The Rules of Wolfe

by James Carlos Blake

Overview

Shortlisted for the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger Award

A Men's Journal and Deadly Pleasures Best Book of the Year

Eddie Gato Wolfe is a young, impetuous member of the Wolfe family of Texas gun-runners that goes back generations. Increasingly unfulfilled by his minor role in family operations and eager to set out on his own, Eddie crosses the border to work security for a major Mexican drug cartel led by the ruthless La Navaja.

Eddie falls for a mysterious woman named Miranda, whom he learns too late is the property of an intimate member of La Navaja’s organization. When their romance is discovered, Eddie and Miranda are forced to run for their lives, fleeing into the deadly Sonora Desert in hope of crossing the border to safety. But La Navaja’s reach is far and his lust for revenge insatiable. If La Navaja’s men don’t kill Eddie and Miranda, the brutal desert just may. Their only hope: help from the family that Eddie abandoned.

At once a riveting thriller and an inside look at the blood-drenched Mexican drug trade, The Rules of Wolfe is another classic crime novel from a writer Entertainment Weekly calls, "one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802121301
Publisher:	Pgw
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

James Carlos Blake is the author of eleven novels. Among his literary honors are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Southwest Book Award, Quarterly West Novella Prize, and Chautauqua South Book Award. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and lives in Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

"Harrowing and suspenseful. . . . Blake's portrayal of the dangers of the immigrants' crossing is better than any journalistic account I've seen. . . . Readers who enjoy action, adventure and lethal weaponry will relish every moment."— Washington Post

"[Blake] writes of grisly death and violence like a singing Gaelic bard. . . . The Rules of Wolfe could have been ripped from today’s headlines. . . . [A] tough, honed-to-the-bone thriller. . . . [He] writes like . . . an avenging angel that dips its pen in blood."— Dallas Morning News

“An epic chase. . . . The breakneck-speed Wolfe, with its focus on the bad guys, is poised to introduce Blake to a broader audience.”— Men’s Journal

“Brilliant . . . Blake’s masterful action-driven narrative and his revealing look at the ultraviolent Mexican drug trade rival the best of Don Winslow and Kem Nunn.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Blake’s prose is muscular, his dialogue and details are keenly observed . . . a new spin on the hard-edged outlaw tale. . . . [A] fascinating family portrait . . . his characters are lively and so is his plot . . . one hell of a ride.”— Booklist (starred review)

"Blake’s customary zest for life and death makes his latest modern historical thriller violent, sexy and exciting."— Kirkus Reviews

“A gripping, muscular tale.”— Tucson Weekly

"Blake doesn't just know the territory, the language and the players—he also knows how to tell a great story."—Shelf Awareness

"Wonderful writing."—Huntington News

"[James Carlos Blake's] characters are criminals and types, but they are never just typical . . . [they] are people we get to know well, and we care about what happens to them. . . . The plot may make readers call this book 'genre noir,' but the sentences show Blake’s literary chops.”—Waxwing

“Riveting.”— Latinidad

"This sand-blasted odyssey is quick, bloody and beautiful with prose as eloquent and unexpected as a cactus flower."— Madison County Herald

From the Publisher

Set in the present day, Blake’s brilliant sequel to 2012’s Country of the Bad Wolfes—which chronicled the early history of the Wolfe family, a sprawling clan of gun-runners and outlaws who operate above and below the U.S./Mexico border—focuses on hotheaded Eddie Gato Wolfe. Eddie, who doesn’t agree with the family rule that requires him to finish college before becoming a full player in the Wolfes’ criminal enterprises, leaves Texas for Sonora to work security for La Navaja, a merciless cartel leader. Eddie soon falls for the beautiful Miranda, the mistress of El Segundo, La Navaja’s brother. When El Segundo discovers Eddie and Miranda in bed together early one morning, Eddie kills El Segundo barehanded. The young lovers go on the run in what becomes a flat-out chase thriller. While the basic setup is familiar, Blake’s masterful action-driven narrative and his revealing look at the ultraviolent Mexican drug trade rival the best of Don Winslow and Kem Nunn. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel-Weber Associates. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Blake’s prose is muscular, his dialogue and details are keenly observed, and his jump-cuts to minor characters’ fates are entertainingly cinematic. His characters are lively, and so is his plot. . . . It’s one hell of a ride.”
—Booklist [HC starred review]

Booklist

A young man looking for adventure finds more than he bargained for. The Texas-based Wolfe family businesses (Country of the Bad Wolfes, 2012, etc.) may be run by a group of lawyers, but many of their enterprises are illegal. Eddie Gato Wolfe, bored with life and the family rule that every family member must have earned a college degree before working in any of the family businesses, takes advantage of the family doyen's relatives in Mexico to go there. But he leaves when he's forbidden to do anything dangerous and takes a job instead as a guard at the remote hacienda of the ruthless drug cartel leader La Navaja. There he meets a beautiful girl and accidentally kills her lover when he catches them in bed. Unfortunately for Eddie, the dead man is La Navaja's brother. As Eddie and Miranda run for their lives, they're pursued by what seems to be all of Mexico. When Eddie's plan for a flight out fails, the pair is forced to flee into the Sonora Desert, the graveyard of so many who have passed that way before. Eddie must rely on his skills, which are indeed remarkable for one so young, and hope for help from the family whose rules he flouted. Blake's customary zest for life and death makes his latest modern historical thriller violent, sexy and exciting.

Kirkus Reviews