Under the Skin - Paperback

"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.

Back Jacket

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.