The House of Wolfe

Starred review from January 5, 2015
In Blake’s masterly third Border Noir (after 2013’s The Rules of Wolfe), a female member of the American branch of the Wolfe family (a large clan of outlaws who operate numerous legitimate businesses and deal in illegal arms on both sides of the U.S./Mexican border) finds herself in big trouble. In Mexico City, kidnappers led by El Galán, an up-and-coming gangster intent on making a name for himself, abduct college-age Jessie Juliet Wolfe, along with an entire 10-person wedding party, and demand payment of a $5 million ransom within 24 hours. With aid from Los Jaguaros, as the Mexican Blake family’s criminal network is known, Rudy Max Wolfe, a cousin of Jessie’s, and Charlie Fortune, another cousin, hope to slip into Mexico undetected and rescue Jessie, but of course everything goes to hell quickly. Blake convincingly portrays modern-day Mexico City as a beautiful and surreal landscape, and he lets the wealthy elite and the desperately poor share the stage, often with violent and tragic results. As always, the writing is both poetic and visceral, and the mostly present-tense narrative keeps the reader engaged as the action rushes toward a surprising and fully satisfying conclusion. Agent: Nat Sobel, Sobel Weber Associates.

April 27, 2015
An ambitious criminal named Galan has organized the meticulous kidnapping of a wedding party from a Mexico City mansion, seeking a $5 million ransom within 24 hours, in the latest addition to Blake’s Wolfe Family saga. Jessie Wolfe is one of the bridesmaids, and her family members don’t trust Galan to free his captives unharmed. Rarely does a thriller maintain such a relentlessly suspenseful atmosphere, and it’s a mark of reader DeSantos’s talent that he sets a pace that keeps up the tension without exhausting either the listener or himself. As the novel shifts from an impersonal observation of the crime and its aftermath to the very personal narration of Rudy Wolfe, the family’s main fixer, DeSantos dutifully switches from hard-edged rendition to a hard-boiled focus on finding the kidnappers and rescuing Jessie. Retribution will come, Rudy tells us. But maybe not. In any case, DeSantos gives voice to an assortment of characters—male and female, Mexican and American—whom he effectively and effortlessly switches between as they become engaged in a chillingly exciting, violent confrontation between Wolfes and Galan’s warriors. A Grove/Atlantic/Mysterious hardcover.

October 15, 2014

Last seen in Rules of Wolfe, which was best-booked by a handful of publications, the Wolfe family runs guns across the Tex-Mex border. Here, a go-getting gangster in Mexico City kidnaps a ten-member wedding party, which includes bridesmaid Jessica Juliet Wolfe.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2014

The Wolfes (The Rules of Wolfe), a south Texas family, live and work on both sides of the border and the law. Mainly gun runners, they also smuggle other items if the price is right. Young Jessica Juliet Wolfe is attending an old college friend's wedding in Mexico City when the whole wedding party is kidnapped. The families of the bride and groom have 24 hours to come up with the ransom. When the Wolfes hear about the kidnapping, they send a couple of family members south to work with their relatives in Mexico City to find and rescue one of their own. Meanwhile, Jessie has similar thoughts about her unpromising future as a captive and is trying to escape. The narrative shifts among the many characters in this drama, from captives to rescuers to the kidnappers themselves. The laws of nations are thinnest at the edges, and Blake's story throws a spotlight on those outliers who have chosen their own codes over any others. VERDICT This fast-paced, well-plotted thriller reads like a mix of Cormac McCarthy and Elmore Leonard. [See Prepub Alert, 9/22/14.]--Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2015
Even for criminals, there's no such thing as a perfect plan. The Wolfe family is a fixture in southern Texas, where its members run several successful legal businesses and one illegal gunrunning scheme. An even wealthier branch of the family has established itself across the Mexican border. Charlie Fortune, who ostensibly runs a cantina in Wolfe Landing, heads the gunrunning operation in Texas along with his cousins Frank and Rudy and other Wolfe family members. Charlie is Jessie Wolfe's uncle, but she's like a daughter to him, so when the relatives south of the border call warning that she's in trouble in Mexico City, he and Rudy head down there. Jessie's problems began when her college friend Luz Sosa asked her to be her bridesmaid. Unfortunately, the newlyweds, both from wealthy families, have attracted the attention of an ambitious gangster eager to make his mark. El Galan grew up in the depths of poverty but appears to be a man of education and refinement. Along with Huerta, who runs the security team for the groom's family, Galan has planned a snatch that will net him and his gang $5 million. Jessie, though not her cousin Rayo Luna Wolfe, is part of the group taken to two different locations while Galan and Huerta wait for the parents to cough up the money. While they're waiting, Galan's team coldbloodedly slaughters Huerta and his men. Jessie tries to escape but is recaptured, Charlie and Rudy plan a rescue attempt, Rayo comes to the rescue, and suddenly everything goes wrong with Galan's perfect plan. Slightly less violent and slower paced than Blake's last look at the Wolfe family (The Rules of Wolfe, 2013), this installment is an absorbing look at dire poverty, depravity and the all-too-successful business of kidnapping for profit.

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Starred review from December 15, 2014
Following his terrific The Rules of Wolfe (2013), Blake offers another tale about the sprawling family of outlaws with interests on both sides of the MexicoU.S. border. Juliet Wolfe, from the Texas side, is attending the Mexico City wedding of a wealthy college friend when she and nine members of the wedding party are kidnapped by a ruthlessly efficient gang. Doubting the kidnappers will release the hostages even after the ransom has been paid, the American family dispatches fixers Rudy and Frank to attempt a rescue. It's a long shot: despite the considerable resources of their Mexican cousins, they have almost nothing to go on, and the hold houses could be anywhere in the sprawling chaos of the capital. Worse, they have only hours to find Juliet. Meanwhile, Juliet isn't waiting for anybody and is determined to escape. Blake excels at ensemble pieces and plays to his strengths here. Like a director with a small army of camera teams at his disposal, he wheels from one location to another, racking the focus with such intensity that, at any moment, the story you're in feels like the only story there is until he cuts away again. A hard-edged, fast-moving thriller that will hold your attention hostagegood luck getting away.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)