This federal agent turned author impressed me with his first book and this, his second was the same level of intense prose and consuming read.

The book picks up shortly after the first, The Far Empty, ended.  However, I do think there are enough tie backs that you could read it as a separate book and still enjoy the story.

Former deputy Chris Cherry is now the Sheriff, and he brings calm and thought to a police department that has been broken.  Along with Officers America and Ben, he is rebuilding. But can the area handle change when they are dealing with outlaws, prejudice, history and a new day?

One beautiful gift that this author has it the ability to make the environment of southwest Texas its own character.  Whether it’s the weather, or the dust that invades every aspect of life, it’s there and an integral part of the story.

For the last few years, I have been disappointed in most books presented by standard publishers.  They appear to all be following the same template of mediocrity.  This is a refreshing change and kudos to Putnam’s ability to see beyond the norm and publish this extraordinary author.  It gives me hope that maybe some of the other publishers will start looking outside their narrow parameters and find other gems like this.

Best news of all – there is a third book coming in July!!

For more about this author and his works CLICK HERE.

SUMMARY

Even though the corrupt Sheriff Ross is dead and gone, outlaws still walk free, peace comes at a price, and redemption remains hard to find in this fiery and violent novel from the author of The Far Empty.

Sometimes we have to be wolves…

In the wake of Sheriff Stanford Ross’s death, former deputy Chris Cherry–now Sheriff Cherry–is the new “law” in Big Bend County, yet he still struggles to escape the long, dark shadow of that infamous lawman. As Chris tries to remake and modernize his corrupt department, bringing in new deputies, including young America Reynosa and Ben Harper–a hard-edged veteran homicide detective now lured out of retirement–he finds himself constantly staring down a town unwilling to change, friends and enemies unable to let go of the past, and the harsh limits of his badge.

But it’s only when a local Rio Grande guide is brutally and inexplicably murdered, and America and Ben’s ongoing investigation is swept aside by a secretive federal agent, that the novice sheriff truly understands just how tenuous his hold on that badge really is. And as other new threats rise right along with the unforgiving West Texas sun, nothing can prepare Chris for the high cost of crossing dangerous men such as John Wesley Earl, a high-ranking member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas and the patriarch of a murderous clan that’s descended on Chris’s hometown of Murfee; or Thurman Flowers, a part-time pastor and full-time white supremacist hell-bent on founding his violent Church of Purity in the very heart of the Big Bend.

Before long, Chris, America, and Ben are outmaneuvered, outnumbered, and outgunned–inexorably drawn into a nearly twenty-year vendetta that began with a murdered Texas Ranger on a dusty highway outside of Sweetwater, and that can only end with fire, blood, and bullets in Murfee’s own sun-scorched streets…

Welcome back to the Big Bend…