False Positive (A Southern Boy's Descent Into the Global Drug War)

False Positive is a gripping, unflinching memoir that takes readers from the American South to global battlefields and prisons, chronicling a life shaped by survival, love, and the pursuit of justice. It is both a modern epic and a raw, authentic exploration of resilience in the face of extreme circumstances.

From a troubled childhood in the American South to the battle-scarred fields of Ukraine, Tristan Seth Nettles has lived a life that almost defies belief. 

Born between wealth and poverty, armed with stubborn determination and a restless spirit, Tristan navigates a world that seems determined to break him to its mold — and somehow survives, grows stronger, and fights back.

False Positive is the true story of a man who outruns his past but never forgets it. As a rambunctious youth, soldier, international dark web drug dealer, outlaw, lover, and mercenary, Tristan travels the world — from armed home invasions in Mississippi to mountain top temples in Nepal, from Southeast Asian prisons to battlefields in Eastern Europe — chasing truth, redemption, and ultimately, justice. When the woman he loves, Ashley Oosthuizen, is wrongfully imprisoned and sentenced to death in Thailand, Tristan's mission becomes clear. What began as a reckless search for freedom turns into an international fight for someone else's.

Told with dark humor, brutal honesty, and heart-stopping intensity, False Positive is a modern epic — a real-life odyssey in the spirit of Forrest Gump and Catch Me If You Can. It's a raw, unforgettable journey through love, loss, crime, war, and the deep, messy beauty of being human.