Border tensions are escalating to bloody violence; terrorist attacks on small-town American citizens and petty squabbles in far-flung locales threaten countless more lives. Welcome to America, circa 1916-1918, and two of the bloodiest conflicts that starkly defined an era. Teenage Hector Lassiter, an aspiring author inspired by propaganda and a siren’s song of throbbing war drums, lies about his age, mounts a horse, and storms across the Mexican border behind General “Black Jack” Pershing and George S. Patton to bring the terrorist and Revolutionary General Pancho Villa to justice. Soon, the still underage Hector is shipped off to the bloody trenches of France, fighting the so-called “War to End All Wars” where he meets fellow novelists-in-waiting John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway. Once A World is a love story at once epic and intimate; a portrait of the artist, and his country of birth, at a defining moment in their storied history. Edgar, Anthony and Macavity Awards finalist Craig McDonald, author of the internationally bestselling Hector Lassiter series, delivers an adventure novel and historical thriller for the still-uncertain 21st Century. Praise for Craig McDonald: “The competition for the future of crime fiction is fierce, as it should be, but don’t take your eyes off Craig McDonald. He’s wily, talented and—rarest of the rare—a true original. I am always eager to see what he’s going to do next.” —Laura Lippman “With each of his Hector Lassiter novels, Craig McDonald has stretched his canvas wider and unfurled tales of increasingly greater resonance.” —Megan Abbott “Nobody does mad pulp history like Craig McDonald. Reading a Hector Lassiter novel is like having a great uncle pull you aside, pour you a tumbler of rye, and tell you a story about how the 20th century really went down.” —Duane Swierczynski “A writer of truly unique voice, approach and ambition.” —Michael Koryta