Northern Ireland, 1975. Violence has erupted on the streets of Belfast. After years as a sleepy guerilla army, the IRA is clashing with Loyalist gangs and heavily armed British soldiers. But the Troubles have spilled beyond the small island: An ocean away, in the heart of Philadelphia's Irish enclave, a teenage girl finds a letter in her mailbox. Inside is a bullet, and the message is clear: The next one is for you.

From New York Times reporter and Pulitzer finalist Ali Watkins, this true-crime saga is the long-buried story of how a group of Philadelphia gunrunners armed the IRA at the height of the Troubles. A ragtag band of carpenters, family men and fugitives, the Philadelphia Five, as they came to be known, banded together, bolstering the fight for a united Ireland but fuelling the Troubles at an untold cost.

This small group of Irish nationalists smuggled hundreds of rifles, rocket launchers, explosives and armour-piercing bullets across the Atlantic Ocean and into Northern Ireland. Whether they were skimming money from innocuous-seeming charities, coolly slipping weapons into hidden compartments of vans and houses, or scouring local graveyards for the names of dead Irishmen to use on firearm forms, the gunrunners approached their mission - to unite Ireland under one flag, by any means necessary - with ruthless poise, even as investigators closed in, members of their own movement began to turn on them, and bodies stacked up on all sides.

A gripping tale of crime, rebellion and the hazy line between them, The Next One Is for You is the definitive account of America's hand in the Troubles - a conflict whose resonance is still felt on both sides of the Atlantic today.

"An important, fascinating exploration of how American guns became central to the course of an Irish war." - Toby Harnden, author of First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11 and Bandit Country: The IRA & South Armagh

"The Next One is for You is nonfiction at its best: the intense, clear-eyed, and brilliantly reported story that takes the reader on a very human journey. In revealing how a flood of weapons from Philadelphia suddenly transformed the urban battlefields of Northern Ireland, Ali Watkins also brings to life two parallel subcultures: the Irish nationalists who left for the United States and those who stayed behind. Powerful and compelling, this book is a must." - James Risen, author of The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys?and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy

"Ali Watkins is an intrepid guide to the intersection between violence, identity, and power. Now, she proves herself to be a riveting storyteller, to boot. The Next One Is for You is a masterpiece of investigative and true-crime reporting: a white-knuckle ride through 1970s Philadelphia and Belfast, two cities that will now be forever linked in American memory." - Mark Leibovich, author of This Town and Thank You for Your Servitude