Mr. Hunsicker brings us The Devil’s Country..The Drifter along with publishers Thomas & Mercer.

Former Texas Ranger Arlo Baines didn’t come to the tiny West Texas town of Piedra Springs to cause trouble. After his wife and children were murdered, Arlo just wants to be left alone. Moving from place to place seems to be the only thing that eases the pain of his family’s violent end.

But a chance encounter outside a bar forces him to rescue a terrified woman and her children from mysterious attackers. When the woman turns up murdered the next day—her children missing—Arlo becomes the primary suspect in exactly the same type of crime he is trying desperately to forget.

Haunted by the fate of his family, and with the police questioning the existence of the dead woman’s children, Arlo decides it’s his duty to find them. The question is, just how deep will he have to sink into the dusty secrets of Piedra Springs to save them and clear his name?

Arlo really just wants to be left alone to read his book and enjoy a drink. He doesn’t have any business here in Piedra Springs. It’s just another spot the bus stopped and he got off for a bit.

He’s not a Texas Ranger anymore and since his family was murdered as well as the crooked cops who killed them the last thing he wants to do is get involved in the shady business going on in this little nowhere of a town.

But with the chance encounter with Molly and her children he knows he can’t leave until those children are found. When he is joined by a sort of disgraced former reporter, trying desperately  to find her own niece who she knows is with a very strange cult which has set up shop in a former prison, they join forces.

To me the best suspense thrillers are the ones that when you are finished you can say Whoa! this could actually be happening right now and probably is. The character development is great. I wanted these two and the few helping them to succeed.

This is the first Hunsicker book I have read, but it will not be the last!!

P