FFB Review: "Still River: A Lee Henry Oswald Mystery" by Harry Hunsicker

Friday means Friday’s Forgotten Books  hosted by Patti Abbott. If you are not reading her blog on a daily basis, you are making a serious mistake……

Lee Henry “Hank” Oswald is a private investigator who walks the mean streets of Dallas, Texas. It begins as a favor for a former fellow high school classmate in the form of Vera Drinkwater. Crying in his office, she tells Hank that her brother Charles (Charlie to one and all) Wesson (two years behind both Vera and

Hank in school) is missing and has been for a little less than twenty-four hours. She knows something is wrong. Hank knows at this point, Charlie hasn’t been gone long enough to raise an eyebrow or anything else at the Dallas Police Department. The fact that he is a former addict, allegedly clean and sober now, won’t speed anyone to look for him as in all likelihood, he is off on a binge.

Charlie had been a victim all through school both by bullies at school and a stepfather at home determined to make a man out of him one way or another. Hank has memories of those times as well as some guilt as he wasn’t in a position to really help but witnessed enough to have some idea of what Charlie endured. Those memories trigger his need to help and he agrees to make some calls and look for Charlie. It should have been easy enough. But, one thing life has taught him with a name like his in Dallas, nothing is easy and this certainly isn’t. Before long, it turns into a huge mess involving crooked real estate developers, urban renewal in the form of yet another Trinity River project, the Russian mafia, drugs, guns, and wayward relatives. Through it all, Hank keeps going as he digs through the muck of Dallas whether they are rich and famous or the nobodies on the wrong side of the river. 

Author Harry Hunsicker’s portrayal of Dallas has absolutely nothing to do with the Chamber of Commerce ads for the city. This is a hard-edged noirish style Dallas that serves as a backdrop for all sorts of things that no doubt happen on a routine basis and that no one ever talks about. While Still River stumbles at first in terms of clichés, the book builds a steady momentum and before long carries the reader violently along for a very enjoyable read. 
 

Still River: A Lee Henry Oswald Mystery
By Harry Hunsicker
Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN # 0-312-33787-6
2005
Hardback (also now available in paperback and e-book)
277 pages

Still River is followed by The Next Time You Die and Crosshairs.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2005, 2012

Lee Henry Works Again In "Crosshairs" by Harry Hunsicker

I find myself in the role of having to confess another full and fair disclosure here. I first met Harry Hunsicker at the recent HHCC conference where I found him to be eminently approachable. Actually, he found me first as he reads my work. Just how cool is that? He graciously offered an ARC of his soon to be released novel and like the salivating dog that I am, I happily said yes. I'm glad I did though I do wish I had been a bit more witty and intelligent in his presence.


Crosshairs: A Lee Henry Oswald Mystery
By Harry Hunsicker
http://www.harryhunsicker.com
Thomas Dunne Books
http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com
ISBN #978-0-312-34851-9
ARC

This third novel in the series (Still River and The Next Time You Die) finds Lee Henry Oswald and Dallas at the dawn of the new millennium. Lee Henry Oswald is no longer a private investigator; his home is gone, as is his street radar and his moral compass. He's basically just sliding by and trying to avoid everything on every level. Now he tends bar and chases airline stewardess. One in particular, after sleeping with him a second time assumes that they have a relationship. With Lee Henry Oswald living at an extended stay motel near Dallas Love Field she is making a mistake.

So too does Olson shows up at the local bar expecting Lee Henry to come running to help. Also is one of the few living reminders of what went horribly wrong a few months ago. Olson and Lee Henry both were in a Ranger Unit during the first gulf war. Olson brings news that Mike Baxter, another member of their unit, is dying at the Dallas VA Hospital. He needs to see Lee Henry and thanks to Lee Henry's obnoxious boss, Lee Henry is suddenly free.

Ultimately, with his days numbered to a precious few, Mike wants Lee Henry to find his estranged missing daughter, Susan Baxter, and bring her to him. He wants to talk to her one last time. The last thing Lee Henry wants to do is work again as a P.I. but he owes Mike who very well might be dying because of what happened long ago in the desert. He agrees and then moments later gets handed another case by Anita Nazari, a research doctor in the hospital who desperately wants to protect her daughter and keep the police out of it for reasons of her own.

The result is Lee Henry, who wanted no part of the life again is forced back in via two cases that seem to have nothing in common. As the point of view shifts from the doctor, to the trained assassin known only as The Professor, and to Lee Henry author Harry Hunsicker begins to weave two separate tales that have readers knowing much more than Lee Henry. Even though readers do, as the pages pass, it becomes clear that the readers don't have much of an advantage if any at all.

While another enjoyable read in the series, once again one this reader feels like he has been dropped into the latest situation and somehow has missed a novel in the series. Much is hinted in regards to earlier events which seem to rise to the level of being a complete book in their own right. As such with so much change for Lee Henry as well as the stylistic changes such as use of less humor shifting POV, etc. it takes some time before it begins to feel like a Lee Henry Oswald novel.

And yet, after all the shifts, the rather clichéd idea of the assassins code name being "The Professor" the novel begins to churn along with the expected violence and dark outlook on life one expects from Lee Henry Oswald. Crosshairs,  as the others do in this series, rolls towards a violent confrontation where finally all the players are all identified. The novel delivers on its promise and once again author Harry Hunsicker delivers another dark and engrossing read regarding the man with the less than helpful name.



Kevin R. Tipple © 2007