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This page lists novels and short story collection by James Carlos Blake.

Cover images are when possible of the first US edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

The Pistoleer: A Novel of John Wesley Hardin

James Carlos Blake

1995

"The Pistoleer narrates the life of John Wesley Hardin, exposing the many different sides of a man who became a legend. For his forty-two years on this earth, Hardin's name was synonymous with outlaw. A killer at fifteen, in the next few years he became skilled enough with his pistols to back down Wild Bill Hickock in the street. By the time the law caught up with Hardin when he was twenty-five, he had killed as many as forty men and been shot so many times that, it was said, he carried a pound of lead in his flesh. In jail he became a scholar, studying law books until he won himself freedom, and afterwards he tried to lead an upright life. It was not to be. By the time he was killed in 1895, Hardin was an anachronism--the last true gunfighter of the Old West. With each chapter told from a different character's perspective, The Pistoleer is a reading experience not to be missed."

The Friends of Pancho Villa

James Carlos Blake

1996

"Violently waged from 1910 to 1920, the Mexican revolution profoundly transformed Mexican government and culture. And Pancho Villa was its "incarnation and its eagle of a soul"--so says Rodolfo Fierro, the novel's narrator, an ex-con, train robber, and Villa's loyal friend. Killers of men and lovers of life, the revolutionaries fought for freedom, for a new Mexico, for Villa. And in return, they shared victory and death with their country's most powerful hero. The Friends of Pancho Villa is a masterpiece of ferocious loyalty, bloody revolution, and legends that live forever."

In the Rogue Blood

James Carlos Blake

1997

"A savage, uncompromising and unforgettable vision of the old American West that explodes the idealized myths fostered by a hundred years of pulp fiction. In 1845 two brothers, Edward and John Little, are forced to abandon their home in the Florida swamplands after being goaded by a treacherous parent into committing a horrific, shameful act that will haunt their dreams for the rest of their days. So begins the Littles' strange odyssey across an almost surreal bloodland; twin journeys marked by death and degradation that will ultimately lead them both to a violently disputed Texas and place them on opposing sides in a fierce territorial struggle between Mexico and the United States. Here a family bond tempered in hot blood will be tested in the all-consuming fires of war and conscience."

Red Grass River

James Carlos Blake

1998

"A powerful and rousing historical saga of family loyalties, blood feuds, and betrayed friendships; of bank robberies and bootlegging; and of a passionate love as wild at heart as the Everglades. It is the story of sworn enemies: John Ashley, a criminal and folk hero, the brightest star in a family destined to become the most notorious in south Florida; and Bobby Baker, a lawman born of lawmen, a violent, hard-hearted man driven by the searing memory of past affronts and the enduring hatreds the engendered. Ashley and Maker will clash many times over many decades. And as the twentieth century encroaches on their world--and the wildlands give grudging way to the rising boomtown of Miami--a feral, sensual mating will place one man in gravest peril...while his adversary contrives a dark, personal vengeance that could leave countless lives--his own included--in ruin."

Borderlands: Short Fictions

James Carlos Blake

1999

"The scrublands of South Texas, the warm coastland of the Gulf of Mexico, a cinderblock flophouse near the produce fields of South Florida: all are borderlands of mixed blood and spilled blood, of generations forged in fight, failure, and hope. In this extraordinary collection of short works, the masterful James Carlos Blake, author of In the Rogue Blood and the Wolfe family series of border noirs, journeys from the nineteenth-century Mexican frontier to the borderlands of today. Borderlands begins with an introductory piece of memoir, called "The Outsiders," about Blake's own straddling of worlds and identities. …. Bold, honest, and humane, these pieces represent some of the best writing from one of the most original and authentic voices in contemporary fiction."

Wildwood Boys

James Carlos Blake

2000

"Here is the brutally honest story of free-spirit William Anderson, who is pulled into a savage conflict of state against state in the years leading up to the Civil War. When Bill suffers a catastrophic loss, a fury is unleashed in his anguished soul. He becomes the most fearsome guerrilla captain and earns a name that becomes whispered with reverence and terror: 'Bloody Bill'."

A World of Thieves

James Carlos Blake

2002

"In 1928 New Orleans, eighteen-year-old Sonny LaSalle is a top prep student and champion amateur boxer -- and he venerates his fraternal twin uncles, Buck and Russell, armed robbers who love their profession. Sonny secretly believes that he, too, is a natural outlaw and persuades his uncles to take him on as a partner. But when a bank job goes bad, Sonny is sent to jail, where he unintentionally kills a policeman who is the son of the most feared lawman in Louisiana, widely known as John Bones. After nine months in the infamous Angola penitentiary, Sonny makes a harrowing escape and manages to reunite with Buck and Russell. The carefree trio head out for the boomtowns of west Texas, where the money flows as freely as the oil, unaware that vengeance follows close behind, as the cool, calculating John Bones begins a relentless campaign to hunt down Sonny ... no matter what."

Under the Skin

James Carlos Blake

2003

"James Rudolph Youngblood, aka Jimmy the Kid, is an enforcer, a 'ghost rider' for the Maceo brothers, Rosario and Sam, rulers of 'the Free State of Galveston', who are prospering through illicit pleasures in the midst of the Great Depression. Raised on an isolated West Texas ranch that he was forced to flee at age eighteen following the violent breakup of his foster family, Jimmy has found a home and a profession in Galveston - and a mentor in Rose Maceo. Looming over Jimmy's story like an ancient curse is the specter of his fearsome father. Their ties of blood, evident since Jimmy's boyhood, have been drawn tighter over time. Then a strange and beautiful girl enters his life and a swift and terrifying sequence of events is set in motion. Jimmy must cross the border and go deep into the brutal and merciless country of his ancestors - where the story's harrowing climax closes a circle of destiny many years in the making."

Handsome Harry

James Carlos Blake

2004

"Harry Pierpont and John Dillinger were die-hard and deadly partners who made national headlines with their daring bank hold-ups and gun battles - and they had a lot of laughs while they were at it. They were known as the Dillinger Gang but at its heart was "Handsome Harry" Pierpont - tough, fearless, intelligent, and sworn to live by no law but his own. Presented as his intimate confessions, Harry's story takes us from his teenage days as a small-time crook to his fateful meeting with the equally young Dillinger to the pinnacle of his notoriety, and to his final hours in the penitentiary death house."

The Killings of Stanley Ketchel

James Carlos Blake

2005

"In 1903 seventeen-year-old Ketchel makes a violent break from his father and flees his family's Michigan farm to ride the rails as a hobo, brawling with tramps and brakemen and cops. He finds a home among the hard-living mine workers and seductive ladies in one of the last wild towns of the old west - Butte, Montana - where he falls in love with a free-spirited woman who will haunt his heart forever. But Ketchel also discovers his true calling in Butte: cracking skulls as a saloon bouncer leads him to prizefighting, a bloodsport barely hindered by rules in that day. Despite his lack of formal training as a boxer, his ferocious and unbridled style quickly earns him a reputation as the Michigan Assassin. Only the reigning heavyweight champion, fearsome Jack Johnson, rivals Ketchel's claim to be the greatest boxer of the era. Driven to prove himself the best, Ketchel challenges Johnson to a title fight - even though the Galveston Giant has an advantage on him of forty pounds and several inches. Their match is one of boxing's most memorable dramas and leads to a unique bond between the two men. But its outcome also sets Ketchel on a wilful and tragic course."

Country of the Bad Wolfes

James Carlos Blake

2012

"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 Daz, 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 Daz grows in power, the Wolfes grow rich and forge a violent history of their own, spawning a fearsome legacy that will pursue them."

The Rules of Wolfe: A Border Noir

James Carlos Blake

2013

"Eddie Gato Wolfe is a young, impetuous member of the Wolfe family of Texas gunrunners 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 woman named Miranda, whom he learns too late is the property of an intimate member of La Navaja's organization. Their discovery forces Eddie and Miranda to run for their lives, fleeing into the deadly Sonora Desert."

The House of Wolfe

James Carlos Blake

2015

"A ten-member wedding party is kidnapped by a small-time gangster looking to make his big break. 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."

The Ways of Wolfe

James Carlos Blake

2017

"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."