Dallas homicide detective “Rose Doucette was a cop’s cop. Despite being headstrong, she was well liked within the department” during a stellar 22-year career. While investigating the dubious suicide of her brother Boyd’s childhood friend, Josh Gannon, she’s suspended. Leaving the verboten crime scene, she is tailed and shot in the head. Her ex and former cop, Dylan Fisher, follows the two cars and is bushwhacked. He’s staged as the killer, his fingerprints on the murder weapon. Another crime solved posthaste by some higher-up pulling marionette cop strings.

"What starts in high gear escalates at meteoric speed in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROSE DOUCETTE. Unpredictable but satisfying tornado-like plot twists leave readers gobsmacked."

The gnarled branches of the McFadden family tree make the Ewings (of TV’s “Dallas”) look like a manicured bonsai. The wealthy McFaddens are corrupt and politically connected, and a few of those precarious branches should be pruned to stoke the fires of hades.

As the prime suspect in Rose’s murder, the court bars Dylan from investigating. He teams up with her current husband, Tito Mullins, a defense attorney. They and Dylan’s attorney friend-without-benefits, Mia Kapoor, are retained by novice congressional candidate Blaine McFadden to locate his younger brother, Rye, reportedly fresh out of the “nut-hut.” Dylan and Tito encounter brutal professional thugs. Did Dylan step on too many toes at the Dallas PD, which caused him to become a private investigator?

Dylan and Tito delve into dark secrets from decades ago that involved Rose, Boyd and Josh, enigmas that easily could have them sharing graves next to Rose.

If Rose Doucette is a cop’s cop, then Harry Hunsicker is a writer’s writer. The former Mystery Writers of America executive vice-president has an impressive list of works, including the Arlo Baines series and THE CONTRACTORS. What starts in high gear escalates at meteoric speed in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ROSE DOUCETTE. Unpredictable but satisfying tornado-like plot twists leave readers gobsmacked.