The Bones of Wolfe

May 1, 2020
"It's what we do, we Wolfes, we smuggle." And they've been doing it on both sides of the border?in Texas and in Mexico?through five novels in Blake's Border Noir series. This adventure begins with a gun-smuggling trip gone bad but segues into a rescue mission not directly related to the family business. A cache of pornographic films recovered with the smuggled guns unveils an actress, "Kitty Quick," bearing a striking resemblance to family grande dame Catarina's long-vanished sister. The indomitable, 115-year-old Aunt Cat sends fixers Rudy and Frank, cousins in the Texas branch, to bring Kitty to Cat, who will determine if she's a relative. So begins a rollicking road trip in which the amiable fixers, along with the fetching but no-nonsense Rayo, venture into the porn world and then into the hideaway of Sinaloan drug king El Chubasco, who has acquired Kitty for his harem. The noirish tone is certainly evident here, but this is not as dark as others in the series, more in the vein of a Thomas Perry caper novel, with plenty of blood. As such, it is never less than thoroughly entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)