The Next Time You Die

“A worthy follow-up to Still River. Good stuff.”

--D MAGAZINE

"This second book in the Lee Oswald series guarantees that I will be buying everything with Harry Hunsicker’s name on it. Already on my best of 2006 list."

--Jon Jordan, editor of CRIME SPREE MAGAZINE

The Next Time You Die

release date: July 2006
St. Martin's Press
ISBN 0-312-34850-9

release date: June 2007
St. Martin's Press
ISBN 0-312-94920-0

When a bourbon-swilling Baptist preacher hires private detective Lee Henry Oswald to recover a stolen file, Oswald figures the job for a quick and painless infusion of cash.

But nothing comes easily in Dallas for anybody named Oswald, especially when a psychopathic hit man shows up, intent on finding the same scrap of missing paper.

With the police after him for a murder he didn't commit and his every move shadowed by the strange mobster, Hank Oswald gratefully accepts an extortion case in an effort to get out of town for a few pays. State Senator Vernon Black, the tree-hugging black sheep of an oil-rich East Texas family, has a problem. Somebody wants him to change his vote on an important environmental bill. If he refuses, Black's long-time friend and his entire family will be killed, one by one, starting with the oldest child, Senator Black's goddaughter, the head-strong Tess McPherson.

In the aftermath of a bloody encounter with the mobster at Tess McPherson's apartment, Oswald finally realizes the chilling connection between the two cases: a dead man named Billy Barringer, Hank's one-time best friend and the first-born son of an East Texas crime boss.

As the stakes mount, each treacherous step toward the missing file forces Oswald to confront the haunting memory of a split second decision which ultimately cost Billy Barringer his life.

Now it looks like the dead man's family has teamed up with the new player in town, and everybody's got Oswald in their cross hairs. As the clock ticks down to a startling climax, Oswald races across the mean streets of Dallas to find the missing file and the secret it holds.

Once found, the explosive discovery forces a dangerous decision, one full of hard choices Oswald thought had been left long ago in his murky past.

PRAISE FOR THE NEXT TIME YOU DIE

How does one describe P.I. Lee Henry Oswald? Sam Spade with a Texas twang? Mike Hammer with spurs? Nope, none of that's good enough. If you like tough-talking, hard-as-nails private eyes, then don't miss Harry Hunsicker's The Next Time You Die. Buy this book right now, or I'll spit warm gin in your eye."

--Victor Gischler, author of Gun Monkeys and Shotgun Opera

This is the most fun you'll having reading a mystery this year. With The Next Time You Die, Hunsicker has proved he's the heir apparent to Robert B. Parker. The action never lets up, the characters are the most likeable the genre has to offer, and the one liners will make you laugh out loud. What a wonderful book. Buy it, you'll love it.

--J. A. Konrath, author of Bloody Mary

"What do you call a boozehound preacher, a southern-fried hitman, half a dozen rattlesnakes and the redneck mafia? Business as usual for Dallas PI Lee Henry Oswald. If you take your detective novels straight up with a Tobasco chaser, order the Harry Hunsicker."

--Sean Doolittle, author of Burn and Rain Dogs