The Next Time I Die by Jason Starr

Your next stop is the twilight zone

The Next Time I Die is published by Hard Case Crime, a company that specializes in producing crime novels with covers that are reminiscent of the mass-market paperback hardboiled novels of the 1950s and 60s. Based on appearances, you might expect this to be another straightforward crime novel in the line, but it actually has a science-fiction twist. Starr has said that for this novel his "biggest influence was Philip K. Dick’s novels, especially his early ones, such as his brilliant alternate reality novel, Time Out of Joint."

Review

Steven Blitz is a criminal defense lawyer who has taken on a high-profile client named Jeffery Hammond, a darling of the New York art scene who also happens to be a psychopathic serial killer. Steven thinks of himself as a virtuous man, but he's also honest with himself about the fact that he's much more invested in making his name with this case than in looking out for his client's interests. He's doing prep work for the case late one Friday evening when his wife, Laura, comes into his home office and announces that she wants a divorce. Laura is manic depressive and often goes off her lithium. Though he tries to calm her down, Laura keeps yelling that she wants him out of the house, to the point that he decides the best course of action is to pack an overnight bag and drive to his brother's house. After all, he still has to get the work done before the trial begins on Monday morning, and he can't do it in the midst of a tempest.

On the way to his brother's place, Stephen almost loses control of the car as it skids on ice in a tight turn and almost hits a tree. A bit later in the drive, nerves still on edge, he decides to stop at a convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes. In the parking lot, an older man is having an altercation with a young woman, demanding that she get back in his car, which she doesn't want to do. Going against his self-preservation instincts, Steven decides to intervene and ends up getting into a scuffle with the man, who stabs him and drives off. As he lies in the parking lot, watching his own blood turn the snow red, Steven has the sensation of being in a spinning glass ball that shatters, and then darkness descends.

He wakes up in a hospital with a tube down his throat, shocked that he's still alive. As he gradually comes around, watching CNN on the TV across from his bed, he begins to realize things are off. A war is brewing between Pakistan and India. A chyron on the screen refers to President Gore. The nurse explains that he was in a car accident and suffered a concussion when the car hit a tree. When his wife is allowed in to see him, she is gentle and loving in a way she hasn't been toward him in years. Then she mentions their daughter, but Steven knows they don't have a daughter. Though at first he believes he is being subjected to an elaborate hoax, Steven comes to realize over the next few days that he has somehow undeniably slipped into another timeline.

While Steven tries to settle into the new version of his life without giving away the fact that it's all new to him, he keeps slipping up because so many things -- big and small -- are different. (As best he can tell from a bit of online research, this timeline seems to have diverged from his own somewhere around 1998.) But many things about this alternate life are better than they were in his "real" life. This Laura is much happier and healthier; he has a sweet, young daughter; and he is much wealthier because his investments have all been sound and he's a full partner in the law firm. The Hammond case doesn't exist. Through a bit of online research, however, he discovers that Jeffery Hammond exists in the new timeline. (Is Hammond a murderer here, too, he wonders; but one who just hasn't been caught?) Steven also discovers that the other version of himself wasn't such a good guy. He conducted extramarital affairs, and, worse, he committed a serious crime that is still under investigation. The new Stephen has to find a way to navigate these complications and to save his own neck despite the fact that he wasn't there when these things happened.

I had few quibbles with the novel. The protagonist's attempts to follow up the case that he had been working on in his other life seemed unlikely to me. And his interaction with a character named Justin, who we meet later in the novel, seemed very much out of character for this version of Steven. But those were minor issues. The changes to the world in the new timeline were amusing (for instance, Blockbuster is the leading streaming service in the country), dealing with the complications caused by the other, "bad" Steven created interesting situations, and the pacing and nimble style keep you engaged. It's not the kind of book that's going to stick with you, but it's a perfect entertainment for a lazy summer afternoon with a cold pitcher of sangria in arm's reach. I read it in a day.