A page-turning epic about the making of a borderland crime family, Country of the Bad Wolfes will appeal both to aficionados of family sagas and to fans of hard-knuckled crime novels by the likes of Donald Pollack, Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke and James Ellroy. Basing the novel partly on his own ancestors, Blake presents the story of the Wolfe family—spanning three generations, centering on two sets of identical twins and the women they love, and ranging from New England to the heart of Mexico before arriving at its powerful climax at the Rio Grande. Begat by an Irish-English pirate in New Hampshire in 1828, the Wolfe family follows its manifest destiny into war-torn Mexico. There, through the connection of a mysterious American named Edward Little, their fortunes intertwine with those of Porfirio Díaz, who will rule the country for more than thirty years before his overthrow by the Revolution of 1910. In the course of those tumultuous chapters in American and Mexican history, as Díaz grows in power, the Wolfes grow rich and forge a violent history of their own, spawning a fearsome legacy that will pursue them to a climactic reckoning at the Río Grande. A master of the historical novel, James Carlos Blake has been hailed as “a poet of the damned who writes like an angel” (Donald Newlove, Kirkus Reviews). Library Journal says of Blake's latest novel that it is "brawling, high-spirited, and superbly realized ... this novel offers many pleasures, including endearing characters, unlikely love stories, and all manner of mayhem." James Carlos Blake was born in Mexico and grew up in Texas and Florida. He is the author of nine other novels and a collection of short works. Among his literary honors are the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Southwest Book Award, and the Falcon Award.

A Men's Journal, Deadly Pleasures, and Latinidad 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 they're discovered, the violent upshot forces Eddie and Miranda 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 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."

On a rainy winter night in Mexico City, a ten-member wedding party is kidnapped in front of the groom’s family mansion. The perpetrator is a small-time gangster named El Galán, who wants nothing more than to make his crew part of a major cartel and hopes that this crime will be his big break. He sets the wedding party’s ransom at five million US dollars, to be paid in cash within 24 hours. The only captive not related to either the bride or the groom is the young Jessica Juliet Wolfe, a bridesmaid and close friend of the bride. Jessie hails from a family of notorious outlaws that has branches on both sides of the border, and when the Wolfes learn of Jessie’s abduction, they fear that the kidnappers will kill the captives after receiving the ransom—unless they rescue Jessie first. Gritty and exhilarating, The House of Wolfe takes readers on a wild ride from Mexico City’s opulent neighborhoods to its frenetic downtown streets and feral shantytowns, as El Galán proves how dangerous it is to underestimate an ambitious criminal, and Jessie's blood kin desperately try to find her before it’s too late.

A Mexican-American convict escapes prison to find his daughter in this “gripping ride” by the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning author of The House of Wolfe ( Arizona Daily Star ). Axel Prince Wolfe was the heir apparent to his Texas family’s law firm and its ‘shade trade’ criminal enterprises. Then he took part in a robbery that went wrong. Abandoned by his partners, he was the only one caught. His family was disgraced, his wife absconded, and his infant daughter Jessie was left an orphan. Two decades later, Axel has given up his desire for revenge against his partners. All he wants is to see the woman his daughter has become, despite her lifelong refusal to acknowledge him. With eleven years left to serve, Axel escapes with a young Mexican inmate, evading a massive manhunt by heading down the Rio Grande and into a desert inferno. But as his chance to see Jessie comes within reach, a startling discovery sends Axel headlong toward a reckoning many years in the making. Winner of the Maltese Falcon Award and the Grand Prix du Roman Noir Étranger, James Carlos Blake has been hailed as “one of the most original writers in America today.” The Ways of Wolfe continues his acclaimed saga of the Wolfe family ( Chicago Sun-Times ). “James Carlos Blake has long been one of my favorites, but his Wolfe family saga may be his best work to date.” —Ace Atkins, on The House of Wolfe