Under the Skin
A Novel
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4.5 • 12 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“Nobody writes about blood and guts better than James Carlos Blake. He knows in his bones that violence is at the heart of our American history.” — Washington Post Book World
From the highly praised author of In the Rogue Blood comes a hot-blooded tale of love and crime set in Depression-era coastal Texas
In acclaimed author James Carlos Blake’s latest tough-skinned novel, 1935 Galveston is run by gangsters Sam and Rose Maceo, owners of all the city’s illegal bars and casinos—as well as the local politicians and police force. Told from the perspective of Jimmy Youngblood, the Maceo brothers’ number one bodyguard and son of the famed revolutionary Rodolfo Fierro, Under the Skin brilliantly navigates the heady world of crime, telling the story of a young man whose life of murder and transgression catches up with him when he falls for the wife of a sadistic and vengeful Mexican general.
Triumphantly surpassing the promise of his earlier works, this engrossing, gutsy, and superbly written tale is a sweeping saga of violence, ill-fated love, and a tragic family legacy, told with Blake’s signature mix of brutality and beauty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Blake's gritty tales of the modern West (In the Rogue Blood; Wildwood Boys) have won him critical praise, a cult following and comparisons to Cormac McCarthy, but he has yet to attract a wide literary audience. Despite its gripping premise, his latest effort is unlikely to break him out. Narrator James ("Jimmy the Kid") Youngblood takes readers into the dark criminal underworld of Depression-era Texas, specifically the Free State of Galveston. Offspring of a Mexican revolutionary and a beautiful Anglo prostitute, Jimmy becomes the chief gunsel for the Maceo brothers, barbers turned mob bosses who run the city's graft and gambling enterprises. The plot ostensibly focuses on the conflict between the Maceos and a Dallas-based mob that has tried to encroach on the brothers' territory, but a subplot involving Jimmy's budding love affair with the young wife of a Mexican warlord soon overshadows the gang wars and carries the novel to an explosive climax in the Mexican desert. The historical detail is deftly deployed, and the portrait of 1930s Galveston alone makes the book worthwhile for fans of the modern western. However, the novel is hampered by trite dialogue and a thin plot that is only partially shored up by a 40-page flashback revealing Jimmy's checkered past. Supporting characters, even his chief love interest, seldom come off the page. Most of all, Blake doesn't quite succeed in making the ruthless Jimmy a tough guy's tough guy who easily rationalizes murder and cruelty into a three-dimensional, fully human character. The novel is still a good read, and Blake fans will find this a worthy addition to his growing canon but one feels that Blake has a much stronger novel inside him.
