Under the Skin
A Novel
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4.5 • 10 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
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.
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.
