Starred review from July 10, 2017
Blood loyalty, forgiveness, and the consequences of violence all figure in Blake’s outstanding fourth Border Noir featuring the Wolfes, a Texas clan of gunrunners and honorable thieves (after 2015’s House of Wolfe). Back in 1984, Axel Wolfe had a beautiful young wife, a baby daughter, and an assured place in his family’s law firm, but an ill-fated decision to take part in a Dallas jewelry store heist forever altered his promising future. When the robbery went bad, Wolfe took a bullet and his two partners left him to take the fall. More than two decades into his prison sentence, the now middle-aged Wolfe decides he has nothing to lose when a young convict named Cacho enlists him in an escape plot orchestrated by powerful cartel relatives. Blake amps up the suspense as the two men find themselves on a wild river ride down the Rio Grande in a desperate attempt to make it across the border. Wolfe dreams of seeing his estranged daughter, Jessie, for the first time in 20 years, if he can survive long enough. Tough, muscular prose complements Blake’s powerful storytelling. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Associates.
July 1, 2017
In The House of Wolfe (2015), Blake's previous book about the Mexican American family working the shade trade on the U.S.-Mexico border, Juliet Wolfe was taken hostage during a family wedding in Mexico City. Here we learn the story of the father she's never known, Axel Wolfe, who's doing hard time in a Texas prison after an ill-conceived heist while still a college student. Nearing the end of his sentence, Axel throws in with a young con plotting escape. In and around the edges we learn Axel's history, his desperation to see his daughter, and more Wolfe family lore, but the bulk of this book deals with the prison break, from its tick-tock execution to the frantic flight that follows. Blake is a writer fans will follow anywhere. He brings the border to life with blunt precision and evokes the lionization of outlaws thatcan be found therecall it a novel-length narcocorrido. This plot's shape isn't quite as perfect as usual for Blake, but it's still extremely satisfying, right up to the noir ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)