The Ne'er-Do-Well

In Rex Beach's 'The Ne'er-Do-Well' Kirk Anthony is a rich, playboy who enjoys the lavish lifestyle of expensive dinners, fancy cars, and the New York Night Life, despite his father's pleas for him to settle down and do some real work. Kirk won't stop having a good time with his father's money until one of his drunken friends is persuaded, by a man trying to escape the law, to play a fun 'trick' on Kirk.
Kirk is kidnapped by his own friends and put on a ship to Panama with no money and the wanted man's identity. Working to earn his passage home, Kirk is shocked to find that his father is tired of his irresponsible lifestyle and refuses to help him out of this situation. The perfect novel for fans of 'Windfall' starring Jason Segal and Jesse Plemons, or 'All the Money in the World'. Rex Beach, was an American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player.
His novels, most of which were adventure novels, were influenced by Jack London - author of 'White Fang' - and they were very popular during the early 1900s. His second novel, 'The Spoilers' which was based on a true experience he witnessed while in Alaska of corrupt government officials stealing gold mines from prospectors, became one of the best-selling novels of 1906.