The Ways of Wolfe

A master of historical and crime fiction, James Carlos Blake delves back into the dark realms of the Wolfe family, a clan whose roots run deep on both sides of the United States-Mexico border, and whose prevailing interests straddle both sides of the law. Twenty years ago, college student Axel Prince Wolfe - heir apparent to his Texas family's esteemed law firm and its 'shade trade' criminal enterprises - teamed up with his best friend, Billy, and a Mexican stranger in a high-end robbery that went wrong. Abandoned by his partners, he was captured and imprisoned, his family disgraced, his wife absconded, his infant daughter Jessie left an orphan. Two decades later, with eleven years still to serve, Axel has long since exhausted his desire for revenge against the partners who deserted him. All he wants now is to see the woman his daughter has become, despite her lifelong refusal to acknowledge him. When the chance comes to escape in the company of Cacho, a young Mexican inmate with ties to a major cartel, Axel takes it, and a massive manhunt ensues, taking the pair down the Rio Grande and into a desert inferno. With his chance to see Jessie now within reach, a startling discovery re-ignites an old passion and sends Axel headlong toward reckonings many years in the making.

About the Author :
James Carlos Blake is one of America's most highly regarded living authors of historical crime fiction. He was born in Mexico to a family that moved regularly when he was a child, living in various towns along the border and coast before finally settling in Texas. After a stint in the army, Blake attended the University of South Florida and received a Master's degree from Bowling Green State University, both universities where he would later teach. In 1997 he left teaching to write full-time. Blake has written thirteen other novels and one collection of stories, most of which dealt with real-life characters from the American west. He lives and works in Arizona.

Review :
Pull together the pulp perfection of John D Macdonald, the grassroots grit of James Lee Burke; mix it with one of Stephen Hunter's alpha male Swagger clan; add the cross-border corruption of Don Winslow - and then you come close to the tales of the Wolfe family Tough, muscular prose complement Blake's powerful storytelling Blake's tales smack of the Wild West with a modern twist gritty, exciting and full of suspense