Six Bad Things

Hank Thompson is living off the map in Mexico with a bagful of cash that the Russian mafia wants back and many, many secrets. So when a Russian backpacker shows up in town asking questions, Hank tries to play it cool. But he knows the jig is up when the backpacker mentions the money...and the family Hank left behind. Suddenly Hank's in a desperate race to get to his parents in California before anyone can harm them. Along the way he'll face Federales and Border Patrol, mafiosi and vigilantes, extortionists and drug dealers, and a couple of psychotic surf bums with an ax to grind. From the golden beaches of the Yucatán to the seedy strip clubs of Vegas, Charlie Huston opens a door to the squalid underworld of crime and corruption — and invites the reader to live it in the extreme.

"Imagine The Blues Brothers as directed by Sam Peckinpah....Hank demonstrates an almost-supernatural knack for survival, and one can't help but root for him even as he brings mayhem into the lives of family and friends." Booklist (Starred Review)

"I enjoyed...Six Bad Things as much as any novel I've read this year....This crazed, wildly readable adventure works because Huston writes with such delicious, deadpan verve and because Hank...is such an appealing, totally cool dude." The Washington Post

I don't remember reaching for Charlie Huston's Six Bad Things; but here it is, sticking to my fingers....Huston writes dialogue so combustible it could fuel a bus and characters crazy enough to take it on the road. Passengers, line up here." Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

"[A] fun, forgettable sequel....While Hank's morals are questionable, Huston manages to make him an agreeable guy who simply made poor decisions....[T]he prose is brisk and funny. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly

"A crime thriller so relentlessly violent that it could make even the hard-core hard-boiled amenable to the leavening touch of Agatha Christie. Still, a page-turner." Kirkus Reviews

"Six Bad Things rocks and rolls from the first page. This is one mean, cold, slit-eyed mother of a book, and Charlie Huston is the real deal." Peter Straub

"Six Bad Things is relentless. It grabs you by the throat, or slightly lower, and never lets go." Jeff Lindsay, author of Darkly Dreaming Dexter

"Charlie Huston is a bad-ass writer, Six Bad Things is a bad-ass book. I loved it, absolutely loved it, as I did his first book. Can't wait for whatever else comes from him." James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces

"Hank, a rather endearing slacker who just can't say no to trouble, will entertain fans of straight-ahead, no-holds-barred action." Library Journal

From the author of the Hitchcockian debut Caught Stealing comes a fast-paced crime thriller about a good man who just wants to go home — and the bad past that won't let him.

Charlie Huston's previous novel, Caught Stealing, was the first in a trilogy about Hank Thompson. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, the acress Virginia Louise Smith.