Southwest to Mexico to the French Caribbean and back again. Supported by a tiny coterie of fellow individualists, the River Rats, Ms. Parmentier feistily challenges corrupt government agency officials and their minions...."         -- Jack Loeffler, ethnomusicologist, radio producer, aural historian, author of Adventures with Ed: A Portrait of Abbey "Can a novel about a 42-year-old ex- hippie who describes herself as ‘built like a Buick’, and her entanglement with the US Customs Service become a grip? The answer is yes! Clearing Customs by Martha Egan ought to be required reading for anyone who sits on a Congressional Oversight Committee. With clarity,honesty, humor, and emotional depth, the book draws the reader into a narrative that rings with authenticity, a tale about the absurd, insane games that out of control ‘special agents’ play with those they select as targets: citizens like you and me."         --Wick Downing, Author of Leonardo’s Hand "If revenge is a dish best eaten cold, Martha Egan has taken 16 years to freeze herself a vengeful Popsicle of a book."         --Patricia Miller,The Durango Herald, January 14, 2005 "Beverly (Parmentier) is one of the most likable characters you will find in a novel. Self-described as "short, fubsy, and forty two", she is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer... Her quirky characteristics and modesty make you root for her from the very opening pages.... The novel (Clearing Customs) contains suspense and the feeling of pulling for the underdog. For those who think that government officials have distorted their commitment to the larger public good, Egan provides ample ammunition for such reasoning. I recommend the book to all, but do not recommend bringing it with you on international flights where you may be stopped by Customs agents!"         -- Brian Kane, former Peace Corps volunteer, currently Assistant Director of Admissions, The New School, in PeaceCorpsWriters.org